Governor Pat Quinn takes the Ice Bucket Challenge in Chicago, IL—August 16, 2014 by Pat Quinn (CC BY-NC-ND)
Every decade has its trends, and the 2010s were no different. From mobile games that spawned franchises to crazy weight-loss methods, some of the trends of the last decade will endure and others are already regrettable memories. Here's a look at the products, fads, gadgets, styles, and diets that defined the decade.
Rovio Entertainment unveiled the mobile game Angry Birds just before Christmas in 2009, and by early 2010, it seemed that everyone with a phone and a few free moments was slingshotting grumpy avian cartoon characters into little green pigs and their wobbly structures. By the time Angry Birds 2 was unveiled in 2015, the original had racked up an astonishing 6 billion downloads.
Related: 20 Ridiculous Things Americans Obsessed About 10 Years Ago
George R.R. Martin released the novel "A Game of Thrones" in 1996 as the first installment in his fantasy series "A Song of Fire and Ice." In 2011, it became a TV series on HBO, and streaming media changed forever. The original excitement of Martin fans soon bled into the mainstream (even spurring everything from themed drinks to tours of filming locations and "GoT" quickly jumped from fantasy niche to mainstream blockbuster. An average of 9.3 million people watched each episode during the show's debut year — a number that would more than triple to 32.8 million for season 7. The most licensed show in HBO history, it was broadcast in 207 countries.
Not since "Macarena" had any song/dance craze been as all-consuming as "Gangnam Style." Once the video by South Korean pop rapper Psy hit the Internet on July 15, 2012, it was essentially impossible for the average person not to hear it at some point throughout the day. By the end of the year, it was certified as the first video ever to reach 1 billion views on YouTube and today it has racked up more than 3 billion views.
Looped moving images known as GIFs had been part of the Internet since the 1990s, but in January 2013, Twitter unveiled a new format that would launch short, repeating video clips into the forefront of online culture. Sort of like GIFs with audio, Vine videos were limited to six seconds and played over and over again. When Vine allowed users to make videos with their front-facing camera, the platform launched a new generation of Internet stars, the biggest of whom scored more than a billion views with a single Vine video. The arrival of Snapchat's 10-second video format, however, was the beginning of the end, and by 2016, Vine was a memory.
If you were on social media in 2014, chances are good you were called out to dump a bucket over your head via video challenge from people you knew dumping ice over their own heads. It was the ice bucket challenge, an uber-viral fundraising scheme to raise money for ALS, commonly known as Lou Gherig's disease. The trend became a phenomenon that raised $100 million in 30 days — enough to fund a major breakthrough that identified a critical new gene associated with the condition.
Crime documentaries were nothing new in 2015, but that year, Netflix redefined the genre when it released a documentary that stirred controversy and got the world talking about the American criminal justice system. The strange case of Steven Avery was the subject of "Making a Murderer," which stoked intense interest and a slurry of legal action. Nearly 20 million people watched the documentary in the first 35 days alone.
"Hamilton" debuted in 2015, but 2016 was the Broadway play's breakout year. That's because it was nominated for a record-breaking 16 Tony Awards in 2016, launching the Colonial-era hip-hop stage show into the stuff of legend. With everyone who was everyone — including the Obamas — looking to score tickets, Hamilton earned its investors a return of more than 600% on their $12.5 million investment by 2017.
Not since the Foreman Grill has a countertop appliance created more buzz among more people than the Instant Pot did in 2017. There had been hype around the do-everything pressure cooker for quite some time, but that year, it became the must-have item, ranking among the very top sellers on Amazon Prime Day, increasing sales by 79% to more than $300 million and earning itself a cult following that remains unrivaled in the world of cooking appliances.
When the body enters a state of ketosis, it burns fat instead of carbohydrates for energy. The high-fat, low-carb keto diet had been floating around athletic and fitness circles for years, but in 2018, the promise of turning your own body into a fat-burning machine on autopilot finally got the attention of the masses. It's hard to quantify how many people got on board when keto went mainstream in 2018, but that year, restaurants, meal kit delivery services, and grocery stores across the land began altering their offerings to accommodate the craze.
If you're a Gen Z girl, or if you have one in your life, chances are good you've heard about the VSCO girl craze. Launched by rich girls in high school, VSCO girl is a look, a style, and an attitude. Tiny shorts, giant oversized shirts, Hydro Flasks, and '90s nostalgia like scrunchies on the wrists are all part of the style, which remains a staple in middle and high schools everywhere.
