2020s

Assassinations and attempts

Prominent assassinations, targeted killings, and assassination attempts include:

Disasters

Non-natural disasters

Aviation

General

Fires

Rail

Note: This section reports rail disasters involving at least 15 fatalities.

Natural disasters

Earthquakes and tsunamis

Note: This table is a chronological list of earthquakes reported with 7.5M_w or greater or that have reported at least 100 fatalities.

Tropical cyclones

Tornadoes

Floods, avalanches, and mudslides

Note: This section reports only floods with 200 or more deaths and avalanches and landslides involving 30 or more deaths.

Volcanic eruptions

Droughts, heat waves, and wildfires

Biological disasters

Other natural events

Beginning in 2019 until 2022, a huge swarm of desert locusts threatened to engulf massive portions of the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Economics

The 2020s were marked by economic troubles, beginning from the COVID-19 recession was a major global economic crisis which has caused both a recession in some nations, and in others a depression. The economic crisis began due to the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The first major sign of a recession was the collapse of markets during the 2020 stock market crash, which began in late February and lasted through March. As of September 2020, every advanced economy is in a recession or depression, whilst all emerging economies are in recession. modelling by the World Bank suggests that in some regions a full recovery will not be achieved until 2025 or beyond.

Due to the 2021–2023 inflation surge, many countries reported the highest inflation rates in decades. The inflation surge has been attributed to various causes, including pandemic-related economic dislocation; the fiscal and monetary stimulus provided in 2020 and 2021 by governments and central banks around the world in response to the pandemic were also instrumental. The effect of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine on global oil prices, natural gas, fertilizer, and food prices further exacerbated the situation. Higher gasoline prices were a major contributor to inflation as oil producers saw record profits. Debate arose over whether inflationary pressures were transitory or persistent, and to what extent price gouging was a factor. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to the 2026 Iran war caused the largest oil price increases since 2022. Stock markets experienced declines, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling over 400 points on 2 March. Broader economic forecasts warned of inflationary pressures and slowed global growth if the conflict prolonged.

American technology billionaires are largely the wealthiest individuals in the world, including Elon Musk (the wealthiest person as of 2026), Larry Ellison, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Jensen Huang. Jensen Huang is the CEO of Nvidia, the most valuable company in the world, and the wealthiest person of Asian descent. Alice Walton is the wealthiest woman in the world. In 2026, Elon Musk became the first person to reach a net worth of $1 trillion. Tesla shareholders approved a $1 trillion pay plan for Musk in November 2025, provided Tesla achieves certain financial milestones.

Several countries from the Balkans have now reached the status of developed countries with high-income economies, such as Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia. All three of them have joined the open-borders Schengen Area this decade, with Bulgaria and Croatia also joining the Eurozone, thus adopting the Euro as their sole legal currency. The economy of Greece has also been slowly recovering from the Greek government-debt crisis of the 2010s, with its economy being reclassified as a developed market in 2025. The recent economic advancements from this region now mean that every single country in the European Union is now considered developed.

Trade

The World Trade Organization reported that trade growth had stagnated and that trade restrictions were increasing as the decade began. The sectors most affected by import restrictions were mineral and fuel oils (17.7%), machinery and mechanical appliances (13%), electrical machinery and parts (11.7%), and precious metals (6%). Regional trade agreements were also found to be increasing.

United States president Donald Trump announced 2 April 2025 to be "liberation day", beginning to enforce tariffs on numerous nations in the following week. This triggered an ongoing economic trade war as well as the 2025 stock market crash. It is currently the largest decline in the global stock market since the 2020 stock market crash, which was part of a recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. From January to April 2025, the average applied US tariff rate rose from 2.5% to an estimated 27%—the highest level in over a century. The Supreme Court of the United States heard the case Learning Resources v. Trump on 5 November 2025 to determine the legality of some of Trump's tariffs. On 20 February 2026, the Supreme Court struck down many of Trump's tariffs.

Trump's tariffs represented a repudiation of neoliberalism and free trade, instead returning to mercantilism and protectionism. Tariffs have a long history in the United States, dating back to the Import-Export Clause of the US Constitution and even the Navigation Acts when the United States was a British colony.

The Israeli–United States war against Iran in 2026 caused the closure of the Strait of Hormuz to maritime shipping, impacting about 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas production. It became the largest energy market disruption since the 1970s energy crisis, and the largest disruption of the global oil market in history, surpassing the Yom Kippur War in 1973 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Health

Epidemics/Outbreaks

Pandemics

Science and technology

Below are the most significant scientific developments of each year, based on the annual Breakthrough of the Year award of the American Association for the Advancement of Science journal Science.

• 2020: COVID-19 vaccine, developed and tested at record speed
• 2021: An AI brings protein structures to all
• 2022: James Webb Space Telescope debut
• 2023: GLP-1 Drugs anorectic drugs
• 2024: Lenacapavir antiretroviral medication used to treat and prevent HIV/AIDS

Artificial intelligence

The AI boom is an ongoing period of rapid progress in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) that started in the late 2010s before gaining international prominence throughout the 2020s with the public release of consumer-facing chatbots such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek. Examples include large language models and generative AI applications developed by OpenAI as well as protein folding prediction led by Google DeepMind. This period is sometimes referred to as an AI spring, to contrast it with previous AI winters.

• DeepMind solves the protein folding problem to 90 per cent accuracy, a 50-year-old grand challenge, at CASP14 in 2020.
• Text-to-image AI art systems such as DALL-E (1, 2, and 3) and Stable Diffusion are capable of generating highly detailed and realistic images from text prompts.
• Chatbots using fine-tuned large language models, like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude and Meta's Llama, became widely adopted in 2023 and 2024.
• In early 2024, OpenAI released a new technology called Sora, a video model that generates short video clips based on user prompts, and can also extend existing short videos. Sora was released publicly for ChatGPT Plus and ChatGPT Pro users in December 2024. This has revolutionized the video industry, since this machine generates videos in shorter time, leading to more companies adopting AI videos, with Coca-Cola being the first one to do so.

Communications and electronics

• 5G became increasingly widespread during the decade.
• By 2020, 3D printing had reached decent quality and affordable pricing which allowed many people to own 3D printers.
• The 4K and 8K resolutions become prevalent in consumer electronics.

Spaceflight

The trend towards cost reduction in access to orbit is expected to continue. Vulcan is replacing its more expensive predecessors. Since 2023, SpaceX is testing its fully reusable Starship with orbital missions. In 2025, Blue Origin conducted the maiden flight of New Glenn with a reusable first stage and Ariane 6 replaced the, retired more expensive, Ariane 5.

Mars stays a focus for missions to other planets, with three missions launched in 2020 (by China, the United Arab Emirates and the United States) and at least one mission planned for 2024, 2026 and 2028.

In 2028, as part of the NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return mission, NASA plans to launch a Sample Retrieval Lander. In 2027, ESA plans to launch the Earth Return Orbiter, which will transport the retrieved samples from Mars to Earth by 2033. China is also planning to retrieve samples from Mars by 2031.

NASA plans a return of humans to the Moon by 2028. The first uncrewed launch of the Space Launch System happened in 2022. The first crewed launch, a lunar flyby, occurred in April 2026. NASA is aiming toward a 2028 lunar landing.

India plans to launch its first crewed flight with a spacecraft called Gaganyaan on a home-grown GSLV Mark III rocket in 2025. The mission would make India the fourth nation to launch a crewed spaceflight after Russia, the US and China. India also plans to launch its second Mars probe, Mars Orbiter Mission 2 (Mangalyaan 2).

The James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021. NASA launched the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which has a field of view 100 times larger than that of the Hubble Space Telescope, in August 2026.

NASA's NEO Surveyor, scheduled to launch no later than June 2028, is expected to be capable of detecting at least 90% of near-Earth objects larger than 140 meters (460 ft), a goal mandated by the US Congress in 2005.

The number of small satellites launched annually was expected to grow to around one thousand (2018 estimate), mainly communication satellites in large constellations but launches quickly exceeded this estimate, mainly due to the rapid deployment of the Starlink and OneWeb constellations. From 2020 to 2022, around 3500 Starlink satellites and 500 satellites by OneWeb were launched.

The number of total satellites reached 10,000 for the first time in 2024.

Software and electronic platforms

• Support for Adobe Flash Player ended on 31 December 2020.
• Windows 11 is released on 5 October 2021, succeeding Windows 10.
• Support for Internet Explorer on Windows 10 Semi-Annual Channel (SAC) ended on 15 June 2022.
• ESU support for Windows 7 and extended support for Windows 8.1 and Windows RT ended on 10 January 2023. Some versions of Windows 10, such as Windows 10 2106 LTSB are already out of mainstream support, some versions are out of all support, and others soon on, i.e. 14 October 2025, while some Enterprise versions will be supported longer.

Technology

• The BBC reports that for the "first time someone who has had a complete cut to their spinal cord has been able to walk freely... because of an electrical implant that has been surgically attached to his spine".
• Sales of electric vehicles have grown significantly and this is expected to continue through the decade.
• NFTs as a form of digital art emerged in the 2020s, with NFTs such as Everydays: the First 5000 Days. The NFT market experienced rapid growth during 2020, with its value tripling to US$250 million. In the first three months of 2021, more than US$200 million were spent on NFTs, and in the early months of 2021, interest in NFTs increased after a number of high-profile sales and art auctions. However, by 2022 this market was in the process of rapid collapse. A report in September 2023 concluded that 95% of collected NFTs now possess zero market value, and that "79% of all NFT collections remain unsold".

Society

Social effects of the COVID-19 pandemic

Medical experts advised, and local authorities often mandated stay-at-home orders to prevent gatherings of any size. Such gatherings would be replaced by teleconferencing, or in some cases with unconventional attempts to maintain social distancing with activities such as a balcony sing-along for a concert, or a "birthday parade" for a birthday party. Replacements for gatherings were seen as significant to mental health during the crisis. Social isolation among alcohol users also adopted a trend towards Kalsarikänni or "pantsdrunking", a Finnish antisocial drinking culture.

Low-income individuals were more likely to contract the coronavirus and to die from it. In both New York City and Barcelona, low-income neighbourhoods were disproportionately hit by coronavirus cases. Hypotheses for why this was the case included that poorer families were more likely to live in crowded housing and work in jobs deemed essential during the crisis, such as supermarkets and elder care. In the United States, millions of low-income people may lack access to health care due to being uninsured or underinsured. Millions of Americans lost their health insurance after losing their jobs. Many low-income workers in service jobs became unemployed.

The coronavirus pandemic was followed by a concern for a potential spike in suicides, exacerbated by social isolation due to quarantine and social-distancing guidelines, fear, and unemployment and financial factors. Many countries reported an increase in domestic violence and intimate partner violence attributed to lockdowns amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Financial insecurity, stress, and uncertainty led to increased aggression at home, with abusers able to control large amounts of their victims' daily life. Midlife crisis is a major concern in domestic violence, social implications and suicides for middle-aged adults amid the pandemic. UN secretary-general António Guterres called for a domestic violence and midlife crisis "ceasefire".

Population

• The population of Egypt reached 100 million in February 2020.
• The world population reached 8 billion in November 2022.
• Vietnam hit 100 million people in June 2026.
• Population growth, life expectancy and birth rates declined globally in the early 2020s, driven by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• India surpassed China and became the most-populous country in April 2023.

Gender

24.3% of all national parliamentarians were women as of February 2019. 11 women were serving as head of state and 12 as head of government in June 2019. 20.7% of government ministers were women as of January 2019. There are wide regional variations in the average percentages of women parliamentarians. As of February 2019, these were: Nordic countries, 42.5%; Americas, 30.6%; Europe excluding Nordic countries, 27.2%; sub-Saharan Africa, 23.9%; Asia, 19.8%; Arab States, 19%; and the Pacific, 16.3%. Rwanda has the highest number of women parliamentarians worldwide, 61.3% of seats in the lower house. About 26% of elected local parliamentarians are women.

Many states swore in their first female leaders during the 2020s, including presidents Katerina Sakellaropoulou (Greece), Samia Suluhu Hassan (Tanzania), Sandra Mason (Barbados), Xiomara Castro (Honduras), Katalin Novák (Hungary), Dina Boluarte (Peru), Nataša Pirc Musar (Slovenia), Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova (North Macedonia) and prime ministers Rose Christiane Raponda (Gabon), Victoire Tomegah Dogbé (Togo), Kaja Kallas (Estonia), Fiamē Naomi Mata'afa (Samoa), Robinah Nabbanja (Uganda), Najla Bouden (Tunisia), Magdalena Andersson (Sweden), Giorgia Meloni (Italy), Judith Suminwa (DRC), Chairwoman Borjana Krišto (Bosnia and Herzegovina), and Sanae Takaichi (Japan).

Despite this, nearly all of the world's wealthiest individuals (mostly American technology billionaires) are male, as are the heads of state of most countries.

Environmentalism

The effects of climate change manifested in 2020 with a record 30 named Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes; the highest heat in 80-years recorded at 54.4 Celsius; massive wildfires in Australia, the Western United States, and the Arctic; and the second-lowest annual Arctic sea ice coverage. The Net Zero Asset Managers initiative—involving 30 fund management companies managing $9 trillion—pledged investment portfolios to be carbon-neutral by 2050.

In July 2024, in each month in a 12-month period (through June 2024), Earth's average temperature exceeded 1.5 °C above the pre-industrial baseline, and the highest daily global average temperature is recorded at 17.09 °C (62.76 °F), surpassing the previous record of 17.08 °C (62.74 °F) on 6 July 2023.

• Team Seas is an international collaborative fundraiser founded by YouTubers Mark Rober and MrBeast on 29 October 2021, as a follow-up to Team Trees. The fundraiser's aim was to raise US$30 million to remove 30 million pounds of trash from the ocean by the end of the year. They also partnered with the Ocean Cleanup and the Ocean Conservancy.
• Members of the United Nations agree on a legal framework for the High Seas Treaty on 4 March 2023, which aims to protect 30% of the world's oceans by 2030.

LGBTQ rights

• A law allowing third gender option on driver licenses took effect in New Hampshire.
• Switzerland banned discrimination based on sexuality due to a referendum, putting into effect a law previously introduced in 2018, that was subsequently blocked by the government that requested a referendum to be held on the matter first.
• In Northern Ireland, the first same-sex marriage took place after legalising legislation took effect in January 2020.
• In Costa Rica, same-sex marriage and joint adoption by same-sex couples became legal on 26 May 2020.
• The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that job discrimination against workers for their sexual orientation or gender identity is illegal.
• In Argentina, nonbinary ID cards with an "X" gender marker started to be issued by the Ministry of the Interior.
• The U.S State Department issued its first ever passport with an "X" gender marker in October 2021, intended to support nonbinary people.
• Same-sex marriage became legal in Switzerland after a 2021 referendum, enforced beginning in July 2022.
• In Chile, same-sex marriage and joint adoption by same-sex couples became legal on 10 March 2022.
• Same-sex marriage became legal in Slovenia on 8 July 2022 after the Constitutional Court of Slovenia ruled that the ban on same-sex marriages violated the national constitution.
• Same-sex marriage became legal in Cuba on 27 September 2022 after the Cuban Family Code referendum passed.
• By October 2022, Mexico City and all Mexican states had legalised same-sex marriage, either by legislation, executive action, or Supreme Court order.
• On 1 January 2024, same-sex marriage became legal in Estonia.

Global goals and issues

Development in global goals and issues—including goals or progress related to the largest causes of human death—during the decade, according to reports that systematically track, quantify or review associated progress.

As of 2022:

• Progress of the Paris Agreement or global climate change mitigation goals
  • The United in Science 2022 report by the WMO, summarises latest climate science-related updates and assesses recent climate change mitigation progress as "going in the wrong direction".
  • A report by the World Resources Institute assesses the state of nationally determined contributions (NDCs), finding they need to be strengthened by about six times for alignment with what may be enough to reach the Paris Agreement's 1.5 °C goal. The UNFCCC's NDC synthesis report suggests that based on the latest NDCs the carbon budget for a 50% likelihood of limiting warming to 1.5 °C would be used up by around 2032.
  • A Lancet Countdown report publishes data of indicators that show "countries and companies continue to make choices that threaten the health and survival of people in every part of the world". It calls for an immediate, health-centred response at a critical juncture of recovery from crises.
  • The WMO reports atmospheric levels of the three main greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, all reached record highs, with methane concentrations showing a record jump in 2021. The WMO Secretary-General concludes that "we are heading in the wrong direction", with time "running out".
  • Climate Action Tracker systematically assesses the state of progress of actions of climate goals in an overview, finding that none of the indicators is on track to reach their 2030 targets, with insufficient speed for six indicators, and well below the required pace for 21, five heading in the wrong direction, and data being insufficient to evaluate the remaining eight.
  • The UNEP's Emissions Gap Report finds that no credible "pathway" to the 1.5 °C climate goal is in place. Similarly, a UNFCCC synthesis about "long-term low-emission development strategies" warns that many net-zero targets "remain uncertain and postpone into the future critical action that needs to take place now".
• Deforestation mitigation goals
  • An annual report by the World Resources Institute shows that tropical regions lost 9.3 million acres of primary old-growth forest in 2021, a decline of 11% from 2020, and about equal to both 2018 and 2019.
  • The Forest Declaration Assessment finds that a drop of only 6.3% in deforestation in 2021 is "leaving the world off track from its goals of ending forest loss by 2030".
• Public health goals
  • The UN's "The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World" report finds that the number of people affected by hunger globally rose by 46 million to 828 million in 2021. 3.1 billion people could not afford a healthy diet in 2020, an increase of 112 million from 2019.
  • A WHO report indicates collective progress toward a 15% relative reduction in population levels of physical inactivity by 2030 is insufficient and that about 500 million people will develop heart disease, obesity, diabetes or other diseases if they do not increase their physical activity.
• Global budgets and government spending
  • The OECD and IEA report that global public subsidies for fossil fuels almost doubled from 2020 to $700bn in 2021.
• General well-being
  • The Club of Rome, authors of the 1972 The Limits to Growth, and research institutes like the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research publish the "Earth for All" report, concluding that to increase the wellbeing of humanity, addressing rising inequality is key to mitigating related issues such as climate change with many current policies disproportionately burdening lower income groups.
• Sustainable Development Goals (other than the above or in general)
  • The only UN report that monitors global progress on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development indicates the agenda is in "grave danger".
• GDP-alternative progress or sustainable development indices
  • Human Development Index (HDI): the Human Development Report 2021–22 concludes that for the first time, the global HDI value declined for a second year, with living standards declining in 90% of countries.

Popular culture

Fashion

The fashion of the early 2020s was characterised by a variety of styles and influences from different eras. During this period, the trend towards individuality and self-expression in clothing continued. Young millennials and Generation Z has witnessed and enjoyed a notable resurgence of fashion styles from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s in the fashion industry. A prominent example of this is the revival of trends such as crop tops, baggy jeans, and elements from the Y2K aesthetic.

In the 2020s, many companies, including current fast fashion giants such as Shein and Temu, began using social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram as a marketing tool. Marketing strategies involving third parties, particularly influencers and celebrities, have become prominent tactics. E-commerce platforms that promote small businesses, such as Depop and Etsy, grew by offering vintage, homemade, or resold clothing from individual sellers. Thrifting also exploded in popularity because of the potential to find valuable pieces of clothing at cheaper prices.

Film

The COVID-19 pandemic heavily impacted film releases especially early in the decade, resulting in a drastic drop in box office revenue as well as many films postponing their release or shifting it to a streaming services. Spider-Man: Brand New Day is the highest-grossing film of the decade so far, and currently the third-highest-grossing film of all time. Other financially successful films at the box office include Top Gun: Maverick, Dune and its sequel Dune: Part Two, and Wicked. Superhero films mostly continued to do well financially, such as most successes from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, continuing with its "Multiverse Saga" (accompanied with a series of shows and specials created exclusively on Disney+ which interconnect with the films). Several successful horror films included M3GAN, Obsession, Sinners and the X trilogy.

In 2023, the films Barbie and Oppenheimer were both released on the same day, which led to the creation of the double feature phenomenon known as "Barbenheimer". Both films became critically and commercially successful with both receiving a nomination for Best Picture at the 96th Academy Awards, and the latter winning both the award and nabbing Christopher Nolan's first Best Director award.

2025 became the year of highest-grossing animated films in Asia, such as Ne Zha 2 and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle, to gross $3 billion in a successful box office of the year, Japanese anime films became dominant for 15 years since Arrietty (2010).

Television

The 2020s started off with streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Paramount+, HBO Max, Showtime, Crunchyroll, Hayu, Peacock, DAZN, and Disney+. Ad-supported streaming televisions such as Pluto TV and YouTube TV also became more popular.

During a live broadcast of the 94th Academy Awards in 2022, audiences across the auditorium and at home watched in shock as actor and musician Will Smith, who was nominated for, and won, Best Actor that evening for his performance in the biographical film King Richard, slapped comedian and actor Chris Rock, who was presenting Best Documentary Feature, across the face after making a joke about Smith's wife Jada Pinkett Smith. Following that ceremony's incident, after receiving his Oscar, Smith was suspended from the academy for ten years.

Billions of people watched the death and state funeral of Elizabeth II in 2022 and the 2024 Summer Olympics coverage in Paris speculated to be the most watched special television events in history.

Animated

Japanese anime continued to rise in global popularity and appeal during the decade, with works such as Jujutsu Kaisen, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Spy × Family , Chainsaw Man, Beastars, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku, Oshi no Ko, Baki, Delicious in Dungeon, Record of Ragnarok, Frieren, Dandadan, Solo Leveling, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, Tokyo Revengers, Vinland Saga, Witch Watch, Kaiju No. 8, Gachiakuta, Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War, Sakamoto Days, Attack on Titan, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and One Piece reaching large international audiences.

New and critically acclaimed teen and adult animated shows like Harley Quinn, Hazbin Hotel, Primal, Love, Death & Robots, Blood of Zeus, Invincible, Arcane, Devil May Cry, and Smiling Friends, as well as the web series The Amazing Digital Circus and Murder Drones, were launched in the 2020s, along with other animated shows such as Bluey, Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld, Batman: Caped Crusader, The Owl House, X-Men '97, Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake, My Adventures with Superman, and Star Wars: Visions.

Live-action

A variety of shows on streaming services such as Squid Game, Severance, Never Have I Ever, Tulsa King, Ted Lasso, Beef, The Boys, Extraordinary Attorney Woo, Only Murders in the Building, Wednesday, The Sex Lives of College Girls, Euphoria, Abbott Elementary, The Bear, Heartstopper, Love, Victor, The Pitt, Shōgun, The Witcher, The White Lotus, Alice in Borderland, Hacks, The Diplomat, Yellowstone, The Last of Us, Succession, Heated Rivalry and Tiger King gained popularity. Many different shows on many different competing streaming services resulted in what has been called the "streaming wars" of the early 2020s. Miniseries also gained popularity such as The Queen's Gambit, Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, Daisy Jones & the Six, Beef, Mr Bates vs The Post Office, Mrs. America, Mare of Easttown, and Pam & Tommy.

Also released in the 2020s, the reality game show The Traitors achieved popularity and became a global success.

Several TV shows based on films include American Gigolo, The Penguin, live-action Star Wars series (such as The Mandalorian, Ahsoka, and Andor), Peacemaker, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and Ted.

Music

By 2020, TikTok, an online video service, had become extremely popular as a music platform on social media. Users on streaming platforms such as Spotify, YouTube Music, Deezer, Amazon Music, and Apple Music have increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Festivals such as Coachella were cancelled because of the virus. The COVID-19 pandemic devastated the touring business.

The 2020s saw the continued impact of streaming on the record industry, a trend that began in the 2010s. Platforms like Spotify played a central role in shaping music trends, driving the success of both mainstream and emerging genres. Social media, particularly TikTok, further amplified music with viral trends, while popular genres like pop, hip-hop, R&B, rock music including pop punk and shoegaze, country, K-pop and indie music dominated the Billboard Hot 100 charts. At the same time, underground genres like hyperpop, plugg, jersey club, phonk and rage thrived in niche communities.

Pop, hip-hop, rock music including pop punk and shoegaze, Eurodance, indie, K-pop, R&B, trance, and synth-pop all dominated the early part of the decade, with the most popular artists being Ariana Grande, Lizzo, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Nicki Minaj, Dua Lipa, Ice Spice, Charli XCX, the Weeknd, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Chappell Roan, Doja Cat, Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, Playboi Carti, Morgan Wallen, Beyoncé, Sabrina Carpenter, Jelly Roll, and more. The early 20s also saw the one-off return of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones with a new song and album, respectively, which topped out the charts immediately upon release. 2022 saw a revival in Kate Bush's song "Running Up That Hill", due to its appearance in the Netflix series Stranger Things. Starting around 2023, country music has seen a rise in popularity with artists such as Luke Combs and Morgan Wallen topping the charts along with artists such as Beyoncé and Post Malone releasing country albums.

Video games

The ninth generation of consoles began in 2020. The industry remains dominated by Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft with the release of the Xbox Series X/S and the PlayStation 5, while the Nintendo Switch continues to be popular from the previous decade. Technological advancements in consoles included support for real-time ray tracing graphics and output for 4K or even 8K resolution. Physical media continued to be replaced by online distribution of games, with the Xbox Series S and the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition lacking an optical drive. The Steam Deck was released in 2022 as Valve's attempt to bring PC-level gaming to a Nintendo Switch-style handheld format.

During the decade PC gaming would continue growing rapidly with the console gaming market remaining more stagnant. The growing majority of video game developers would also primarily focus on developing their projects for PC. Mobile gaming remained the largest sector of the video game industry during the decade, accounting for roughly half of the industry's revenue.

Critically successful games such as Elden Ring, Ghost of Tsushima, God of War Ragnarök, Baldur's Gate 3, Black Myth: Wukong, Astro Bot, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Cyberpunk 2077, and The Last of Us Part II were released and won multiple best game of the year awards, signalling a shift towards narrative-driven and single-played focused gaming compared with the end of the 2010s where popularity of multiplayer gaming dominated. Nonetheless, widely successful multiplayer games includes Among Us, EA Sports FC, Call of Duty: Warzone, Fall Guys, Fate/Grand Order, Fortnite, Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, It Takes Two, Counter-Strike 2, Umamusume: Pretty Derby, Minecraft, Terraria, Roblox, Tetris Effect, Dead by Daylight, Overwatch 2, League of Legends, and Valorant surged in popularity in the decade and became a global sensation since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Architecture

There is a revival in expressionist architecture. The SoFi Stadium and Intuit Dome were completed in September 2020 and August 2024, there are a component of Hollywood Park, a master-planned neighbourhood in development in Inglewood, California. The venue serves as a home to the Los Angeles Clippers, the Rams, and the Chargers. Both they hosted the Super Bowl LVI in February 2022, the 2026 NBA All-Star Game in February 2026, and the 2026 FIFA World Cup in June 2026. The stadium and arena is also set to host the opening and closing ceremonies, aquatic events (swimming and diving), and basketball events for the 2028 Summer Olympics, which will be hosted in Los Angeles, California, United States.

The Unity Tower in Kraków was finally completed on 30 September 2020. The construction of the building originally started in 1975 but stopped permanently in 1981 because of economic constraints and political unrest at the time. Due to the unfinished building's resemblance to a skeleton, it was nicknamed after Skeletor, the arch-villain in He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, which was popular in Poland at the time construction began.

Several developments in Saudi Arabia to achieve the Saudi Vision 2030, such as the 2034 FIFA World Cup stadiums, Qiddiya City, Neom's The Line, Jeddah Tower, Roshn, and Riyadh's Expo 2030 site. The Jeddah Tower would become the world's tallest building or structure, after a long-delayed construction progress and resumed in 2025, standing at least 180 metres (590 ft) taller than the Burj Khalifa.

The Grand Ring was built and designed by the Japanese firms Tohata Architects and Azusa Sekkei, the building became the symbol of the famous Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan. It was recognised by the Guinness World Records as the world's largest architectural structure (certified area: 61,035.55 m²).

Between October 2025 and February 2026, the Sagrada Família became the world's tallest church when a part of its central tower was lifted into place and reached 162.91 m, surpassing Ulm Minster (161.53 m), and the cathedral reached its final height of 172.5 metres (566 ft). The cathedral also became the longest period of construction history since 1882, and reached its maximum height though the magnum opus of Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí's legacy remains years away from completion.

Sports

Since the COVID-19 pandemic impacted major sporting events led to the postponement and cancellations in the early-2020s, technological advances growing popularity throughout the decade like digital live broadcasts from the successful 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Football, horse racing, basketball, athletics, tennis, volleyball, baseball, cricket and chess became more popular for digital audiences during the decade.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to the cancellation or rescheduling of numerous sporting events globally. The 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo were postponed to July–August 2021. This was the first Olympic Games to be postponed rather than cancelled in history since World War II.

Zimbabwean sports administrator and politician Kirsty Coventry became the first woman, the first multicultural, and the first African President of the International Olympic Committee, following the resignation of Thomas Bach. She is also the second youngest person and second Olympic medallist to be elected to the position since Pierre de Coubertin and Thomas Bach, her achievements are focused on feminism and gender equality in sports.

The International Olympic Committee has begun a new policy of authorising up to 5 additional sports per edition of the Olympic Games, and this rule applies to both the Summer and Winter Games. This rule came into effect starting with the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Football

Football's popularity has continued global dominance, while also undergoing significant shifts due to various factors, Argentina and Spain won the 2022 FIFA World Cup and the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup by defeating France and England, with Lionel Messi and Aitana Bonmatí winning the Golden Balls, while Hinata Miyazawa and Kylian Mbappé winning the Golden Boots.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup was the first since 2002 to be hosted by multiple nations. Mexico became the first country to host the World Cup three times, having hosted the 1970 and 1986 tournaments. The United States previously hosted the World Cup in 1994, while it was Canada's first time hosting the tournament. Spain won the finals over Argentina and returned to football domination of victories at the UEFA Euro 2024 and the Paris 2024 Olympic football matches, it was their second FIFA World Cup title and first World Cup victory since 2010. Spain became the first country to simultaneously hold the men's and women's World Cup, having won the latter in 2023.

Baseball

Baseball had a notable resurgence, particularly within its traditional strongholds, Japan and the United States. Japan defeated the United States in the 2023 World Baseball Classic with a score of 3–2, winning their 3rd title in the event. Japanese baseball player Shohei Ohtani was named the MVP of the tournament. He became the first player in MLB history to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a season and was unanimously named the 2024 National League MVP. rivalling Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees, Ohtani led the Los Angeles Dodgers to victory in the 2024 World Series, and again in 2025 over Toronto Blue Jays.

Venezuela had landslide victories over Japan and Italy in the quarterfinal and semi-final and won this year's World Baseball Classic tournament, beating the United States 3–2 in the 2026 World Baseball Classic championship, with Eugenio Suarez hitting a go-ahead double in the top of the 9th to clinch their first title. It was the first major international sporting competition won by Venezuela since the 1945 Amateur World Series, and the second time in Latin America since 2013. Maikel García of Venezuela was named the MVP of the tournament.

The tournament has hit new high levels in attendance and US Television viewership: the 2023 attendance record was broken before the pool play was ended, and US viewership of the final hit 10 million viewers for the first time ever.

Shohei Otani and Mookie Betts met with US president Donald Trump at the White House in April 2025.

Basketball

Shortly into the decade, on 26 January 2020, 5-time NBA champion, 2008 NBA MVP, two-time Olympic gold medallist and Los Angeles Lakers great Kobe Bryant, and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, died in a California helicopter crash along with seven other people. A number of tributes and memorials subsequently followed, and the All-Star Game MVP Award was renamed in Bryant's honour.

Basketball has been characterised by significant global growth and dominance in strong youth engagement, the 2023 FIBA World Cup followed by Germany won by defeating Serbia.

On 7 February, 2023, LeBron James, playing for the Los Angeles Lakers, scored his 38,388th career point in a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the all-time leading scorer in NBA history.

On the night of 1–2 February 2025, Luka Dončić was traded from the Dallas Mavericks to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis in a three-team deal facilitated by the Utah Jazz.

Food

Food delivery apps such as Deliveroo, DoorDash, Instacart, Menulog, Uber Eats, Grubhub, Bolt Food, Wolt, and Just Eat Takeaway became more popular since to the COVID-19 pandemic. Indoor dining was also closed in many countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and upon re-opening the usage of QR codes and other technologies in the restaurant industry increased compared to the 2010s to comply with pandemic restrictions.

Due to the COVID-19 restrictions, online grocery shopping has substantially grown and in the first few months of the pandemic, online grocery shopping increased by 300%. Before the pandemic occurred, food shopping activity accounted for 9% of the market, now 63% of consumers worldwide have purchased more groceries online after the outbreak than they did before they were socially isolated.

Some foods grew extremely popular in the 2020s. Dubai chocolate was made in 2021 and grew in popularity in 2024 after being featured in TikTok ASMR videos snapping open with a loud crunch. Matcha grew extremely popular in the early and mid 2020s. Matcha grew in popularity because it was associated with calming effects and clean caffeine. Matcha was loved by younger consumers because of its bright green color and being promoted by influencers on social media, causing it to be on the selection on most coffee menus.

Literature

Books published throughout the decade include The Vanishing Half, Leave the World Behind, Transcendent Kingdom, Memorial and The City We Became. Recent releases on this decade include How to Prevent the Next Pandemic by Bill Gates, Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall by Alexandra Lange, Wikipedia @ 20 by Joseph M. Reagle Jr. and Jackie Koerner, and The Candy House.

Design

The rising popularity of Frutiger Aero and the Y2K aesthetic has led many companies to redesign their products and user interfaces to match these styles, signaling an end to the flat design and Corporate Memphis trends of the 2010s. Many people have also started referring to this new aesthetic as "glassmorphism".