What Kiwi sports fans searched for in 2023

Google has revealed what Kiwis were searching for in 2023, with the Warriors outranking the All Blacks in a World Cup year.

Google’s “Year in Search” report shows what trended this year. It doesn’t reveal the most searched terms – which the tech giant said come back similar every year – but instead, it shows the search terms that saw the biggest increase in 2023.

“Whether you were team Barbie or Oppenheimer... it was quite a year for us all,” a spokesperson said.

And it wasn’t just the Warriors, with sports searches ranking high in the report.

“We’ve proven time and again that we’re a nation of sports-mad people and this year is no exception,” the spokesperson said.

“We were so spoiled with sports games, events and tournaments that it’s a wonder we got anything else done.”

The top five trending sports event searches were:

1. Rugby World Cup
2. Fifa World Cup
3. NRL Ladder
4. Cricket World Cup
5. Warriors vs Broncos

The top five trending sports team searches were:

1. Warriors
2. All Blacks
3. Black Caps
4. Inter Miami
5. Lakers

The top trending searches for notable New Zealanders were:

1. Ryan Fox
2. Israel Adesanya
3. Liam Lawson
4. Lydia Ko
5. Dai Henwood
6. Shaun Johnson
7. Rachin Ravindra
8. Simon Barnett
9. Sam Whitelock
10. Michael Boxall

It’s been a year to remember for 36-year-old Fox who made his debut as a temporary member of the PGA Tour which saw him contest the likes of the Masters and the Open. He won the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, England - the DP World Tour’s showcase event, beating a field that included Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Viktor Hovland – and earned his full-time PGA Tour card for 2024 by finishing fifth on the DP World Tour.

All Whites defender Boxall was perhaps the most unexpected inclusion in the list, after he alleged he was racially abused during the All Whites match against Qatar in Austria.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission