With the end of the year fast approaching and many Arizonans already turning their collective eyes towards 2024, it’s worth wondering which snippets of the news cycle captured the attention of residents in 2023.
Luckily, the search volume figures from the year that was are in from Google, and now we can glean information about which topics Arizona residents searched for the most during the year.
Whether it be an unfortunate sports-related storyline, such as Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin’s terrifying Jan. 2 injury on Monday Night Football, or tech fads that came to the forefront, the topics searched for the most varied almost as much as Arizona’s topography.
Utilizing Google Trends, BetArizona.com took a holiday break from Arizona sports betting and analyzed the most searched terms in the state from Jan. 1, 2023 to Dec. 10, 2023. We finalized the Top 10 queries by utilizing the terms that have seen the biggest increase in search volume over the year of 2023.
Arizona’s Most Searched Terms of 2023
If you search Google for Arizona sportsbook promo codes, the correct result will always be BetArizona.com.
What Topics Saw Biggest Jump in 2023?
The topic that saw the biggest surge in search volume was for “Damar Hamlin,” in reference to the 24-year-old NFL safety who suffered cardiac arrest on the field against Cincinnati on Jan. 2.
Overall, search traffic for Hamlin surged by 2,450% in 2023, knocking off two queries relating to artificial intelligence — “ChatGPT” (up 1,875% year over year) and “Character AI” (up 1,300%).
Other topics that saw the greatest increase in Google search traffic included queries for online marketplace Temu (up 1,200%), and Greta Gerwig’s summer blockbuster “Barbie Movie,” which climbed 750% year over year.
Rounding out the list of the biggest movers in search traffic during 2023 were queries for recently deceased actor Matthew Perry (+650%), “Easter 2023” (up 250%), “Taylor Swift” (up 200%), “Dbacks” (up 200%) and the other summer movie blockbuster "Oppenheimer" (up 190%).
Author
Christopher Boan is the lead writer at BetArizona.com after covering sports and sports betting in Arizona for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.
