Unsurprisingly, Squid Game is Google’s top trending show of 2021

Despite airing later in the year than other shows, nothing will stop Netflix’s South Korean survival drama Squid Game from smashing through pretty much every record imaginable. It easily won Google’s top trending shows of the year, beating out two Marvel hits and Bridgerton to take home the crown.

These metrics come from Google Trends and account for searches within the U.S. Although even if you go global, Squid Game still comes out on top. The series follows a bunch of cash-strapped contestants who unknowingly (at first) agree to participate in several sadistic games in order to win an enormous cash prize. If they lose, they die. The survival drama quickly became Netflix’s biggest release of all time, and the rest is history.

Cashing in on its success, the streamer has already ordered a second season, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we eventually got a spinoff, prequel, movie, video game, etc. Squid Game also ranks fourth in Google’s list of most-memed shows.

Bridgerton, the Netflix show that catapulted Regé-Jean Page into stardom, claims the #2 spot. And the list wouldn’t be complete without some MCU content, with WandaVision coming in third place. You need only look at the Twitter trending page to see why; it ranks high pretty much daily. Disney is building on its success with the spinoff series House of Harkness. Loki, meanwhile, creeps in at ninth place.

Take a look at the full list below:

1. Squid Game
2. Bridgerton
3. WandaVision
4. Ginny and Georgia
5. Cobra Kai
6. Firefly Lane
7. Manifest
8. Mare of Easttown
9. Loki
10. Midnight Mass

There are a few notable absences from this list. I was convinced Apple TV’s Ted Lasso would have made the cut, since it seems like everyone is watching it at the moment. The Walking Dead is missing, which could’ve slipped in there given that it began airing its eleventh and final season this year. There were also two other Marvel Cinematic Universe shows nowhere to be seen: What If…? and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

Shocker: Marvel dominates Google’s top trending movies of 2021

It’s been a great year for science fiction and fantasy, especially for superheroes. The vast majority of Google’s top 10 trending movies of the year are genre films.

It’s a bit of a shock that Black Widow tops the list since it doesn’t feel like the most-talked-about Marvel movie of the year. Perhaps it’s because this counts people searching the character as well as the movie itself. With Shang-Chi and Eternals on the list, that means every MCU movie this year — besides the unreleased Spider-Man: No Way Home — is in Google’s top 10. The only movie DC has on there is The Suicide Squad.

It’s good to see Denis Villeneuve’s Dune in fifth place. I’m surprised Army of the Dead isn’t involved, considering that the Zack Snyder zombie flick features in Google’s worldwide table. I halfway expected to see Snyder’s mammoth cut of Justice League on there, too. Also absent is Ryan Reynolds’ Free Guy.

See the list below:

1. Black Widow
2. Eternals
3. Halloween Kills
4. Mortal Kombat
5. Dune
6. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
7. Godzilla vs. Kong
8. The Suicide Squad
9. Space Jam
10. In the Heights

All things considered, these metrics don’t really mean much other than being a bit of fun. They don’t account for viewing figures. They just go to show how much interest there is in sci-fi, fantasy and superheroes, which aren’t leaving our screens anytime soon.

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