From sporting glory to protests and pop star tragedies — the 20 moments that defined the 2010s

THE 2010s have been an extraordinary time.

After singer Ed Sheeran was named Artist Of The Decade, having spent 79 weeks at No1, GRAEME CULLIFORD looks at the statistics that show what defined the past ten years, and how they changed our world.

• Leicester City’s unlikely 2015/16 Premier League title triumph has been ranked Britain’s greatest football moment.
• Avengers: Endgame, released in 2019, was the biggest-grossing movie, pulling in a whopping£652million at the box office.
• The word with the biggest increase in searches on Google was “narcissist” – someone with an excessive interest in themselves.
• The most watched soap was EastEnders’ 25th Anniversary episode in 2010, Who Killed Archie Mitchell, with 16.4million viewers.
• The rise of veganism and healthy eating saw quinoa voted the most popular food fad.
• Fifty Shades Of Grey by E.L James, inset, sold 4,733,724 copies, making it best-selling book.
• The closing ceremony of the 2012 Olympics – featuring the Spice Girls, The Who and George Michael – achieved the highest TV ratings of 24.5million on BBC1

• Catfish, bromance and sexting were the most- searched new slang words on the net.
• Straight-legged “mum” or “boyfriend jeans” replaced skinny jeans as women’s favourites.
• The Adidas NMD was the most searched for trainer on Instagram.
• Pop track What Does The Fox Say, by Norwegian band Ylvis, was the most hated.
• The Ice Bucket Challenge in 2014 raised £160million for research into motor neurone disease, more than any other viral trend.

• Fidget Spinners, Silly Bandz and Rainbow Looms were the best-selling toys.
• Pokemon Go was the most popular app-based game, with 60million monthly players.
• The MeToo movement was the “defining” moment of the decade after female celebs came forward to speak out about harassment at the hands of powerful figures such as the shamed movie producer Harvey Weinstein.
• There were 129 celebrity deaths, including Amy Winehouse and Elizabeth Taylor in 2011, Whitney Houston in 2012, Peter O’Toole in 2013, Philip Seymour Hoffman in 2014 and Prince, George Michael and David Bowie in 2016.
• The 2010s has been titled “decade of protest”, with a huge amount of unrest around the world, including Extinction Rebellion protests that have cost Met £37million to police in London.

• An £823,000 win from a £19 accumulator bet is the biggest betting victory at the bookies. The wager was made by an unnamed person in Leics last year.
• The Segway was blamed for more accidents than any other electronic scooter, with more than 1,000 road traffic incidents linked to the device every year.
• The Clown phenomenon was voted the scariest viral trend after huge numbers of people dressed up in the eerie costumes to terrify neighbours.

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