2020s

The 2020s (pronounced "twenty-twenties" or "two thousand twenties"; shortened to "the '20s" and also known as "The Twenties") is the current decade. It began on January 1, 2020, and will end on December 31, 2029.

The 2020s began with the COVID-19 pandemic. The first reports of the virus were published on December 31, 2019, though the first cases are said to have appeared nearly a month earlier. The pandemic led to a global economic recession, a sustained rise in global inflation for the first time since the 1970s, and a global supply chain crisis.

Several anti-government demonstrations and revolts occurred in the late 2010s and early 2020s, including a continuation of those in Hong Kong against extradition legislation; protests against certain local, state and national responses to the COVID-19 pandemic; others around the world, particularly in the United States, against racism and police brutality; one in India against agriculture and farming acts; one in Israel against judicial reforms; another in Indonesia against the omnibus law on jobs; ongoing protests and strikes in France against pension reform; an ongoing political crisis in Peru, Armenia, and Thailand; and many in Belarus, Eswatini, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Iran, China, and Russia against various forms of governmental jurisdiction, corruption and authoritarianism; along with citizen riots in the United States and Brazil in an attempt to overturn election results. The world population grew to over 8 billion people, and in 2023, India overtook China as the most populous country in the world.

Ongoing military conflicts include the Myanmar civil war, the Ethiopian civil conflict, the Kivu conflict, the Mali War, the Yemeni civil war, the Somali Civil War, the Syrian civil war, the Russo-Ukrainian War, and the Israel–Hamas war. The Russian invasion of Ukraine became the largest conventional military offensive in Europe since World War II, and resulting in a refugee crisis, disruptions to global trade, and an exacerbation of economic inflation. In 2023, a Hamas-led attack marked the first invasion of Israel since 1948, triggering a swift Israeli response with an invasion into Gaza. This conflict has led to the displacement of nearly all 2.3 million Gaza residents, raising international concerns about a humanitarian crisis and sparking global protests against Israel's actions in the war. Smaller conflicts include the insurgency in the Maghreb, the Iraq insurgency, the Philippine drug war, and the Mexican drug war. The year 2021 saw the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, ending twenty years of war in that country, and leading to the republican loyalist uprising against the new emirate government.

With multiple extreme weather events magnifying in the early 2020s, several world leaders have called it the "decisive decade" for climate action as ecological crises continue to escalate. In February 2023, a series of powerful earthquakes killed up to 62,000 people in Turkey and Syria; this event fell within the top five deadliest earthquakes of the 21st century.

There were significant improvements in the complexity of artificial intelligence, with American companies, universities, and research labs pioneering advances in the field. Generative AI-based applications such as ChatGPT and DALL-E have accumulated billions of users, and allow users to instantly generate complex texts, images, art, and video, comparable to the sophistication of human work. Other technological advances have also been made, impacting many, such as the widespread use of teleconferencing, online learning, streaming services, e-commerce and food delivery services to compensate for lockdowns ordered by governments around the world during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent social media applications on the Internet like Threads, BeReal, Clubhouse, BlueSky, Gettr, and Truth Social launched, and introduced recent types of social media, like audio-based and short-form content, further progressing in digital technology. Art forms, such as NFTs, also emerged as well. 5G networks have launched around the globe at the start of the decade as well, and became prevalent in smartphones. Research into outer space greatly accelerated in the 2020s, with the American mainly dominating space exploration, including the James Webb Space Telescope, Ingenuity helicopter, Lunar Gateway, and Artemis program from the United States.

Major conflicts
The prominent wars of the decade include:

Revolutions and major protests
Successful revolutions and otherwise major protests of the decade include, but are not limited to:

Terrorist attacks
''Note: To be included, entries must be notable (have a stand-alone article) and described by a consensus of reliable sources as "terrorism". They also must have 100 or more fatalities reported.''

The most prominent terrorist attacks committed against civilian populations during the decade include, but are not limited to:

Electoral trends
Having suffered decline in the years after the Great Recession, the centre-left politics and the 1990s political model (like progressivism, liberalism, social democracy, and third way policies) experienced a resurgence across Europe and the Anglosphere in the early 2020s, with New Statesman suggesting various causes, including natural shifts in the electoral cycle and conservatives' unpopularity among university graduates and voters under the age of 40.

Deaths
Sitting leaders that died in office:

In 2020: Sultan Qaboos bin Said, Pierre Nkurunziza and Sheik Sabah al-Sabah.

In 2021: Idriss Déby, John Magufuli, and Jovenel Moïse.

In 2022: Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Elizabeth II.

In 2023: Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

In 2024: Hage Geingob, Ebrahim Raisi, and Nguyễn Phú Trọng.

Former world leaders who died:

In 2020: Hosni Mubarak, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, John Turner, Daniel arap Moi, Pranab Mukherjee, Amadou Toumani Touré, Jerry Rawlings, Mamadou Tandja, Tabaré Vázquez, Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Pierre Buyoya, John Cremona, Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, Kuniwo Nakamura, Litokwa Tomeing, Moussa Traoré, Pascal Lissouba, Branko Kostić, Lee Teng-hui, Benjamin Mkapa, Miloš Jakeš, Rafael Leonardo Callejas Romero, Abdul Halim Khaddam, Joachim Yhombi-Opango, Manuel Serifo Nhamadjo, Mike Moore, and Janez Stanovnik.

In 2021: Gustavo Noboa, Ali Mahdi Muhammad, Moudud Ahmed, Didier Ratsiraka, Bonfoh Abass, Mamnoon Hussain, Arturo Armando Molina, Hissène Habré, Jorge Sampaio, Abdelkader Bensalah, Kenneth Kaunda, Anerood Jugnauth, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Enrique Bolaños, Roh Tae-woo, Chun Doo-hwan, Benigno Aquino III, Carlos Menem, F. W. de Klerk, James Fitz-Allen Mitchell, Norodom Ranariddh, Kinza Clodumar, and Karolos Papoulias.

In 2022: Toshiki Kaifu, Ernest Shonekan, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, Christos Sartzetakis, Amos Sawyer, Rupiah Banda, Karl Offmann, Shahabuddin Ahmed, Ayaz Mutallibov, Dušan Čkrebić, Mwai Kibaki, Leonid Kravchuk, Ciriaco De Mita, Stanislav Shushkevich, Romeo Morri, Bujar Nishani, Evaristo Carvalho, Jacob Nena, Shinzo Abe, José Eduardo dos Santos, Luis Echeverría, Francisco Morales Bermúdez, Fidel V. Ramos, Mikhail Gorbachev, Balakh Sher Mazari, Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, Jiang Zemin, Adolfas Šleževičius, Edgar Savisaar and Pope Benedict XVI.

In 2023: Abdelsalam Majali, Constantine II of Greece, Álvaro Colom, Sherif Ismail, Pervez Musharraf, Lubomír Štrougal, Ivan Silayev, Sergey Tereshchenko, Hans Modrow, Ahmed Qurei, Gérard Latortue, Pōhiva Tuʻiʻonetoa, Pascoal Mocumbi, Sir Rabbie Namaliu, Mudar Badran, Nikica Valentić, Rifat Rastoder, Silvio Berlusconi, Sir Lloyd Erskine Sandiford, Sir Tapley Seaton, Milan Milutinović, Arnaldo Forlani, Rachid Sfar, Jean-Jacques Honorat, Surat Huseynov, Henri Konan Bédié, Mircea Snegur, Abdul Ati al-Obeidi, Giorgio Napolitano, Marouf al-Bakhit, László Sólyom, Martti Ahtisaari, Bill Hayden, Li Keqiang, Henri Lopes, Antoni Martí, Rahim Huseynov, Faustin Twagiramungu, Paulin Obame-Nguema and Sir Michael Hardie Boys.

In 2024: Basdeo Panday, Dries van Agt, John Bruton, Sebastián Piñera, Edward Lowassa, Anfinn Kallsberg, Nikolai Ryzhkov, Ali Hassan Mwinyi, Brian Mulroney, Agbéyomé Kodjo, Mahammed Dionne, Josip Manolić, Gediminas Kirkilas, Ro Jai-bong, Kwassi Klutse, Brigitte Bierlein, Fernando José de França Dias Van-Dúnem, Jadallah Azzuz at-Talhi, Stojan Andov, Mohamed Osman Jawari, Javier Valle Riestra and Jógvan Sundstein.

Coups
Coups d'état against ruling governments during the decade include:

World leaders
2020 · 2021 · 2022 · 2023 · 2024

Assassinations and attempts


Prominent assassinations, targeted killings, and assassination attempts include:

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

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

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.

2020

 * The Brexit withdrawal agreement went into effect at the end of January 2020 with the UK completing its economic withdrawal from the EU at the end of that year.
 * The United States, Mexico, and Canada signed the USMCA agreement, which came into effect on 1 July 2020.

2021

 * The African Continental Free Trade Area, encompassing 54 of the African Union states comes into effect on 1 January 2021.
 * Ever Given, a large container ship, runs aground in the Suez Canal for a week causing massive disruption of global trade.
 * El Salvador became the first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender, after the Legislative Assembly votes 62–84 to pass a bill submitted by President Nayib Bukele classifying the cryptocurrency as such.

2022

 * The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the largest free trade area in the world, comes into effect for Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam on 1 January 2022.
 * Elon Musk completed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter on 27 October 2022

2023

 * Croatia adopts the euro and joins the Schengen Area, becoming the 20th member state of the Eurozone and the 27th member of the Schengen Area on 1 January 2023.
 * Swiss investment bank UBS Group AG agrees to buy Credit Suisse for CHF 3 billion (US$3.2 billion) on 19 March 2023 in an all-stock deal brokered by the government of Switzerland and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority.

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.

2020

 * Space company SpaceX sent two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station on 30 May 2020, marking the first time a private company completed a crewed orbital spaceflight mission.
 * NASA launched the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter drone on 30 July 2020 as part of their Mars 2020 mission to search for signs of ancient life on Mars. On 19 April 2021, the Ingenuity helicopter drone performed the first powered controlled flight by an aircraft on a planet other than Earth.
 * The Royal Astronomical Society announced the detection of phosphine gas in Venus' atmosphere on 14 September 2020, which is known to be a strong predictor for the presence of microbial life.

2021

 * China sends Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo to assemble and then occupy and work aboard the Tiangong space station.
 * Following the formal releases of three videos of UFOs (also known as UAPs) in 2020, a report on the subject by the United States Intelligence Community would be published on 25 June 2021 with the report concluding that UFOs existed. This would be the first time a government would officially confirm the existence of UFOs, though no conclusion was made on what these phenomena were, extraterrestrial or otherwise.
 * On 11 July 2021, Virgin Galactic became the first spaceflight company to independently launch a paying civilian into outer space using the 50-mile high definition of outer space, having flown Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson above the 50 mile mark, enabling him and the rest of the crew to experience approximately 3 minutes of weightlessness above Earth's atmosphere.
 * In July 2021, Blue Origin became the first spaceflight company to launch a fully automated spacecraft with civilian passengers into space, carrying its founder Jeff Bezos and three others. Two of the flight's crew members, Dutch student Oliver Daemen (age 18) and American aviator Wally Funk (age 82), became both the youngest and oldest people respectively to go to space (Funk's record was beaten nearly 3 month's later when actor William Shatner entered space onboard Blue Origin NS-18, at the age of 90).
 * The James Webb Space Telescope was launched on 25 December 2021, 12:20 UTC using an Ariane 5 launch vehicle from Kourou, French Guiana.

2022

 * The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) successfully made contact with Dimorphos, in a test operated by NASA to test potential planetary defense to near-Earth objects.
 * NASA successfully launched Artemis 1, an uncrewed Moon-orbiting mission, after several months of delays.

2023

 * SpaceX attempted an orbital flight of Starship. Around 4 minutes into the flight, the rocket suffered a "rapid unscheduled disassembly," but the flight was still considered a success as it had successfully cleared the launch pad.
 * On 18 July, Voyager 2 overtook Pioneer 10 as the second farthest spacecraft from the Sun at the distance 133.92 AU (nearly 12,45 billion miles) from the Sun.
 * On 19 August, Luna 25, Russia's first lunar spacecraft since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, crashes into the lunar south pole after a failed orbital maneuver.
 * On 23 August, Chandrayaan-3 successfully touches down in the lunar south pole region making India the fourth country to successfully land on the Moon, and the first to do so near the lunar south pole.
 * On 9 December, Halley's Comet reached the farthest and slowest point in its orbit from the Sun when it was traveling at 0.91 km/s (2,000 mph) with respect to the Sun.

2024

 * On January 19, JAXA successfully landed the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon on the lunar surface, making Japan the 5th country to make a soft landing on the moon.
 * On March 14, SpaceX successfully launched Starship from Starbase, Texas at 8:25 a.m. CT and attempting to splashdown in the Indian Ocean which failed but they were able to get to 65 km and enter part of the Earth's atmosphere.



Artificial intelligence

 * DeepMind solves the protein folding problem to 90 percent accuracy, a 50-year-old grand challenge, at CASP14 in 2020.
 * Text-to-image AI art systems such as DALL-E (1 and 2) and Stable Diffusion are announced, capable of generating highly detailed and realistic images from text prompts.

Communications and electronics

 * 5G became increasingly widespread by 2020.
 * By 2020, 3D printing had reached decent quality and affordable pricing which allowed many people to own 3D printers.
 * 8K resolution and 4K resolution becomes prevalent in consumer electronics.

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 <! e.g. all Mobile--> are out of all support, and others soon on, i.e. October 14, 2025, while some Enerprise 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.

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 could 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 neighborhoods 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.
 * 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.

Race
The murder of George Floyd led to civil unrest and protests across the United States and internationally in 2020.

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), 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), and Chairwoman Borjana Krišto (Bosnia and Herzegovina).

Environmentalism

 * 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.

LGBT 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 legalizing 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.
 * The Equality Act passed the United States House of Representatives on 25 February 2021.
 * 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.
 * From January 1, 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, summarizes 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 don't 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.

Fashion
Wearing a decorative mask to prevent the disease COVID-19 from spreading was a fashion trend in the early 2020s.

The fashion of the early 2020s was characterized by a variety of styles and influences from different eras. During this period, the trend towards individuality and self-expression in clothing continued. Generation Z has witnessed a notable resurgence of fashion styles from the 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.

Sustainable fashion practices gained significance, with an increased awareness of environmentally friendly materials and production processes. Influences from social media culture were also unmistakable, as influencers and celebrities exerted a strong influence on fashion trends. The popularity of online platforms like Instagram and TikTok contributed to the rapid spread of trends, while simultaneously allowing niche styles and subcultures to flourish.

Popular brands in the Anglosphere (Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States) during this era include Adidas, Fila, Nike, New Balance, Globe International, Vans, Hurley, Kappa, Tommy Hilfiger, Asics, Ellesse, Ralph Lauren, Forever 21, Playboy, and The North Face.

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. Avatar: The Way of Water 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, No Time to Die, Jurassic World Dominion and Oppenheimer. Superhero films mostly continued to do well financially, with Spider-Man: No Way Home being the second-highest-grossing of the decade. Other successful superhero films include The Batman as well as most of Marvel Studios' "Multiverse Saga of the MCU". However, DC Studios' "DC Extended Universe" films began to generally underperform at the box office.

Nintendo and Mattel made their own big-budget theatrical releases, resulting in the massive successes of The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Barbie. These films became the highest-grossing movies of 2023 internationally.

Critically successful films nominated for awards include Nomadland, CODA, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Licorice Pizza, The Fabelmans, Killers of the Flower Moon, Past Lives, Elvis, Belfast and The Power of the Dog.

Animated films such as Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, Soul, Encanto, Luca, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse have also been highly acclaimed.

Film reboots regained popularity as many were released on streaming services and in theaters. Some of these film remakes, reboots and returns to older franchises include: Clerks III, Bill & Ted Face the Music, Space Jam: A New Legacy, Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Top Gun: Maverick, Mean Girls, He's All That, A Christmas Story Christmas, Scream, The Little Mermaid, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Good Burger 2, Wonka, Snow White, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Coming 2 America, Inside Out 2, Dune and The Room Returns!.

Television


The 2020s started off with streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Binge, Max, Showtime, Hulu, and Disney+. Additional streaming services such as Discovery+, Paramount+, and Peacock were released as well. Streaming television such as Pluto TV and YouTube TV also became more popular.

New and critically acclaimed adult animated shows like Midnight Gospel, Invincible, and Smiling Friends launched in the 2020s, as well as Disney animated shows such as Amphibia and The Owl House.

Japanese anime continued to rise in global popularity and appeal during the decade due its wide distribution on movie theaters and streaming services, with works such as Jujutsu Kaisen, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Chainsaw Man, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Spy x Family, Suzume, The Boy and the Heron, Oshi no Ko, Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Kaiju No. 8, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean, Attack on Titan and One Piece reaching large international audiences.

A variety of shows on streaming services such as Squid Game, Never Have I Ever, Tulsa King, Ted Lasso, Extraordinary Attorney Woo, Wednesday, The Sex Lives of College Girls, Abbott Elementary, The Bear, The Last of Us 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 Gambit, Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, Daisy Jones & the Six, Beef, Mrs. America, Mare of Easttown and Pam & Tommy.

TV show reboots also became increasingly popular, with Frasier, That '90s Show, and Friends: The Reunion appearing on streaming. Matthew Perry passed away in 2023, following Friends: The Reunion. Other TV remakes, reboots and returns from older series include: Gossip Girl, How I Met Your Father, House of the Dragon, iCarly, The Baby-Sitters Club and The Wonder Years. Also TV shows based on films include: American Gigolo and Ted.

Billions of people watched the death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, speculated to be the most watched television event in history.

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, 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.

Pop, hip hop, K-pop, R&B, nu disco and synthpop all dominated the early part of the decade, with the most popular artists being Ariana Grande, Cai Xukun, Lizzo, Lil Ghost, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Megan Thee Stallion, Dua Lipa, Ice Spice, Jack Harlow, The Weeknd, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, BTS, TFBoys, Doja Cat, Olivia Rodrigo, yamy, Harry Styles, Bad Bunny, Ed Sheeran, Cardi B, Beyoncé, the Kid Laroi 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.

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.

Critically successful games such as Elden Ring, Ghost of Tsushima, God of War Ragnarök, and The Last of Us Part II were released and won multiple best game of the year awards, signaling 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 Fall Guys, Fortnite, Genshin Impact, It Takes Two, Minecraft, Overwatch 2, Valorant, and Warzone. The detective-party game Among Us surged in popularity in 2020 and became a global sensation, largely attributed in to global stay-at-home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nintendo continued to successfully produce games for the Nintendo Switch, with Animal Crossing: New Horizons selling over 40 million copies, and making it the second-best-selling game on the console. The Nintendo Switch's sales remained strong in the 2020s due in part to games such as Super Mario 3D All-Stars, Bowser's Fury, Metroid Dread, Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Nintendo Switch Sports, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Splatoon 3, Bayonetta 3, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Pikmin 4, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and Princess Peach: Showtime!. The Nintendo Switch's best-selling game Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has received additional tracks with the "Booster Course Pass", releasing across 2022 and 2023, while Super Smash Bros. Ultimate received a second DLC pass from 2020 to 2021, including characters such as Steve from Minecraft and Sora from Kingdom Hearts.

High-budget remakes of video games became much more widespread in the 2020s, with notable examples including Resident Evil 3 and 4, Final Fantasy VII Remake and its sequels, Live A Live, The Last of Us Part I, Dead Space, Super Mario RPG, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, and Silent Hill 2 being notable examples of older games that received full graphical and modernized remakes.

Video game film and television adaptations became more financially and critically successful compared with previous decades. Film releases include The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Sonic the Hedgehog, Five Nights at Freddy's and Uncharted; as well as the video game-themed Tetris, Ready Player Two and Free Guy. Television adaptations include Arcane: League of Legends, Carmen Sandiego, Castlevania, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Dota: Dragon's Blood, Dragon Age: Absolution, Sonic Prime, The Last of Us, and The Witcher; in addition with the table-top game adaptation The Legend of Vox Machina.

Architecture
There is a revival in expressionist architecture. The SoFi Stadium was completed on 8 September 2020 and is a component of Hollywood Park, a master-planned neighborhood in development in Inglewood, California. The stadium serves as a home to the Los Angeles Rams and the Los Angeles Chargers. SoFi Stadium hosted Super Bowl LVI in February 2022. The stadium is also set to host the opening and closing ceremonies, soccer and archery in the 2028 Summer Olympics, which will be hosted in Los Angeles, California, United States of America.

The Unity Tower 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.


 * In 2021, Renzo Piano completes the COVID-19-delayed Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, California.
 * In 2023, Vici Properties finishes construction of the Sphere, the largest sphere in the world in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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

The 2020 T20 Cricket World Cup, originally scheduled to take place in Australia, was rescheduled to occur in India in 2021. Which was then rescheduled to United Arab Emirates and Oman.

Sporting leagues such as the North American National Hockey League Major League Baseball and National Basketball Association, and the English Premier League adapt their seasons and championship play around COVID-19 by placing players in "bubbles" and televising games played in empty arenas and stadiums.

2021



 * The Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 31–9 in Super Bowl LV to win their second title in the National Football League (NFL); Tom Brady won Super Bowl MVP for his performance.
 * Due to cross-border restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Hockey League (NHL) realigns its team divisions, with all seven Canadian teams competing in their own division for the first time. Tampa Bay Lightning win the second of back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals and third championship overall, defeating the Montreal Canadiens.
 * The Atlanta Braves won their first World Series since 1995.
 * With the easing of COVID restrictions in the UK, the 2021 Wimbledon Championships are held with full attendances. Novak Djokovic wins the men's singles title, his 20th Grand Slam win equaling Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal's record.
 * Canada won their 27th ice hockey World title in 2021 IIHF World Championships, after defeating the reigning champion Finland in the final in overtime.
 * Hideki Matsuyama wins the Masters, becoming the first-ever Japanese golfer to win a major golfing championship.
 * The Milwaukee Bucks won their first NBA championship in 50 years and their second title overall, with Giannis Antetokounmpo named Finals MVP.
 * Italy won UEFA Euro 2020 by defeating England 3–2 on penalties.
 * Argentina wins the 2021 Copa América by defeating Brazil 1–0.
 * The United States wins the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup by defeating Mexico 1–0.
 * The 2020 Summer Olympics take place in Tokyo, Japan, being the country's fourth time hosting the games. The United States wins the most gold and overall medals, with China coming in second and host Japan coming in third.
 * Max Verstappen wins the 2021 Formula One World Championship over Lewis Hamilton at the Yas Marina Circuit.
 * After 25 years of career, Valentino Rossi retire from MotoGP.
 * Australia won the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup held in United Arab Emirates and Oman.

2022



 * Senegal won the 2021 AFCON by defeating Egypt 4–2 on penalties.
 * The Los Angeles Rams defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 23–20 in Super Bowl LVI to win their second title in the NFL; Cooper Kupp won Super Bowl MVP for his performance.
 * The 2022 Winter Olympics take place in Beijing, China, becoming the first city to host both the summer and winter Olympic Games. Norway wins the most gold and overall medals, with Germany coming in second and host China coming in third.
 * The Kansas Jayhawks beat the North Carolina Tar Heels 72–69 in the 2022 NCAA Division I to win their fourth title; Ochai Agbaji won MVP for his performance.
 * Finland won their first ever ice hockey Olympic gold medal in 2022 Winter Olympics and 4th ice hockey World title in 2022 IIHF World Championships in same year.
 * The Golden State Warriors defeated the Boston Celtics in the 2022 NBA Finals in a best-of-seven series winning their 7th title. Guard Stephen Curry was awarded the Finals MVP. That same season, Curry set the NBA record for career three-pointers made, surpassing Ray Allen.
 * The Colorado Avalanche defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in a best-of-seven series during the 2021–22 NHL season, four games to two and winning their third Stanley Cup.
 * Argentina won 2022 FIBA AmeriCup by defeating Brazil 75–73.
 * Australia won 2022 FIBA Asia Cup by defeating Lebanon 75–73.
 * Spain won EuroBasket 2022 by defeating France 88–76.
 * Kalle Rovanperä broke the late Colin McRae's record of becoming the youngest ever Rally World Champion after winning in 2022 Rally New Zealand.
 * Max Verstappen won the 2022 Formula One World Championship at over Sergio Pérez and Charles Leclerc at the Suzuka Circuit.
 * Argentina won 2022 FIFA World Cup by defeating France 4–2 on penalties, with Lionel Messi winning the Golden Ball and Kylian Mbappé winning the Golden Boot.
 * England won the 2022 ICC Men's T20 World Cup which was held in Australia.

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.
 * The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 38–35 in Super Bowl LVII. Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes was awarded both NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP, the first player to win both in the same season since 1999.
 * Japan defeated the United States in the 2023 World Baseball Classic championship by a score of 3–2, winning their 3rd title in the event. Japanese Baseball player Shohei Ohtani was named the MVP of the tournament.
 * The WWE and UFC announced they would merge to form a new company, majority owned by Endeavor, the parent company of UFC's owner. The deal values the newly combined company at over $21 billion: UFC being worth $12.1 billion and WWE valued at $9.3 billion. Endeavor shareholders will own 51% while WWE shareholders get 49%.
 * The Denver Nuggets won the 2023 NBA Finals and Nikola Jokić won the Finals MVP award.
 * Spain won 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup for the first time by defeating England 1–0, with Aitana Bonmatí winning the Golden Ball and Hinata Miyazawa winning the Golden Boot.
 * Germany won 2023 FIBA World Cup by defeating Serbia 83–77.
 * Kalle Rovanperä won the second Rally World Champion of his career, coming second place in the 2023 Central European Rally.
 * Australia won the 2023 Cricket World Cup by defeating India in the finals.

2024



 * The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII, the first back-to-back Super Bowl champions since the New England Patriots 20 years prior.
 * The Boston Celtics won the 2024 NBA Finals, led by Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. This marked the franchise's 18th championship, the most in NBA history with the most recorded wins of any NBA team.
 * The Florida Panthers won their first Stanley Cup in franchise history after a Game 7 victory over the Edmonton Oilers in the 2024 Stanley Cup Finals. Additionally, the Oilers became the first team since 1945 to force a Game 7 while trailing 3-0 in the Stanley Cup Finals, and Connor McDavid became the first player since 2003 to win the Conn Smythe Trophy without winning the Stanley Cup.
 * India won the 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup by defeating South Africa in the final.

Food
Food delivery apps such as DoorDash, Instacart, Menulog, Uber Eats, Grubhub and Just Eat Takeaway flourished due 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 in order 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 percent of consumers worldwide have purchased more groceries online after the outbreak than they did before they were socially isolated.

Literature
Books published throughout the decade include The Vanishing Half, Leave the World Behind, Transcendent Kingdom, I'm Glad My Mom Died, The Glass Hotel, 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, It's OK to Be Angry About Capitalism by Bernie Sanders, and The Candy House.

Over a year after Friends: The Reunion, Matthew Perry released Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing (which had a foreword written by Lisa Kudrow). The book became a New York Times best-seller.

Timeline
The following articles contain brief timelines which list the most prominent events of the decade: 2020 · 2021 · 2022 · 2023 · 2024 · 2025 · 2026 · 2027 · 2028 · 2029