Google's Top Game Searches of 2011

Battlefield 3 is 2011's big winner in video games search terms

Google has released its annual “Zeitgeist” list of the most popular search terms of the year, and the video game results may surprise you. Or maybe not. Either way, it’s fascinating stuff.

The biggest news: Battlefield 3 was the #5 fastest-rising search term of the year globally, peaking during the week it arrived in stores (duh). In the U.S., the top video game search terms (Google doesn’t list other nations’ video games search terms) were:

1. Black Ops
2. Call of Duty
3. Halo: Reach
4. Super Mario
5. Mortal Kombat
6. Skyrim
7. Battlefield 3
8. Dragon Age 2
9. Diablo 3
10. Mass Effect 3

While the top “Online Games” searches were:

1. WOW
2. addicting games
3. free online games
4. Miniclip
5. Webkinz
6. tower defense
7. kids games
8. armor games
9. Tetris
10. Juegos

One of the more unusual lists is “Fastest Rising Costumes” search terms, and of those, “Angry Birds costume” was #1. (“Minecraft costume” came in at #9.)

Strangely, the #2 “Movie” search term of 2011 was Batman: Arkham City. Muh-heh?

Over in the U.K., the fastest rising overall search terms included FIFA 12 at #2 and Minecraft at #8.