‘The Glory,’ ‘The Roundup’ top Naver’s search engine this year

Bomi Yoon

'The Glory' topped Netflix's non-English section for two weeks in a row last March. Korea Times file

“The Glory” topped Netflix’s non-English section for two weeks in a row last March. Korea Times file

By Ko Dong-hwan

Naver, the country’s No. 1 search engine portal, is known to represent the country’s most up-to-date trends in real time as tens of millions of users punch in keywords for their own reasons. The company has analyzed those search queries from January to November and found this year’s most popular searches section-by-section.

In broadcast contents, Netflix series “The Glory” featuring Song Hye-gyo, a woman hellbent on revenge against her former school bullies, topped the chart. The two-part crime thriller with 16 episodes made headlines for its brutal portrayal of how Moon Dong-eun was tortured by her classmates. It topped Netflix charts in Asian countries and once ranked third in the worldwide chart.

The MBC period drama “My Dearest,” tvN rom-com “Crash Course in Romance” and webtoon-based action “Moving” on Disney+ followed in the rankings.

The movie “The Roundup: No Way Out,” starring Korea’s biggest action star Ma Dong-seok, was the most-searched movie title this year. It opened in theaters in Korea, Mongolia and Vietnam in May and later in other countries. It sold over 10 million tickets in the country and earned over $83 million worldwide.

Epic American biographic-thriller “Oppenheimer,” Japanese animation “Suzume,” American animation “Elemental” and Korean crime flick “Smugglers” followed in popularity.

Gamer Lee Sang-hyeok, left, better known by the alias Faker, poses with a trophy after his team T1 defeated China’s Weibo Gaming in the finale of the League of Legends World Championship at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, Nov. 20. Courtesy of Riot Games Esports

Gamer Lee Sang-hyeok, left, better known by the alias Faker, poses with a trophy after his team T1 defeated China’s Weibo Gaming in the finale of the League of Legends World Championship at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, Nov. 20. Courtesy of Riot Games Esports

In gaming, League of Legend Champions Korea (LCK) was the most popular search term this year. Searches surged nationwide last November when a yearlong LoL season culminated in a single best-of-five match between Korea’s T1 and Chinese team Weibo Gaming. The match was held at a sold-out 18,000-seat Gocheok Sky Dome in southwestern Seoul. Lee Sang-hyeok, the leader of T1 who is better known by his player name Faker, made known his name further following the event.

The MMORPG MapleStory and FIFA Online 4 generated the next most popular game-related searches.

In sports, the KBO League topped the chart. This year’s season ran from April to November, with the LG Twins claiming the crown in the end after winning against KT Wiz.

Naver tracked the filtered searches’ by user age groups and further categorized them under PC or mobile by month. “Typhoon” was the most-searched keyword for both PC and mobile users last August when Typhoon Khanun hit the country. The Hangzhou Asian Games swept the portal’s PC and mobile category in September and October.

The most popular searches overall were “weather” and “YouTube,” which took the No. 1 and 2 spots for the longest period this year.

Leave a Comment