These games were the most googled in Switzerland in 2022

In 2022, Google users performed more than a trillion searches. To illustrate, that’s 1,000,000,000,000 Google searches! The American search giant has made it a habit to publish the trending searches at the end of the year, ie the search terms with the strongest upward trend of the year in question. According to the definition, these are the terms that have “seen a particularly strong increase in search interest compared to the previous year for a sustained phase”. Or to put it another way: which only really went through the roof this year.

What does all this have to do with games? Well, when the day is long, Google users search for a lot of things — on December 2, for example, this included the World Cup, online advent calendars, and the movie “Mad Heidi.” But they are also looking for games they are passionate about! For this reason, Google has now published a list of game titles that will set the strongest trends in 2022 – especially for searches from Switzerland!

Here they are, the “national” top 10:

The list is interesting for several reasons. On the one hand, it shows how diverse the interests of the Swiss gaming community are: these range from casual games (“Wordle”) to sports games (“Fifa 23”) and competitive online gaming (“Overwatch 2″) to action blockbusters such as « God of War Ragnarök” and “Dying Light 2”.

But why are Google users actually searching for these games? There are of course a number of reasons for this. Maybe they just picked up the title “Elden Ring” while talking to friends, are curious and now just google this exact term to get basic information. Or maybe they already know more about the game and decided to buy it online – that’s another Google reason. Another possibility is that they are already playing “Elden Ring” but get stuck – for example, because a boss opponent stops them. A Google search can yield helpful tips and tricks.

From the top 10, we have selected five titles that we find particularly interesting: Because these are really cool games that have had a decisive impact on the gaming year – but also because their Google Trends placement says something about the dynamics of the gaming industry itself. Have fun with our five “chosen ones”!

word

“Wordle” is the letter puzzle that was very big in the leaden pandemic days! It was originally programmed by Welshman Josh Wardle for his partner, but as it became more popular in the family he released it as a browser game. It was soon played by millions of people around the world, so it’s no wonder it reigns supreme on the popular charts! Josh Wardle sold the official, English-language version to the “New York Times”, but there are now a plethora of Wordle clones – for other languages ​​too, and some with significantly more than the “classic” five letters. As a mass phenomenon in pop culture, “Wordle” has spawned a plethora of memes. Incidentally, the Swiss are among the best Wordle players of all: according to Wordtips statistics, they are second behind the Swedes worldwide – with an average of 3.78 tries per Wordle session. Respect!

Elden ring

The role-playing game from Japanese studio From Software is a dark masterpiece – and for many THE game of the year! In terms of atmosphere, it ties in with the wildly popular “Dark Souls” series. However, the tough fights against bizarre boss opponents take place in an open game world – “Elden Ring” offers considerably more solutions than the sometimes rather bottleneck-like “Souls” worlds. “Elden Ring” came out in February 2022 – but the game apparently made such an impression that the search term took second place in the annual trend charts. Why this is so is obvious: “Elden Ring” is huge and demanding, which is probably why a number of gamers are googling for solutions and tips. Either way, the game is a unique experience for us – even if some of us may never finish it.

Lost Ark

“Lost Ark” reached number 4 on the Google charts! Many Swiss game fans may not have really known about the action MMORPG before it was released by Amazon Games in February. However, in South Korea, its home country, it has been available since 2019. The international launch explains, at least in part, why searches for “Lost Ark” have skyrocketed. In the trade press, the fantasy adventure received mostly favorable reviews – and in February it also broke a Steam record as more than 1.3 million users traveled the continent of Arkesia at the same time.

Overlook 2

It’s not really surprising that “Overwatch 2” has been Googled a lot this year – after all, Blizzard Entertainment’s first-person shooter doesn’t inherit an easy one. The predecessor “Overwatch” (launch: 2016) inspired millions of gamers around the world with its team-based combat – and even became a popular e-sports title! So the fans of the action spectacle were excited to see what the publisher would serve them in the sequel – and eagerly googled the innovations. In a nutshell, these are smaller PvP teams (5 players instead of 6), new and changed characters, and full cross-platform gameplay. It will be interesting to see how Google searches change as the game develops…

Dying light 2

The full title of this game is “Dying Light 2 – Stay Human” – but of course anyone who googled the short version also found what they were looking for. We really liked the post-apocalyptic action-adventure game when it was still in development – mainly because it offers a lot of freedom of action and an open, highly detailed game world. Unfortunately, the story and character drawing couldn’t quite keep up with the show’s ratings – which is why the game “only” managed an average rating of 76 (PS5 version) on Metacritic. “Dying Light 2 – Stay Human” is definitely recommended for fans of solid zombie action. But who knows: maybe a Google search for zombie games will yield valuable alternatives…

Source: Watson