Trophy and Plaque Search Seasonality, 2021 to 2025

What Google Trends measures

Google Trends does not publish how many people searched. It reports relative interest: a term’s share of all Google searches in a place and period, scaled so that the busiest point in the request is 100. A value of 50 means half the share of that busiest point. This study uses only those index values.

We looked at two plain shopping terms, trophies and plaques, for the United States, week by week from January 2021 through December 2025. Both were limited to Google’s “Gifts & Special Event Items” shopping category, which is meant to leave out searches for video-game trophies, sports finals and dental plaque. Each term was requested separately, so each has its own scale; the two are compared by their patterns, not their levels.

We also tried medals. In this category there were too few searches for Google to report most weeks, and without the category the term follows the Olympic medal tables, so it is not included.

The spring peak

Interest in trophies climbs from March, reaches its high point in May and falls back in June. Averaged over the five years, May came in at 83 on Google’s scale, April at 75 and September, the low point, at 58. Plaques moved almost in step: 82 in May, 74 in April and 59 in September.

Average weekly search interest by month, US, 2021 to 2025

Spring led every year. In the weekly data, May was the top month for both terms in each of the five years, with April second in most of them. When we asked Google for the same years as monthly figures, April came out narrowly ahead in one year for each term, so the safe reading is that the peak runs from late April through May.

Highest and second-highest month each year (weekly data)

The single busiest week for trophy searches in the five years was the week of May 14, 2023. Of the 10 busiest weeks, 9 fell between mid-April and the end of May; the other one was the week of Dec. 10, 2023. For plaques, all 10 of the busiest weeks fell in that spring stretch.

The 10 busiest weeks for trophy searches, 2021 to 2025 (week starting)

The rest of the year

After the spring peak, interest settles at a lower, fairly even level from July through February. September is the quietest month for both terms. There is no year-end surge on the scale of spring: December interest in trophies averaged 62, close to January’s 61.

Spring lines up with the end of the school year, graduations and spring sports seasons, when many teams, schools and clubs hold their award nights. Search data show when people look, not why, so that explanation is a reasonable reading rather than something the data prove.

Where the searches are concentrated

Google also reports which states give a term the largest share of their searches. Over 2021 to 2025, Arkansas ranked first for trophies, well ahead of the next states at 61. Mississippi ranked first for plaques. Both stayed first when we asked for other periods (for plaques, tied with New Mexico in one of them).

States with the highest search interest in trophies, 2021 to 2025 (0 to 100; top 10, ties included)

States with the highest search interest in plaques, 2021 to 2025 (0 to 100; top 10, ties included)

Nevada, where MX Trophies is based, scored 30 for trophies (ranked 32 counting ties) and 60 for plaques (ranked 29). These values measure share of searches, not the number of searches, so a small state can rank above a large one. Google reports them in coarse steps, which is why many states tie.

We also tried to measure the seasonal pattern state by state. In this shopping category, Google reports too few searches in most states to show a week-by-week pattern, so the timing findings above are national only.

Method, sources and limits

We requested weekly Google Trends data for “trophies” and for “plaques” in the United States from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2025, each in Google’s Gifts & Special Event Items category (category 70), plus interest by state for the same period. Each week was assigned to the month containing the middle of the week, and each month’s figure is the average of its weeks over the five years.

Percentages compare those monthly averages, for example May against September. They describe relative interest, not numbers of searches or orders.

2026 is left out because the year is not complete. Many Google Trends series show a lift in 2026 that does not look like ordinary demand (control terms with no link to awards rose too); the trophy and plaque series did not, but using complete earlier years keeps the comparison clean.

A separate script asked Google again with differently shaped requests: monthly figures for 2016 to 2025, weekly figures for 2022 to 2025, the broader Shopping category, and interest by state for two other periods. The published patterns held in each, with the one difference noted above about April and May.

Sources

• Google Trends: “trophies,” US, Gifts & Special Event Items, 2021 to 2025, retrieved November 12-13, 2026
• Google Trends: “plaques,” US, Gifts & Special Event Items, 2021 to 2025, retrieved November 12-13, 2026
• Google Trends Help, FAQ about Google Trends data, how the index is sampled and scaled

Limits

• Google Trends values are samples, scaled to the busiest point in each request. Requesting the same data again gives slightly different numbers; the patterns described here held across requests, but individual values can move by a few points.
• The index is a share of all searches, not a count. A rise can mean more searches for trophies or fewer searches overall.
• Two search terms do not cover every way people shop for awards (for example, “medals,” “awards” or a specific sport). The category filter is Google’s own classification.
• State values are coarse and many states tie. State-by-state timing could not be measured.
• Search interest is not sales. It says nothing about any company’s orders, including ours.