What the World Searched For During the 2014 FIFA World Cup

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 15 Jul 2014

Before and during the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Google provided easy access to lots of useful information about the event. Google was more than happy to be your guide to the World Cup.

Now that the 2014 FIFA World Cup is over, Google sheds some light on what the world searched for during the event. Do you know that Google recorded more than 2.1 billion World Cup-related searches? Or that there were 10x more searches in the U.S. for the World Cup than for the NBA Playoffs?

The most searched match during the 2014 FIFA World Cup was the semifinal match between Germany and Brazil. Makes sense, since the match ended with Germany scoring 7 goals while Brazil scored but 1.

At half-time, Germany was leading Brazil 5 to 0. Germany searches for “highest score in a World Cup victory” went up by 370x.



Germany went on to play against Argentina, defeat it, and win the World Cup. During the final match, Germany searches for “four stars” spiked by 8x. “Four stars” refers to the fact that this is Germany’s 4th World Cup win.



During the World Cup final, Angela Merkel showed off a football-shaped bag. Searches for “handback” went up 11x after that.



Supermodel Gisele Bündchen presented the German team with the World Cup trophy. But the world was more interested in German player Mario Götze. Mario got 4x more searches than Gisele.



As I mentioned above, Germany defeated Argentina in the final and won the World Cup. Argentineans kept praying for a win until the very end. Searches in Argentina for the Lord’s Payer were 66x higher than searches for the World Cup song.



The Argentineans really hoped their team would win and they would go on a vacation. Local searches for “holiday” went up by 20x.



More info on what the world searched for during the 2014 FIFA World Cup is available on the World Cup Google Trends website.

You should also check out this Google+ album for more interesting facts about the 2014 FIFA World Cup.



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