The Game Awards 2023 only concluded last week, and Google Trends has launched its top 10 lists for searches in 2023. The results may be shocking to some fans, especially for Google Trends’ most searched GOTY.
First and foremost, it’s worth mentioning all of the titles are retrieved from the Google Trends list, which refers to the ‘most viral’ or most searched titles of the year. The list is not cultivated by voting unless each search on a specific title counts as a vote, but for a year that had a 13-year wait end with Alan Wake 2, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Google’s results may be surprising to some.
While the year has had a tragic footprint, it has also had its share of viral moments. The top two movies on the list should come as no surprise to those who have done the double feature, Barbenheimer, a theatre visit where patrons saw both Barbie and Oppenheimer at once. But Google Trends’ top 10 games of the year may be where things get interesting. Below is the full list sourced directly from Google.
Google Trends Most Searched Games of 2023
- Hogwarts Legacy
- The Last of Us
- Connections
- Battlegrounds Mobile India
- Starfield
- Baldur’s Gate 3
- スイカ ゲーム(Suika)
- Diablo IV
- Atomic Heart
- Sons of the Forest
While titles like The Last of Us make sense on a list like this, considering its a critically acclaimed adaptation, games like Hogwarts Legacy may come as a surprise to those who have seen The Game Awards 2023. The title wasn’t nominated for any of the categories, yet remains ahead of the official GOTY winner, Baldur’s Gate 3, in popular searches. While Hogwarts Legacy has had its fair share of controversy surrounding the title since its launch back in February, Baldur’s Gate 3 has also had its share of virality with a certain bear-loving gameplay segment on Twitch that took the internet by storm in July.
The rest of the list is rounded out by the first original Bethesda release in nearly a decade with Starfield and some other niche games that may be surprising to Western audiences, like Suika and Connections, popular fruit and word-based puzzle games that have spiked in popularity in 2023.
What’s interesting is aside from Baldur’s Gate 3, none of The Game Awards 2023 nominees are a part of the list, so it shows that The Game Awards may not have such a big effect on what trends, at least by this year’s standards. Fans can check the rest of the top lists from Google on the list site here.
