World Cup drives Google Search to record queries per second
Argentina’s number 10 forward Lionel Messi kicks the ball during the 2022 Qatar World Cup final football match between Argentina and France at the Lusail Stadium in Lusail, north of Doha, on December 18, 2022.
Kirill Kudryavtsev | Afp | Getty Images
AlphabetOwned by Google, it broke the search record thanks to the World Cup international football tournament.
In Tuesday’s knockout round, Argentina’s national team staged a late comeback with a goal from Cristian Romero, and Lionel Messi equalized with an own goal in the 83rd minute.
“Google Search broke all previous usage records and saw its highest usage in history right after Argentina scored the winning goal in yesterday’s match.” wrote Nick Fox, president of Google’s Knowledge and Information business, on Wednesday.
A company spokesperson did not share specific figures but told CNBC, “We found that the most queries per second occurred immediately after the winning goal.”
The milestone comes as the company seeks to prove that its traditional search engine can remain relevant in the age of artificial intelligence, where chatbots are becoming more common. Google still controls 90% of the search market, its stock price has more than doubled in the past year, and its revenue growth in the first quarter was the fastest since 2022.
Google said the most searched query after the match was “Argentina-Egypt”.
The company also saw users around the world searching for things like “Argentina x Colombia” and “How many goals does Messi have in the world cup?” Additional queries include “what do you call it when a player hits another player in-game” and “is this Messi’s last world cup?” It included questions.
