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Tuesday March 19, 2024

Year in review: Cricket dominates Pakistan Google trends yet again

Pakistan's battles with top cricketing nations dominate Google searches with highest spikes

By Web Desk
December 12, 2019

Cricket-related queries dominated Google searches from Pakistan in 2019 — the second straight year the pattern was witnessed.

In 2018, seven of the top 10 searches on Google from Pakistan were from the world of sports, according to Geo.tv. If the ratio was lopsided last year, it was completely swept by sports in general and cricket in particular in 2019.

All 10 search items from Pakistan with the highest spikes in the outgoing year had something to do with sports — mainly cricket.

Let’s take a look at what these queries were and why they were searched so many times by Pakistani Googlers. The countdown begins:

10- “Sri Lanka vs Pakistan”

It’s a bit strange that Pakistani searchers searched for Sri Lanka vs Pakistan and not Pakistan vs Sri Lanka. But pedantry aside, the series marks the return of Test cricket to Pakistan, and it makes total sense for the fans to be keeping a check on that.

The year is not over though so this particular keyword would have probably featured higher had this list been compiled close to the year end.

9- "Pakistan vs India"

For a World Cup match between these two arch-rivals to only generate searches good enough for number nine spot, is a bit strange. But then these two had also met the previous year in Asia Cup, and Google says it populates its trends list with the highest year-on-year spikes.

It means that this particular search, though high in numbers, may not have had the same level of spike as other first-timers.

8- "PTV Sports"

The state broadcaster of sports has access to a lot of exclusive events. It also shows the widely famous English Premier League, which means that it becomes hot commodity among sports fans at certain times.

7- "Pakistan vs New Zealand"

These two met in the World Cup at a point where New Zealand were flying high Pakistan on the road to recovery. A must-win match, the game was made famous by Babar Azam’s unbeaten 101 during a successful chase.

The importance of the match and the manner of the result probably had something to do with this many searches.

6- "Cricket World Cup"

Of course, Cricket World Cup had to be in the mix. Cricket is Pakistan’s favourite sport by a mile and the World Cup is cricket’s biggest sport by a mile. The Pakistani fans must have furiously looked up the grand tournament this year even though their team did not even make the semis.

5- "PSL 4 schedule"

This search item was relevant for less than three months of 2019 but still garnered enough hits to make the list at a very respectable number five. Perhaps, it is a sign how widely famous the T20 league has become within Pakistan.

4- "Sony Liv"

This internet-based channel comes in very handy whenever there is a major cricket clash taking place and you are not near an actual television set. With 2019 seeing plenty of live cricketing action, it’s no wonder why fans in Pakistan were scrambling to type out Sony Live on their keyboards/keypads.

3- "Live Cricket"

This makes total sense, too, doesn’t it?

2- "Pakistan vs Australia"

These two faced each other not just in World Cup 2019 but also in twin bilateral series later in the year. As one of the true giants of the game, Australia greatly intrigued Pakistani fans. It’s a shame then that their beloved team did not even win once in those half a dozen encounters.

1- "Pakistan vs South Africa"

The ‘giant’ argument made in the previous point makes sense for South Africa as well. Only difference is that unlike Australia, South Africa had not faced Pakistan in 2018. It means the in 2019 Google was inundated by “Pakistan vs South Africa” searches at a much higher year-on-year ration than the corresponding Australia search.