In 2024, "Lose Control" topped the charts, Inside Out 2 packed theaters, a stamp cost 68¢, the average home went for about $407,000.
🎵 Top songs of 2024
"Lose Control" — Teddy Swims
"A Bar Song (Tipsy)" — Shaboozey
"Beautiful Things" — Benson Boone
🎬 In theaters
Inside Out 2
Deadpool & Wolverine
Moana 2
What things cost in 2024
$3.30
Gallon of gas
68¢
Postage stamp
$11.31
Movie ticket
$3.98
Gallon of milk
$407,000
Average home
$48,700
New car
$83,730
Household income
2024's prices sit within a few percent of today's — but zoom out a decade and the changes are striking: stamps jumped from 49¢ in 2014 to 68¢, while gas was actually cheaper in real terms than it had been ten years earlier.
The biggest moments of 2024
Simone Biles led Team USA to gymnastics gold at the Summer Olympics in Paris.
A total solar eclipse swept across North America on April 8 as millions looked up in awe.
Donald Trump won the November presidential election to return to the White House.
A historic solar storm in May made the northern lights visible as far south as Mexico and India.
Notre-Dame Cathedral grandly reopened in December, five years after the fire.
Rookie Caitlin Clark smashed WNBA attendance and TV records all season long.
Toys, TV & trends of 2024
Moo Deng, a bouncy baby pygmy hippo from Thailand, became the internet's favorite animal.
"Brain rot" was Oxford's Word of the Year as kids peppered every sentence with "skibidi."
Everyone wanted a taste of the crunchy pistachio "Dubai chocolate" bar.
"Very demure, very mindful" became the catchphrase of the fall — and Dictionary.com's Word of the Year.
Australian breakdancer Raygun's kangaroo-hop Olympic routine spawned a million memes.
The laid-back "Chill Guy" cartoon dog closed out the year as the internet's unofficial mascot.
The music scene
Charli XCX's "Brat summer" painted the internet lime green while Sabrina Carpenter's "Espresso" soundtracked the actual summer. The Kendrick Lamar–Drake feud produced "Not Like Us," the rap story of the decade. And Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter made her the first Black woman ever to top Billboard's country albums chart.
At the movies
Oppenheimer swept the March Oscars with seven awards, including Best Picture. Inside Out 2 passed Frozen II to become the highest-grossing animated film of all time, crossing $1 billion in a record 19 days. And the Thanksgiving "Glicked" face-off — Wicked versus Gladiator II — gave theaters a Barbenheimer-style holiday boost.
Cartoons kids loved
Bluey
X-Men '97
PAW Patrol
X-Men '97 picked up exactly where the 1997 series left off and earned rave reviews, proving animation nostalgia could be more than a cash grab. Bluey's 28-minute special "The Sign" became a genuine television event, and Nielsen crowned Bluey the most-streamed show in America — beating every grown-up series on TV.
The world in 2024
World population: about 8.1 billion
U.S. President: Joe Biden
Paris hosted the Summer Olympics, with the opening ceremony floating down the Seine River.
A faulty software update caused the largest IT outage in history, grounding flights and freezing banks worldwide.
Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed after a cargo ship struck it in March.
Syria's Assad government fell in December after more than 50 years of family rule.
2024 birthday questions
How old is someone born in 2024?
Someone born in 2024 turns 2 in 2026 (1 if their birthday has not come round yet).
What was the number one song in 2024?
"Lose Control" by Teddy Swims was among the biggest hits of 2024.
What movie came out in 2024?
Inside Out 2 was one of the films packing theaters in 2024.
How much did gas cost in 2024?
A gallon of gas ran about $3.30 in 2024, and a postage stamp cost 68¢.
How much did a house cost in 2024?
The average home went for roughly $407,000 in 2024, against a typical household income of about $83,730.