TikTok has had a productive, delightful, and undoubtedly challenging year, both online and offline.
When the social media platform wasn’t filled with lime green highlights during the summer of brats, showcasing Moo Deng’s lettuce hat capcuts, searching for a man in finance, and influencing modern language in a demure and mindful way, the company itself faced (and is still facing) a potential ban in the U.S. in the upcoming year — despite even the White House joining the platform.
Books, Sephora tweens, the “Apple” dance, and whole cucumbers were ruling TikTok, and proudly telling nuisances to “scram!”
But what does TikTok consider its biggest trends of the year? The company unveiled its Year on TikTok 2024 on Wednesday, joining the bandwagon of Big Tech platforms sharing insights on the activities over the past 12 months.
The best internet moments of 2024, from Moo Deng mania to ‘brat’ summer
TikTok’s year in review is categorized into various trend topics, which we’ve briefly discussed here. However, you can explore the complete breakdown on TikTok’s hub. The company states that the summary “is based on research consisting of in-app and third-party insights focused on TikTok’s social, economic, and cultural impact, conducted from January to November 2024.”
Year on TikTok 2024: A brief rundown
In the “From moments to movements” section, TikTok showcases some of the major trends, from Jools Lebron’s “very demure, very mindful” moment to Charli XCX‘s “brat summer” (including Kelley Heyer’s “Apple” dance) and Megan Boni’s “Man in Finance” meme.
Mashable Top Stories
Animal-wise, there has been a surge of adorable stars trending from Thailand’s bratty pygmy hippo Moo Deng to Australia’s big fluffy boi penguin Pesto.
From Moo Deng to Pesto the Penguin, here are the cutest animals taking over our feeds
For food enthusiasts, TikTok has highlighted some of the top food-related trends, including Logan Moffitt‘s cucumber salad, the #sambasandalittleredbag trend started by @maisieisobel_, Fix Dessert Chocolatier’s chocolate bar, @thespudbrothers’ live videos, and Chippy Diva’s review of @merchants_fishandchips. (Here are our personal favorite TikTok food trends of the year.)
In the realm of BookTok, the site witnessed over 1.2 million book-related posts created in the first 10 months of 2024, and a 300 percent increase in #Romantasy posts this year.
TikTok also acknowledged the platform’s educational creators, highlighting the expansion of its educational STEM feed to all users (not just teenagers) this year. Notable knowledge creators on TikTok from the U.S. and UK included Shelby Lattimore, Chemical Kim, Charlie Engelman, Big.Manny1, Deidre Kelly, Yorkshire Fossils, Doctor Ahmed Ezzat, and the Royal Armouries Museum, who allowed Gen Z to write the script, alongside astronaut Kellie Gerardi.
Music on TikTok in 2024
Unsurprisingly, TikTok’s music charts were under the spotlight. The platform listed the top artists and tracks of the year. The top 10 songs on TikTok globally garnered 8 billion streams on Spotify, with “Gata Only“ by FloyyMenor and Cris Mj topping the chart. The leading song in the U.S. was “Tommy Richman’s “MILLION DOLLAR BABY (VHS)”, and in the UK it was Tinashe‘s “Nasty“.
Credit: TikTok
Regarding the top global artists, Mexico’s Yeri Mua claimed the top spot, with her track “Linea del Perreo”
