In Iowa, former basketball star Caitlin Clark has been gaining popularity, with a significant surge in searches during the NCAA March Madness Tournament. Despite this, Taylor Swift remains more popular overall, as indicated by Google Trends data showing Swift consistently ahead in searches nationally. However, Clark’s rise in popularity in the Hawkeye State, particularly during her time at the University of Iowa, has led to instances where she briefly surpassed Swift in searches. While Swift maintains greater overall popularity, Clark’s increasing prominence in Iowa is evident, especially during basketball season.
Is Caitlin Clark More Popular Than Taylor Swift in Iowa?
You either love Taylor Swift or hate her… There’s really no in between. Most of us can’t seem to ever agree on anything, however here in the Hawkeye State, we all know and respect the former Iowa basketball star Caitlin Clark. I’m in my basketball fan era right now, so I got curious. Which of these women is more popular; Caitlin Clark or Taylor Swift? Looking at the Google Trends data, it’s clear that Taylor Swift has had a major lead on Clark. On a national level, Swift absolutely comes out on top in Google searches. Looking back at the data over the past five years, the music superstar leads in Google searches across the country. The percentages in this data set are calculated out of searches for all two items. Even in the Hawkeye State, Swift has a 52% lead in popularity compared to the former Iowa Hawkeye.
Caitlin Clark’s Rise to Popularity
However, in 2021 Caitlin Clark began to start giving Taylor a run for her money in the Hawkeye State. Clark was a freshman at the University of Iowa during the 2020-2021 basketball season. Her popularity began to make a spike in the Hawkeye State in late March of 2021. During Clark’s freshman year at Iowa, the women’s basketball team finished with a record of 20-10, and even made it to the Sweet 16, according to reports. They lost to UConn in this matchup, but this season was the very beginning of the Clark era at Iowa. Clark saw a spike in popularity during the tournament, according to Google trends. Around this time, Taylor was gearing up to release the re-recording of her Grammy winning album Fearless. While Clark’s popularity continued to grow over the next few years, Swift still remained more popular. I mean…when you’re one of the most well-known artists on the planet of course you’ll be “more popular” on average.
The Battle of Popularity
However, here in the Hawkeye State, every single March since 2021, searches for Caitlin Clark would skyrocket. During the most recent NCAA March Madness Tournament, Clark actually overtook the musician for a brief time. There was a single blip in time when Caitlin Clark was actually more popular than Taylor Swift here in Iowa. On average, Swift is more popular overall. However, the first-round draft pick in the WNBA has periods of time when she can overtake the most famous woman in the world.
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