Despite the coronavirus being the headline of every newspaper this year, the Indian Premier League (IPL) is the top query of 2020, according to Google India’s ‘Year In Search 2020’ announced on Wednesday. IPL, which was also the most searched sporting and news event, has replaced last year’s ‘ICC Cricket World Cup’ top trending query on Google Search. 

IPL is followed by coronavirus, US election results, Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sammann Nidhi (PM Kisan Scheme), Bihar election results, and Delhi election results in the overall top trending query on Google.

The 13th edition of the IPL, postponed from April due to outbreak of coronavirus, was held in the UAE from September 19 to November 10. The search query on IPL witnessed a record-breaking 28% increase in viewership compared to 2019’s edition. 

According to the list, other keywords that made it to the top 10 most searched news events in India are the Nirbhaya case, lockdown, India-China skirmishes and Ram Mandir. UEFA Champion League, English Premier League, French Open and La Liga were among the most searched sporting events.

In the list of most searched personalities, US President-elect Joe Biden topped the list, followed by journalist Arnab Goswani, who made headlines after he was arrested by the Mumbai Police for the alleged abetment of suicide of interior designer Anvay Naik and his mother Kumud — and singer Kanika Kapoor is at number 3.

This is followed by North Korea leader Kim Jong Un and veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan were at the fourth and fifth spot, respectively. Actor Kangana Ranaut, Rhea Chakraborty and Ankita Lokhande, who made headlines after death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, are also in the list. 

Rajput’s last movie, ‘Dil Bechara’ is the most searched movie of 2020, Netflix’s Spanish crime drama ‘Money Heist’ tops the list of TV/Web series. 

“Dil Bechara” was followed by Suriya-starrer Tamil movie “Soorarai Pottru”, Ajay Devgn starrer “Tanhaji” and biopics made on the lives and times of women extraordinaire Shakuntla Devi and Gunjan Saxena.

For TV/Web series, the most searched after “Money Heist” were Sony Liv’s smashing hit “Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story”, story of the one of the biggest financial scams in the Indian stock market, reality show Bigg Boss 14, Amazon Prime’s “Mirzapur 2” and “Paatal Lok”.

It also witnessed a wide range of queries in its “How to” section, where questions like “How to make paneer”, “How to increase immunity”, “How to make Dalgona Coffee”, “How to link Pan card with Aadhaar card” and “How to make sanitizer at home” dominated the Google charts.

Among the most searched terms, majority of Indians wanted to know “What was coronavirus”, followed by a battery of questions like “What is Binod”, “What is COVID-19”, “What is Plasma Therapy”, “What is CAA”.

For Google’s ‘Near Me’ feature that helps locate places of interest near your location, the top queries revolved around food shelters, COVID-19 tests, cracker shops, liquor shops, and night shelters.