IPL Beats COVID-19 to Become India’s Most-Searched Query on Google in 2020

India loves cricket and this has been proven yet again as the Indian Premier League beat even the Coronavirus for the top trending query overall in the year, according to Google India’s ‘Year In Search 2020’ announced on Wednesday. This year’s edition of IPL was shifted out of the country due to the rising number of cases of COVID-19. It was held at three different venues in the United Arab Emirates from September 19 to November 10. IPL witnessed a record-breaking 28 percent increase in viewership compared to the last edition.

India is the world’s biggest market for cricket, and last year, the top trending query on Google Search was ‘ICC Cricket World Cup’. IPL, which was also the most searched sporting and news event, was followed by the coronavirus, US election results, Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sammann Nidhi – PM Kisan Scheme, Bihar election results and Delhi election results in the overall top trending query on the search engine giant Google.

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Stuck at home, Indians also looked up how to make cottage cheese, increase immunity, and followed the global Instagram trend of making Dalgona coffee, the search giant said.

The Nirbhaya case, lockdown, India-China skirmishes and Ram Mandir made it to the top 10 among the most searched news events by Indians, according to the list. UEFA Champion League, English Premier League, French Open and La Liga were among the most searched sporting events.

Topping the list of the most searched personalities was US President-elect Joe Biden followed by journalist Arnab Goswami — who made headlines after his arrest by the Maharashtra police for the alleged abetment of suicide of interior designer Anvay Naik and his mother Kumud — and singer Kanika Kapoor.

North Korea leader Kim Jong Un and veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan were at the fourth and fifth spot, respectively. The list also included actress Kangana Ranaut, Rhea Chakraborty and Ankita Lokhande.

While “Dil Bechara” by late actor Sushant Singh Rajput occupied the top spot for the most searched movie, topping the list of TV/Web series was Netflix’s Spanish crime drama “Money Heist”.

“Dil Bechara” was followed by Suriya-starrer Tamil movie “Soorarai Pottru”, Ajay Devgn starrer “Tanhaji” and biopics made on the lives and times of women extraordinaire Shakuntla Devi and Gunjan Saxena.

For TV/Web series, the most searched after “Money Heist” were Sony Liv’s smashing hit “Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story”, story of the one of the biggest financial scams in the Indian stock market, reality show Bigg Boss 14, Amazon Prime’s “Mirzapur 2” and “Paatal Lok”.

Among the most searched terms, the majority of Indians wanted to know “What was coronavirus”, followed by a battery of questions like “What is Binod”, “What is COVID-19”, “What is Plasma Therapy”, “What is CAA”.

For Google’s ‘Near Me’ feature that helps locate places of interest near your location, the top queries revolved around food shelters, COVID-19 tests, cracker shops, liquor shops and night shelters.