By studying the amount of Google searches for “rubiks cube” on Google Trends, Rubik’s Cubes have become increasingly popular over the past 5 years.  In fact, the average search volume has roughly doubled from 2002 to 2007.  During Christmas, the amount of searches almost triples the normal searches during the rest of the year.  It also shows a slight decrease in search volume beginning in 2008 until present.  This trend is likely due to the movie, The Pursuit of Happyness, which came out in December of 2006, the exact time the large increase in searches occurred.    In the movie Will Smith, the lead actor, solves the cube with ease while with his boss, proving his intellect.  It’s a significant scene in the movie.

Another interesting statistic from this Google Trends search is that the largest amount of search are from the Philippines, by a significant margin.  In fact the Philippines out-searches the U.S. by roughly 3 times for the term “rubiks cube”.  The top 5 countries, in order, are: Philippines, Singapore, New Zealand, United States, and Australia.  Even more specific here are the top 5 cities for this search term: Makati (Philippines), Salt Lake City (UT, USA), Pleasanton (CA, USA), Richardson (TX, USA), and Irvine (CA, USA).

What can we conclude from the statistics?  Well, first, that the movie, The Pursuit of Happyness had a huge impact on the popularity of Rubik’s Cubes .  Second, the Rubik’s cube is world-wide item and extremely popular is south-east Asia.  And third, the decline is likely to decrease to the old search volume before the movie, The Pursuit of Happyness, unless the Rubik’s Cube can get publicity from another source.