Maybe it’s the Phillies’ effect? Joe or Jane Philadelphia hoping to channel their inner Bryce Harper and swing for the fences? Maybe it was people looking to let off a little steam after work and hit something without any negative consequences?
Whatever the reason, Philadelphia searched for “batting cages near me” more than any other location in the U.S., according to the 2023 Google search trends data unveiled this week.
A quick glance through search results turns up just a handful of locations in the city where batters can relive their little league glory. That includes the Phield House at 814 Spring Garden which has two cages available to rent. Further down the results list, there’s also the South Bowl, where batters can get either a slow pitch or fast pitch experience at “The Yard,” which unfortunately is currently closed for the season.
There’s also several hitting spots more dedicated to more serious up-and-coming young players hoping to play in college and beyond. That includees Elite Sports Factory near Roxborough and AFC Fitness in Bala Cynwyd.
While Philly was a top searcher for batting cages, that wasn’t the city’s top “near me” search.
People looking for “air quality near me” also topped the city’s trends in 2023. That result is probably not surprising considering the unprecedented wildfire smoke that blanketed the city in June, forcing health officials to urge residents to avoid going outdoors. The Canadian wildfire smoke also introduced a new acronym to many: AQI. Searches for the city’s Air Quality Index soared in early summer as we got to know the difference between “unhealthy,” “very unhealthy,” or “hazardous.”
As for other search trends, like the rest of the country, Taylor Swift dominated searches related to tours, in part thanks to her trio of sold-out dates at Lincoln Financial Field as part of The Eras Tour. Searches for Beyonce’s Renaissance World Tour came in second in tours-related searches, as the tour made its US debut at the Linc in July.
2023 also marks the 25th anniversary of the search engine giant’s effort to track global searching trends. To mark that, they’ve posted a video retrospective of what the world has searched for on Google in the past quarter century.
