ISLAMABAD: Cricket, Shoaib Malik and Squid Game remained the top searches on Google in Pakistan in 2021.

The search engine has released its lists of the top trending searches that saw a consistent spike in traffic in Pakistan over a sustained period during 2021 as compared to 2020. The lists cover a wide array of categories from sports, movies and dramas to animated films, providing an insight into the unique trends in the country as compared to the past year.

However, this year, it seems cricket fever swept the nation and dominated the Google search results in the country.

The top searches in 2021 were related to Pakistan’s cricket series with South Africa and England followed by highlights of the games in ICC T20 World Cup and the Pakistan Super League. The searched items were Pakistan vs South Africa, Pakistan vs West Indies, Pakistan Super League, Pakistan vs England, T20 World Cup, Pakistan vs Zimbabwe, India vs England, Pakistan vs England, Pakistan vs New Zealand and Pakistan vs Australia.

The list of most searched movies and shows this year presents a diversity of genres. The popular Netflix show, Squid Game, clinched the top spot with the local drama, Khuda aur Mohabbat, ranking second in the top movies and television shows list. Comic drama Chupke Chupke ranked third, followed by Rang Mahal.

The other trending movies and TV programmes were Radhe, Bigg Boss 15, Money Heist, Ertugrul, Black Widow, Eternals and Kurtulus Osman.

Among the most searched athletes, cricketers dominated the Google list, with Shoaib Malik, the veteran cricketer, grabbing the top spot. Since cricket was the most talked about theme in Pakistan this year, aggressive batsman Asif Ali and left-handed batsman Fakhar Zaman took the second and third spots, respectively, in the top athletes list of the search engine.

Other Pakistani athletes in the list were Shaheen Afridi, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Rizwan, Shadab Khan, Abid Ali, Danish Aziz and Haris Rauf.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2021