US President Donald Trump has been making headlines this year with the 2020 election, but surprisingly he isn't the world leader who has been trending the most.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been trending the most on Google out of all global figures.
Searches spiked in April as concerns mounted over his health following a cardiovascular operation, with reports he may have been in a coma.
The figures were released by Google on Wednesday as part of New Zealand's most trending topics of 2020, which show the searches with the highest increase in interest compared to previous years.
World leaders
In the world leaders category, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson (3), US Democratic nominee and President-elect Joe Biden (4) along with actor Tom Hanks (5) rounded out the top five.
Also making the top 10 were Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk (6), the stars of Netflix's hit docuseries Tiger King - Joe Exotic (7) and Carole Baskin (9), US Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris (8) and failed Presidential candidate Kanye West (10).
Overall search
'Coronavirus' was the most trending overall search of the year followed by the US election results which kept the world - and the candidates - hanging for days.
Americans took to the voting booths on Tuesday, November 3 but it wasn't until that weekend that media outlets declared Democrat Biden the President-elect although incumbent Trump is continuing to attempt to overturn the results.
Third in the overall search category was Zoom, which kept Kiwis connected during lockdowns, followed by remote learning resource SeeSaw (4), the late American basketballer Kobe Bryant (5) and the Ministry of Health (6).
'Education perfect' came in seventh, with Work and Income at eighth, the late actor Naya Rivera at ninth and investment company Sharesies at number 10.
COVID-19 pandemic
COVID-19 has continued to dominate Kiwi's searches, with 'What is coronavirus?' winning the 'What is..?' category.
Dr Ashley Bloomfield, who fronted New Zealand's COVID-19 updates for months came in third in the Kiwis celeb category, behind news presenter Hayley Holt (1) and mixed martial artist Israel Adesanya.
How to...
During lockdown, many Kiwis got creative to try and pass the time.
The results showed in the 'How to..?' category with Google revealing the most trending search was 'How to make a face mask' followed by 'How to make hand sanitiser?'
Baking was another popular activity while locked indoors with 'How to make buttermilk?', 'How to make pancakes?', 'How to make self-raising flour?', 'How to make naan bread?', and 'How to make bread?' all in the top 10.
