Britain’s most talked about news moments of 2025 include the Lionesses’ Euro 2025 triumph, the Coldplay kiss cam scandal, and the Oasis reunion.
The study of 2,000 adults uncovered the stories they've most enjoyed this year with Celia Imrie farting on Celebrity Traitors, this year’s Spotify Wrapped, and the Louvre robbery making the top 40.
Other attention-grabbing moments include Kelly Brooke, Aitch, and Ginge sneakily eating the milk bottles on I'm A Celeb, Katy Perry's controversial trip to space and back, season five of Stranger Things.
Donald Trump's tariffs, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor being stripped of his titles, and Scotland qualifying for the men's World Cup for the first time in 28 years also made the cut.
The research was commissioned by Readly digital magazine and newspaper app which has also released its trends report [https://static.readly.com/files/Readly_Trends_Report_2025.pdf] for 2025 featuring reading behaviours and insights.
In the UK, “lifestyle”, “celebrity and entertainment” and “cars and motoring” were the most popular categories to read among subscribers during the past 12 months.
While “newspaper”, “business & finance”, and “lifestyle” were popular globally.
The report also identified key news trends over this period with staying “forever young”, AI, and diet drugs prominent.
It also revealed the average subscriber spent nine hours a month in total using it, typically for 20 minutes at a time.
And 6pm on a Wednesday was peak reading time for browsing magazines, while 7am on Sundays was peak reading time for pursuing the newspapers.
Chloe Rushmere, head of content UK at Readly [https://gb.readly.com/] said: "It's been another eventful year.
“When you think back to how much has happened, it’s actually been a bit crazy, but so fascinating for all sorts of different reasons.
“Some of the events on this list had huge geopolitical consequences, like Donald Trump’s tariffs – and some were just a funny Traitors trump on telly.
“Our in app data shows a strong appetite for lifestyle content this year, with subscribers spending time reading in-depth features and long form interviews around longevity, wellbeing and living a richer life whilst they navigate the world of AI.”
It emerged those polled have spent an average of nearly three hours a week reading the news during the past 12 months.
Other memorable moments uncovered in the poll included the Jet2Holidays advert jingle becoming a hilarious viral trend and the Golden-Globes-gobbling release of Adolescence.
While 16 per cent look back on the bittersweet performance by Ozzy Osbourne at the ‘Back to the Beginning’ event – just days before he passed away.
And the same figure loved Scotland qualifying for the men’s football World Cup for the first time in 28 years, according to the OnePoll.com figures.
The research also found 50 per cent of respondents usually prefer to read positive news – 41 per cent are happy to read both positive and negative stories.
Chloe Rushmore, spokesperson for Readly, an app with more than 8,000 titles, added: “Most of these memorable moments were generally positive, or at least amusing.
“On the whole, people seem to remember the funny or quirky things rather than some of the sadder news from around the globe.
“As 2025 draws to a close it’s great to see so many people reading about what they love, what makes them smile, laugh or cry.
"It’s fascinating to see how reader behaviour and interests continue to evolve and encouraging to see that our subscribers are reading magazines cover to cover, while also exploring new topics and content with real intent and curiosity.”
TOP 40 CULTURAL PHENOMENA OF 2025:
1. The Lionesses win the UEFA Women’s Euro 2025
2. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor being stripped of his titles
3. Coldplay kiss cam scandal
4. Lando Norris becomes Formula 1 World Champion
5. Scotland qualifying for the men's World Cup for the first time in 28 years
6. Ozzy Osbourne’s final performance at Back to the Beginning
7. Season 5 of Stranger Things
8. Oasis reunion
9. Celia Imrie farting on Celebrity Traitors
10. Donald Trump's tariffs
11. Louvre robbery
12. Spotify Wrapped
13. The Jet2holidays jingle becoming a viral trend
14. Adolescence premieres on Netflix and clears up at the Golden Globes
15. Elderly nuns in Austria escape their retirement home and return to their convent
16. Paddington The Musical hits the West End
17. Release of Wicked: For Good
18. AngryGinge crowned king of the jungle in this year's I'm A Celeb
19. Final Mission: Impossible movie is released
20. Kelly Brooke, Aitch, and AngryGinge sneakily eating the milk bottles on I'm A Celeb
21. Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s whirlwind romance and engagement
22. Jimmy Kimmel’s show is suspended after political comments – returning a week later
23. The US Government bans TikTok for 12 hours
24. Critical panning of Meghan Markle's Netflix show, With Love, Meghan
25. Katy Perry's trip to space and back
26. Sydney Sweeney’s jeans advert “breaks” the internet
27. Strawberries and cream sandwiches go viral
28. Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show
29. Grand Theft Auto VI is delayed again
30. The “6 7” meme
31. Viral “100 men vs 1 gorilla” debate
32. Popularity of KPop Demon Hunters
33. Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau’s blossoming romance
34. “Rage bait” is declared the 2025 Word of the Year
35. Nintendo releases the Switch 2
36. Popularity of Labubus
37. 'It Ends with Us' legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni
38. Banksy’s courtroom protest artwork appears – and is removed
39. Popularity of Pedro Pascal
40. Release of Lily Allen’s tell-all break-up album, West End Girl
