It’s time for our annual National Frozen Yogurt Month feature, where we take a closer look at interest in frozen yogurt, according to search traffic captured by Google Trends. Google Trends allows users to analyze search trends on Google, making it easy to look at search volume trends over time and by geographic region.
While Google’s share of the search market has declined slightly, it remains the dominant search engine worldwide, with a market share of 91% (vs. 93% in June 2023). In the US, Google has a market share of 87%, followed by Bing with 8%. Worldwide, Google’s Google accounts for 91% of all online searches using search engines. However, it is not popular in some countries, e.g., in China, Baidu is by far the most popular search engine.
Frozen Yogurt Search Traffic
We looked at Google search trends over the past five years (2019 – 2204) in the United States and worldwide. As usual, the pattern of search interest has the same distinctly seasonal pattern; search traffic for frozen yogurt is lowest in December and highest in June and July. Not coincidentally, frozen yogurt consumption is typically highest in the summer months.
Worldwide interest in frozen yogurt as measured by search traffic on Google over the last five years, peaked in late July 2019 at 100 (100 represents peak popularity during the chosen time frame), declined to 78 in July 2020 (during the pandemic), bounced back to 92 in July 2021, fell to 72 in July 2022, and went up slightly to 76 in July 2023. Unfortunately, search interest in frozen yogurt has been declining over time, with the exception of 2021, when people were probably venturing out again and looking for froyo.
However, it is important to consider regional differences. In Australia, interest in frozen yogurt peaks in January, during the summer, which occurs from December – February. Interest there is currently at the highest level in five years. The historic high occurred in January 2014 in Australia and in June 2012 in the United States. In the Philippines, where we’ve seen the most new froyo shops open in the past few years, search interest in the past five years peaked in August 2023.
The story was different in the United States, although it also showed the seasonal pattern of interest. However, the peak occurred in April 2021, which is highly unusual. In July 2019, interest was at 79, declining to 58 in July 2020, increasing to 74 in July 2021, declining to 62 in July 2022, and slightly increasing to 64 in July 2023. Also, the yearly peaks of interest occur earlier in June rather than July. It was in April 2021 that COVID-19 restrictions for restaurants were relaxed. In Los Angeles County, indoor dining returned at 50% capacity.
Regional Interest in Frozen Yogurt
Looking at worldwide search traffic for frozen yogurt over the last 12 months (i.e., June 2023 – June 2024), the top five regions were 1. United States, 2. Australia, 3. Kuwait, 4. Canada, 5. Israel. Kuwait and Israel are new to the top five. Last year, the countries in order of search interest were 1. United States, 2. Canada, 3. Australia, 4. Lebanon, 5. New Zealand. Google adjusts for differences in the population size of countries by using the proportion of all search queries rather than looking at the absolute query count.
We have observed quite a few new froyo shops opening in Australia recently, more than we’ve seen in Canada, Israel, or Kuwait.
Looking at regional interest in the US over the past 12 months, frozen yogurt interest was highest in 1. Idaho, 2. Washington, 3. Utah, 4. Arizona, 5. Oregon. It’s interesting that the top five states are all in the West. Last year, the top states by search interest were 1. Idaho, 2. Oregon, 3. Nevada, 4. Arizona, 5. Utah. Idaho was #1 in 2020 – 2024. Interest in frozen yogurt continues to be greater in the Western US.
Top Related Search Queries
The top related search queries of people who searched for frozen yogurt in the last 12 months (worldwide) were 1. frozen, 2. yogurt, 3. frozen yogurt, 4. yogurt near me, 5. frozen yogurt near me. In June 2023, the top search queries were 1. yogurt near me, 2. frozen yogurt near me, 3. yogurt ice cream, 4. frozen yogurt ice cream, 5. ice cream. The goal of the most popular searches seems to be to find a nearby frozen yogurt shop.
The top search queries in the US over the last 12 months were identical to those worldwide: 1. frozen, 2. yogurt, 3. frozen yogurt, 4. yogurt near me, 5. frozen yogurt near me. In June 2023, the top search queries were 1. frozen yogurt near me, 2. yogurt near me, 3. frozen yogurt ice cream, 4. yogurt ice cream, 5. ice cream. In other words, the top search queries were the same worldwide and in the United States.
Conclusion
Frozen yogurt continues to captivate taste buds worldwide, with seasonal peaks and people looking for the nearest froyo shop.
