I must be alone in not wanting to hear as much as humanly possible about the man, though, if you couldn't tell from the fact that his is the third most-viewed article this year on the seventh most-visited website on the whole Internet. I mean, the guy is nestled in between the queen of England and the most popular Netflix series of all time. If Oprah was somewhere on the list (and considering her interview with the royals, I'm kind of surprised she's not) he would literally be the song "Billionaire" by Travie McCoy.

Yet what more is there to say about him? I could talk about his recent breakup from Grimes, a relationship that lasted far too long for anyone's tastes and amounted to a year's worth of her embarrassing herself with passionate defenses of her hot hubby. I could talk about his endorsement of Dogecoin, which gave every straight man on the planet carte blanche to mansplain cryptocurrency to everyone else, and rapidly fluctuated in response to Musk's every move (because, sure, let’s give him one more thing to control for his own benefit while convincing his impoverished fans it's for theirs). I could even talk about all of the stupid, immature things he thinks it's okay to tweet, like responding to Bernie Sanders's very reasonable request that "the extremely wealthy pay their fair share" by being a hit dog and hollering, "I keep forgetting that you're still alive," as if anyone was ever convinced Elon Musk cared about whether or not anyone outside of the 1% was alive and well, let alone his own workers.

And unfortunately for Elon, this uncurated "dumpster fire" of a Wikipedia article will surely continue to get clicks since, unlike the robots and robot-makers that came before him, he revels in the attention that comes with being the wealthiest man on Earth, and won't stop getting it until the bitter end. What did that one space guy say? Oh, yeah. To infinity and beyond.

If people last year thought Tiger King would be the biggest Netflix hit in the 2020s, they've seen nothing yet as this South Korean series not only beat Tiger King's viewership, but has become the most popular Netflix show of all time. It focuses on broke people playing children's games such as Red Light Green Light, Tug of war and marbles for an enormous cash prize, with the horrifying twist of elimination meaning their deaths.

Following its release on Netflix in September, Squid Game became a worldwide phenomenon, gaining critical acclaim and bringing worldwide media attention to the majority of its cast, including Lee Jung-jae, HoYeon Jung and Wi Ha-joon. It's also become the top-viewed Netflix program in 94 countries, and has surpassed Bridgerton as the most-watched show in Netflix history.

It's also had a huge impact on internet culture, notably inspiring an SNL country music video starring Freddie Mercury Rami Malek, a MrBeast recreation, and countless Dalgona Challenge TikToks. It's made an impact on Wikipedia too; on this report, it was number one for five weeks, something which previous Netflix hits such as Tiger King and Bridgeton failed to accomplish (the former didn't even make the Top 25 when its second and third seasons came out). With series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk in talks with Netflix for a second and third season, the red light is still not in sight for this South Korean behemoth.

No Way Home is one of the darkest and most violent films to come out of the relatively light and upbeat MCU, but it's also a massive celebration of Spider-Man's cinematic history, filled with fan service and appearances ranging from Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin to Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's incarnations of the Wall-Crawler. When rumors emerged that Marvel and Sony were bringing back old Spider-Man actors for No Way Home, fans were driven into a frenzy, and only got more excited as the studios and actors scrambled to deny it. Fans got so ravenous that in late August they leaked the film's first trailer. Marvel/Sony's attempts at secrecy were also for naught as numerous set photos leaked showing things they didn't want shown ahead of release.

After months of intense anticipation, No Way Home was released in the U.S. on December 17. In addition to scoring some of the best reviews of any MCU film (which was good news for Marvel after Eternals released to a massive thud critically), it was the first post-COVID blockbuster to pass the $1 billion mark at the global box office. A sequel is already in development, though whether Holland will return is still unclear (as he's said he's unsure if he wants to continue playing Spider-Man).

Besides #5's star Zendaya, this movie has an ensemble cast of, er, everyone? Like, there are a dozen main characters. Lots of sand. And that isn't a stray observation: the hero comes from a water planet, so the sand is a lot of the story.

Messi then went forth to compete in the 2021 Copa América, competing for his country, Argentina. At the tournament he would win the Golden boot, break the record for most appearances on the Argentine team (150), and, most significantly, Argentina won the tournament, Messi's first major international title, and the countries first since 1993. Messi would later also take the record for highest South American international goal scorer, beating the record set by (possibly) the greatest and most famous player of all time, Pelé.

After coming back from his victory in the Copa América, Messi was forced to leave Barcelona, with whom he had been contracted to for over 21 years, leading to a highly emotional press conference. Messi would move to Paris Saint-Germain F.C. for the next chapter of his career, where his team (currently) comfortable lead the league. Messi's year ended with a record seventh Ballon d'Or.

HBO Max gave Snyder an estimated $70 million to restore his vision, and a portion of that budget went to filming a new scene featuring Jared Leto reprising his role as the Joker from 2016's Suicide Squad. And yes, Snyder made him say "We Live In a Society" for the hell of it. While some aspects of Zack Snyder's Justice League were mocked, like its excessive use of slo-mo, a ridiculous four hour runtime, and its 4:3 aspect ratio, critics largely agreed it was Snyder's best DCEU film and vastly superior to Whedon's version. The film was intended to mark the end of Snyder's association with the DCEU, but fans immediately began lobbying for a sequel, even if that's probably never going to happen.

Sure, most people wanted one of: an actual Red Room Natasha origin story; Natasha and Clint in SHIELD adventure; What Happened In Budapest; Dark and Moody adventure with the Winter Soldier. And in that sense it didn't deliver at all. Would it have perhaps been better with less post-GOTG comedy, like Iron Man 2 level of comedy? Almost certainly. Was it the best standalone the MCU has done since Avengers came out? Well, ditto.

Also, star Scarlett Johansson brought a lawsuit against Disney for breach of contract regarding the multiplatform release, in a move possibly defining 2021 in its three core aspects: MCU movie; directly caused by the pandemic; and female empowerment, especially against a corporation.

Critics have complained that Kamala Harris's historic role as the first female vice president, African-American vice president, and Asian-American vice president has overshadowed her subpar performance as all of those things, and it's not hard to see why. Some of her staff either hated working for her or left after growing to hate her – a trend that only worsened as the year came to a close – her approval rates were alarmingly low among American citizens, and she apparently spent most of her time in office being sidelined by the only individual with more political power than her.

As far as events that truly shook the nation, though, Harris was involved in very few, regardless of how busy her first year as VP may have been. She visited Southeast Asia to address US–China tensions, met with Narendra Modi, told Guatemalan migrants not to enter the US, led a push for voting rights, and did a bunch of other stuff that failed to grab the nation's attention. Keeping an eye on leadership is always helpful, but it's doubtful that Harris made it onto this list because people were as tuned into what she was doing as they were with Biden. Her nondescript reputation is a step up from her predecessor's, I suppose, seeing as how his became defined by his comments advocating for conversion therapy. Then again, only one of them ever ended up in a Top 50 list, and it wasn't the one with the fly in his hair. Maybe Harris will do something groundbreaking in 2022, but until then, all we have is this video. We did it, Joe!

Despite critical acclaim, the film underperformed in theaters thanks to a simultaneous HBO Max release, a release coinciding with the emergence of the Delta variant, the poor reception of the first film, and confusion over whether it was a sequel, spin-off, or reboot. Nonetheless, HBO Max has greenlit a spin-off series starring John Cena as Peacemaker, set to premiere next year.

Despite mostly being known for his impeccable rap skills, a good chunk of DMX's life was consumed by the oft-violent crime, both streetwise and otherwise, that he depicted in his own lyrics, making him a complicated and unpredictable figure. Also, remember that cocaine that I mentioned a few sentences ago? Both that and the crime tie into DMX's untimely passing, as his mentor, Ready Ron, got him hooked on crack cocaine at only 14 years old after secretly giving him a blunt laced with it. DMX's pageviews actually spiked twice this year, the first time being around April 4, when news that he had been rushed to White Plains Hospital after a heart attack began to spread. The following week was a tense one for fans, as his state only worsened, going from losing oxygen in his brain to going into a coma, until finally, on April 9, his multiple organ failures led to the death that put him on this list.

Most recently, it was discovered that DMX, unbeknownst to the rest of the world, recorded a gospel album in the late 2000s. With all of the gloomy, semi-Satanic imagery in his songs and videos, one wouldn’t be mistaken for forgetting that X considered himself a devout Christian. It begs the question: If there is a (Christian) God, what will He (or She or They or It) choose to do with someone as complicated as DMX?

And yes, I am now calling him "The Rock from Fortnite" just to piss people off.

I imagine a lot of the pageviews came from people wanting to learn more about said friendship after it was mentioned in all the documentaries of Philip's life that took over television following his death. The BBC never seem to get it right when royals die, either too much or too little coverage. Maybe they will have found the happy medium before the Queen goes (I had a weird dream, it has been on my mind), though I don't think anyone could claim even wall-to-wall Rule, Britannia! would be too much then.

So, to another Navy man:
When Britain first, at heaven's command,
Arose from out the azure main,
This was the charter of the land,
And Guardian Angels sang this strain

The last time she was on this list was back in 2019, due to similar circumstances (a starring role in a Marvel film and an engagement to Jost), because if there are two things we as a society love about actresses, it's their ability to do cool tricks in impractical, skin-tight clothing and our ability to creepily pry into their private lives.