Dubai, UAE – Google on Monday released the top trending searches of 2023 for the Middle East and North Africa. The annual lists reveal the most trending search queries which experienced a higher volume of search over a sustained period in 2023 compared to 2022. The lists included the top searched news, platforms, events, movies, TV series, tournaments and personalities.
In the news list in Egypt, the war in Palestine ranked first, followed by the devaluation of the Egyptian Pound and the earthquake that happened in the country earlier this year. As for the Personalities list, the Egyptian footballer Emam Ashour was ranked first, followed by Jory Bakr and Bassem Youssef following his interview with Piers Morgan.
Saudi Arabia has been searching for football throughout the year, with many events and tournaments happening on-ground. The match between AlHilal SFC and Real Madrid CF was ranked top in the football tournaments list. As for the personalities list, footballers remain at the top list with Aleksandar Mitrović and Karim Benzema amongst others. The war in Palestine was the top searched topic in the news list, which also included the devaluation of the Pakistani Rupee, and Buerger’s disease. There has also been interest in local platforms such as Absher, Jadarat, Etimad, amongst others.
In the UAE, there was huge interest in cricket matches. The Cricket World Cup match between India and Sri Lanka was the top searched tournament. Local and regional events made it to the list this year including Gitex 2023, COP28 and UFC 294. People in the UAE also used Google Search to follow the news in Palestine, as well as the devastating events that happened earlier this year including the Earthquake in Turkey, Syria, and Morocco.