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Sports and markets top the list
A cricket match between Pakistan and England led Google’s trending searches in South Korea on Oct. 20, 2026, as users looked for updates on the teams’ one-day international in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. England won the toss and chose to bowl first in the second match of the Pakistan ODI tri-series, drawing interest as both teams prepared for the ODI World Cup.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock index ranked second after closing down 841.28 points, or 1.3%, at 64,075.42 amid selling in artificial intelligence and semiconductor shares. The broader Topix fell 58.27 points, or 1.43%, to 4,009.21. SoftBank Group dropped more than 6%, while Kioxia and Tokyo Electron declined more than 4% and 2%, respectively. Concerns about inflation from high oil prices and rising U.S. and European bond yields also weighed on AI-related stocks.
Family life and a Korea-set video game
South Korean television personality Park Soo-hong placed third after a video showed his 2-year-old daughter, Jae-i, caring for her mother, Kim Da-ye, while she had a cold. The child placed a cooling pack on her mother’s forehead and brought her a thermometer. Kim said she had been sick the previous week but that Park and their daughter were fine.
“Call of Duty” ranked fourth as a new installment in Activision’s first-person shooter franchise sparked debate in South Korea. “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4” is set in Korea and depicts a revolt by North Korean military hard-liners and a preemptive attack on South Korea. Scenes involving a hypothetical North Korean invasion prompted criticism and comments from political figures.
Netflix, policy and other trending stories
“Netple,” a Korean abbreviation for Netflix, came in fifth as the streaming service prepared to mark 10 years in South Korea with an event featuring “All of Us Are Dead” Season 2 and “Solo Leveling.” The restaurant chain Myeongnyun Jinsa Galbi ranked sixth after reports that Seoul investigators assigned allegations involving improper internal transactions and interest-related business practices at its headquarters to an antitrust division.
The Korean term for an administrative fine ranked seventh after the Cabinet approved a measure imposing a penalty equal to 5% of operating profit on companies where at least three workers die in industrial accidents in a year. An Alaska avalanche story placed eighth after a missing dog was rescued following a 50-hour search.
American media and sports draw attention
Seoul’s subway system ranked ninth after South Korean outlets highlighted CNN’s description of it as ultramodern, renewing domestic interest in the capital’s transit system. Major League Baseball rounded out the top 10 after the Tampa Bay Rays defeated Cleveland to reach the World Series for the first time in six years.
The rankings and approximate search volumes came from Google Trends’ real-time South Korea data for Oct. 20, 2026. Google reported at least 1,000 searches each for Park, the Seoul subway and MLB; at least 200 each for the cricket match, “Call of Duty,” Myeongnyun Jinsa Galbi, administrative fines and the avalanche; and at least 100 each for the Nikkei and Netflix abbreviation.
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