Flappy Bird was the most searched for game on Google this year, not only beating out video games likes Destiny, Titanfall and Mario Kart 8, but rocketing out of the realm of pop culture to become one of the top overall trending searches globally of the year, according to Google's annual Year in Search.
That means Flappy Bird, an iOS game developed in Vietnam by Dong Nguyen, hit the number five spot in overall trending searches worldwide for 2014. That puts it above global searches for Austrian performer Conchita Wurst, the ISIS terror group, the movie Frozen, the Sochi Olympics and Ukraine.
The top global trending search for 2014 was Robin Williams, followed by the World Cup, ebola and Malaysia Airlines and the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.
In the U.S., Flappy Bird was the fifth most overall searched for term, topping the Ferguson police-involved shooting along with the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, ISIS, Frozen and Ukraine.
Flappy Bird was also the ninth most searched for meme on Google in the U.S., according to the site, making it more popular than searching for the Doge meme.
GamerGate also made an appearance on Google's Year in Search. The movement was the sixth most "What is" question asked in the U.S. on Google. The search "What is Gamergate?" beat out searches for "What is WhatsApp?," "What is MERS?," "What is Hamas?" and "What is Airdrop?"
The Google definition, pulled from a Re/Code article, is "Gamergate is a sizable online community of video game fans who are upset about growing criticisms of their favorite hobby, especially claims that today's games often depict women in demeaning ways."
The GamerGate movement and Twitter hashtag is a social campaign defined by most supporters as a call to effect change in video game journalism and to defend the "gamer" identity. The movement is difficult to define because what it has come to represent has no central leadership or agreed-upon manifesto. The hashtag was first used by actor Adam Baldwin in August after intimate details of a personal relationship between a video game developer and a video game journalist were made public and led some to allege cronyism between press and developers. The campaign is now also linked to ongoing and well-established harassment of women in video games, including Depression Quest creator Zoe Quinn, Anita Sarkeesian and Giant Spacekat head Brianna Wu, though many of GamerGate's supporters deny the campaign should be blamed for harassment.
Video gaming's continued push into mainstream relevance doesn't just include Flappy Bird and GamerGate, according to Google's Year in Search.
The Xbox One was the seventh most searched for consumer electronic device on Google worldwide this year. It topped the Apple Watch, Nokia X and iPad Air. Neither the PlayStation 4 nor the Wii U made the global nor the U.S. list.
Worldwide, the top trending game of 2014 was Flappy Bird, followed by 2048, FIFA 15, Destiny and Titanfall, according to Google.
The search engine also releases a list of trending video game searches in the U.S. Flappy Bird isn't on that list, instead Destiny tops it. Bungie's game is followed by Titanfall, Watch Dogs, ArcheAge and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Madden 15 took the number six spot, followed by Mario Kart 8, Dragon Age: Inquisition and Battlefield Hardline.
Chinese MOBA import, League of Angels took the last spot on the top ten, according to Google.
Make sure to check out Google's site dedicated to the Year in Search to explore things like trending selfies (you'll find an elephant, shark, squirrel and monkey in there), the top Google Doodles of the year, the top people, and the top TV shows. Spoiler alert: Game of Thrones is number one, but I bet you won't guess which show took the number two spot.
