Argentina-France FIFA World Cup 2022 final broke Google Search 25-year-old record, says Sundar Pichai

Google parent Alphabet's CEO, Sundar Pichai, has revealed that the FIFA World Cup 2022 final match between Argentina and France broke Google Search's 25-year-old record for traffic. During the final match on Sunday, Search recorded its highest-ever traffic in 25 years, although the exact figures are unclear. Pichai said that it was as if the "entire world was searching about one thing" as Google Search witnessed its highest traffic in 25 years. Google Trend (India) data shows that users searched for "Argentina vs France" over 10 million times on December 18. Other related searches included "FIFA World Cup Teams" (searched over 200,000 times), "Messi wife" (searched over 100,000 times), and "Diego Maradona" (searched over 100,000 times).

Pichai also hailed the FIFA World Cup 2022 final match between Argentina and France as "one of the greatest games ever" and praised Lionel Messi's performance after his country secured a victory over France on penalties. Pichai wrote, "One of the greatest games ever. Well played Argentina and France. Jogo Bonito. Nobody deserves it more than Messi, imho the greatest ever to play the game. What a swansong."

Not just Pichai, Apple CEO Tim Cook also called Argentina vs France FIFA World Cup 2022 final one of the greatest games ever. Twitter owner, Elon Musk, who was watching the football match live from Lusail Stadium in Qatar, posted several videos. Referring to France's comeback in the second half of the game, Musk said that users posted nearly "24,400 tweets per second", which is the highest ever for World Cup.

Argentina led the game by two goals in the first 45 minutes, but France made a comeback in the second half. At the extra time, both teams scored one goal each taking the scoresheet to 3-3. The match finally settled on penalties. Argentina football team captain Messi won the FIFA Google Ball award for being the best player in the tournament.