The highest rising video was Drake's hit One Dance, which has more than 1 billion plays on Spotify, but an official version was not available on YouTube.
Lukas Graham's song 7 Years, Major Lazer's Cold Water, 14-year-old Jacob Sartorius and singer and multi-instrumentalist Alex Aiono were next.
Pokemon Go was sixth, Twenty One Pilots and their track Heathens were seventh and eighth and Desiigner's hit Panda was ninth.
Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa and Imagine Dragons' song Sucker for Pain rounded out the top 10.
Other rising news searches were for failed US Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, Lotto, Facebook login, Prince and Hillary Clinton.
The iPhone 7, Suicide Squad character Harley Quinn and memes all made the top 10 image searches - but none topped the Don, Donald Trump, who took out the number one rising image search this year.
Nationwide, Geonet, Olympics and the US election came out on top of the trending podium, followed by Euro 2016, earthquake NZ and Pokemon Go.
Topping the list of trending New Zealanders was boxer Parker, followed by All Black Aaron Smith, Olympic bronze medallist pole vaulter Eliza McCartney, Olympic gold medal kayaker Lisa Carrington and former Bachelor Jordan Mauger.
Internationally, Trump, Usain Bolt and Hillary Clinton topped the list of most searched people, followed by Michael Phelps, Bernie Sanders and Meghan Markle.
