MUMBAI: Sports stood at the podium in terms of searches in India, according to a survey released by the US based-search engine. While PV Sindhu made a lot of inroads into people's hearts with her heroics at Rio Olympics, Sultan and MS Dhoni - The Untold Story were both the among the highest grossing movies in 2016.

Based on different forms of sports, MS Dhoni made Sushant Singh Rajput and Disha Patani household names in the second half of the year while Sultan ruled the roost in terms of earnings.

According to a report released by Google Analytics, Sports was the leading property in terms of searches in India in 2016. Rio Olympics was the most trending item in India, with Pokemon Go standing second. The Olympics was also No. 1 on the list of most-searched news events.

Amongst personalities, Indian Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu has been the second most searched personality in India, also being the most-searched Indian personality. The badminton ace was beaten by controversial US President Donald Trump, who led the personalities chart. Athlete Dipa Karmakar, MS Dhoni actress Disha Patani and Wrestler Sakshi Malik also feature in the top 10, giving sports the bragging rights over other genres.

Looking at the most searched Bollywood male celebrities, MS Dhoni actor Sushant Singh Rajput was the top trending star of 2016. Disha Patani heads that list in the female category, featuring in the same movie. In the movies category, Sultan, a film based on wrestling, was searched the most number of times in India. US Elections was the most searched news event after Rio Olympics, garnering great attention.

Indian Premier League 2016 and Euro 2016 also feature on the list of the most trending searches, with the football tournament standing at the third spot and IPL getting the sixth spot on the list. It is quite clear that for Indian audiences, Sports has been the most searched beat against other genres and the industry can always capitalise on that front.