Most Searched Celebrity of the Year

According to Vogue, Mega fame is a more fleeting and fast-changing endeavor than ever, with top stars vying for attention at a dizzying speed. Kardashian may have created an iPhone game about it, but the real-life Fame Game is no less tricky and, it would appear, requires just as much calculation. There’s a delicate balance to maintaining worldwide fame that few have managed to master. How do you keep fans interested, while avoiding overexposure? And which star has done this to the greatest effect?

Using Google Trends data, top search query periods of the five biggest stars of the year was mapped: Beyoncé, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, Taylor Swift, and Jennifer Lawrence. See Below comparisons made by Vogue

Beyoncé

Most of Beyoncé’s spikes came after her live performances irrespective of the massive success of her visual album, especially her sultry “Drunk in Love” act at the Grammys and her sixteen-minute medley at the MTV Video Music Awards. But after a certain elevator incident, her up-until-then private life became a steady source of search queries. Beyoncé used the tabloid-y interest to her advantage, teasing wedding videos, cryptic lyrics, and even baby rumors throughout her sold-out summer music tour with Jay Z.

 

Rihanna

Four years straight of annual album being released by Rihana every November, She missed the deadline in 2013, and we are yet to hear a new record from the her this year, She is still one of the biggest stars of the year using fashion, not music, to stay on everyone’s minds. Her two biggest spikes in Google searches are correlated with her two major red-carpet moments: her Stella McCartney dress at the Met Gala and her coup d’état at the CFDA Awards, where she showed up in a glittering see-through dress to accept her award as Fashion Icon of the year

 

Kim Kardashian

The reality TV star has had more than a few Google search highs in 2014. She started the year off strong with her first Vogue cover, on which she posed next to her equally famous then-fiancé Kanye West. Her ubiquity then reached unprecedented levels with their elaborate European wedding weekend. But nothing can be compared to her covering the front cover of Paper magazine, which put her original claim to fame front and center and promised to “break the Internet.” A look at her graph confirms everything

Taylor Swift

Though some had Google-search surges due to nude photos or other scandals, Swift’s image remained squeaky clean in 2014. Each one of her traffic spikes was directly related to her music, including her rendition of “All Too Well” at the Grammys, and most notably the release of her record-breaking new album, 1989. No one on this list better harnessed her artistry to maximize search buzz. It worked, too: 1989 had the best-selling first week for a female artist since Britney Spears

 

Jennifer Lawrence

America’s new sweetheart makes an effort to stay out of the spotlight as much as possible—except when she has to promote either of her two franchises, The Hunger Games and X-Men. But she suffered a major blow to her privacy this summer with several waves of nude-photo leaks. While hundreds of celebrities had their private photographs leaked (including Rihanna and Kim Kardashian), the resulting Google searches focused primarily on Jennifer Lawrence. Later, when she spoke about the incident to Vanity Fair, articulating a strong stance on the issue, the Internet rallied behind her.

Three of the top stars—Rihanna, Kim, and Jennifer—were victims of the nude-photo hack; the public was overwhelmingly more interested in Lawrence.