Wes Anderson and the Roman Empire among the top TikTok trends of 2023

From obsessing about the Roman Empire to enjoying ‘girl dinner’, TikTok’s top trends of 2023 reveal what the world’s social media users could not take their eyes off over the past 12 months.

The short-form video app has released its annual report, known as Year on TikTok, revealing the most seen trends with some achieving billions of views.

With new phrases, editing trends and filters dominating our social media scrolling, the below may ring more than a few bells as the year comes to a close.

– Wes Anderson

The Wes Anderson trend, named after the American filmmaker, sees users showing off their video editing skills through colour grading, composition and long, static shots synonymous with the auteur.

The videos depict ordinary scenes ranging from the mundane routine of making a morning coffee to intimate moments such as welcoming a couple’s first child in a Wes Anderson film style.

Other popular efforts include a woman taking the first train of the day, a man going for lunch with his girlfriend, and a woodworker crafting in his workshop – all accompanied by Anderson style music and shots.

The cinematic trend earned 2.6 billion views on TikTok.

– Roman Empire

This year, the TikTok community shared a collective revelation that men regularly think about the Roman Empire.

Women on TikTok shared videos showing themselves asking the men in their lives how often they think about the historical period, with some responding they think about it every day.

The trend, viewed more than 2.4 billion times, sparked a debate about the women’s Roman Empire ‘equivalent’, with users speculating it could be the Salem witch trials or thinking about a past best friend.

– Beige flag, red flag, green flag

The beige, red and green flag trend, which attracted 8.52 billion views, is a trio of filters highlighting what users consider the best and worst personality traits – red flags refer to unappealing behaviour while green flags indicate desirable traits.

Beige flags were later included for anything considered mildly annoying, unusual or even dull, such as always asking a waiter for their recommendation or doing absolutely nothing while on a flight.

The user selects the filter on TikTok where three flags appear at the top of the video before each one is overturned to reveal the personality trait.

According to TikTok, French-Canadian influencer Laura Gouillon, who has more than 980,000 followers, first introduced the beige filter.

– Girl Summer

A girl summer refers to the carefree attitude of girls enjoying the most of the summer months, and is a trend which amassed four billion views.

A girl summer appears in different variants from ‘hot girl’ summers where women embrace a carefree or confident attitude, to ‘rat girl’ summers, where women act like a rodent in a city (going outside, nibbling on any food at any time of day, and not overthinking decisions).

The rat girl summer trend was coined by creator Lolaokola who explained the term in a video posted in June which earned more than four million views.

– Girl Dinner/Boy Dinner

The girl dinner trend began after TikTok user Olivia Maher shared a video of her dinner in May, which caught the attention of more than 1.6 million users.

The video shows her assortment of bread, small cheese blocks, grapes and cornichons – describing the meal as something a “medieval peasant” might eat.

The trend, with over 2.67 billion views, shows women on TikTok enjoying light snacks as a traditional main meal, which prompted the men of TikTok to reveal their eating habits known as Boy Dinner.

These videos often saw men replace lunch or dinner with a stacked plate of steak, a pack of cigarettes and a can of beer.

– Yearbook photobooth

This trend is a filter that shows people what they might look like if given a 90s makeover.

Users select the filter, strike a pose and tap the screen which morphs their faces into a yearbook portrait mimicking the headshots one might find in an American high school yearbook.

From sporty jocks to trendy girls with permed hairstyles and hooped earrings, the filter amassed around 2.6 billion views and was created by user Joannitante,  a multidisciplinary designer.

– Aged filter

This filter allows users to alter their faces, giving them grey hair and wrinkles, to offer a terrifyingly realistic vision of how they might look in the future.

The filter, which uses artificial intelligence to change users’ appearances, was seen more than 816 million times.