News JVTech This evolving map reveals the names of the most searched video games on Google in Europe from 2004 to 2022: Spain is incomprehensible
Published on 25/12/2022 at 15:15
Google searches are a great indicator of global trends. No matter what topic interests you, with a little census work on the Google Trends tool, it is possible to draw up evolving maps of the top Google searches. This one was created thanks to the work of youtuber Sundellviz, congratulations to him!
Some general information on the evolving map of the most searched games across Europe on Google from 2004 to 2022
The entire JV team knows the tool by heart Google Trends, normal, we are web journalists. On Google Trends, it is indeed possible to study, month by month, trends around a subject in a specific geographical area. But just because anyone has access to this data doesn’t mean the task is easy! Compiling all these numbers takes a hell of a time. To make a nice card that evolves over a video must represent dozens of hours of work.
You will notice that the Youtuber has sometimes preferred to take names from major licenses like Pokémon or GTA rather than specific game names. This is again due to the Google Trends tool which shows figures related to a global “topic”. Sometimes what Google calls “subject” is a game, sometimes it’s a license. This contributes to making the results slightly imperfect.
In general, keep in mind that Google Trends is not a completely reliable tool. The map is useful for understanding major trends, but it is possible that there are slight deviations from reality. A priori, no inaccuracy should be major enough to completely distort the results of the most searched games of a country (or at least a language), but the rigor forces us to advise you to take all this as a joke, with tweezers.
To compensate for all these problems, the Youtuber has made a lot of effort. He searched, year after year, for the best-selling games. On top of that, he asked his entire community for help in order to compile a relevant list of 100 games, 100 Google “topics”. Sundellviz then compared the figures obtained on all these subjects country by country and month by month, from 2004 to 2022.
And There you go ! All these details being made, here is the video of the evolutionary card, enjoy!
Quick analysis of the results of the map of the most searched video games in Europe
Here are the top 5 most searched games on Google over the last 19 years, all countries combined:
1 : Minecrafta logical first place ;2 : World of Warcraftthe king of MMOs ;3: GTAthe saga of all records ;4: Fortnitewhich has become one of the greatest in just 4 years;5: Counter-Strikethe king of FPS.
Note that the gamesMost searched are almost always online games. People are investing more time in it, looking for walkthroughs, content creators on the subject, and info about future updates. It’s quite normal to see this type of games crushing narrative RPGs.
What surprised us the most at the editorial office was the observation that fashion effects that we believe to be global are often much more localized than we think. For example, Elden Ring, GOTY 2022, remained top 1 trending only 2 months and only in western part of Europe.
Overall, there seem to be several fairly major geographic splits, notably between East and West. Some countries like Spain are also quite unique and seem to be anchored very regularly in temporalities and video game dynamics that are out of step with the rest of the continent. When everyone was on WoW, the Spaniards mainly played The Sims, for example. Similarly, it is quite funny to see the Mario license often at the top in Italy, the country of origin of the Nintendo hero.
It is difficult to understand and analyze these different dynamics in just a few lines, but let’s bet that the cultural differences between the countries of Europe can be quite visible… thanks to video games.
