A cool guide to the top 10 global economies over time (1960 to 2024).

What happened to Japan in the 90s?

Their stock and property markets were both severely inflated, and the bubble burst. This resulted in a period of stagnation called the Lost Decades https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Decades
- Sure glad America doesn't have to worry about that!
Likely a similar thing that's going to happen to us unless immigration and "ai" saves the say as the "leadership" hopes

Since higher number is obviously better, the entire world should just be like the USA.

I see no problem with this.

On the assumption that you weren't being sarcastic, no, don't be just like USA please.

The US economy is buoyed by a >$20 trillion dollar debt, which accounts for just over 30% of all global debt. For the past decade, that debt has even outgrown the US' GDP.

And that's not even getting into a discussion of how the US actually spends all that money.
- Most already are, or moving towards it. But no, that's not a good thing.
  
  Though, as America is still the global superpower, the debt really isn't as important as you suggest, but of course I wouldn't speak out against slashing defense spending and hiking taxes on wealthy individuals and big business.
I mean.... higher numbers are better yeah, all things equal. America has some serious problems but there's a reason so many people want to come to the United States. The most patriotic people in America are immigrants which says a lot.
- Why would they come to America if they thought poorly of it? Immigrating to the US is no trivial matter and requires a large commitment of time and effort. Of course immigrants think highly of the US. Whether or not their perception of America is based in reality is another matter entirely.
It should be by capita. Of course the US is high, it's a rich western country with a high population. If you included the EU as a whole in that list, it'd probably be close to the top as well.

All economies started in 1960

Between 2005 and 2010, the nation of Canada simply ceased to exist.

What the hell were Canadians doing for 5 years?
- This visualization is not great at telling the story.
  
  This graph is made using https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_largest_historical_GDP
  
  Its less that Canada was doing nothing and more that India and Brazil are doing better and since Canada sits near the bottom of the top 10 is gets edged out when another country in the 10-15 position has a good year.
Longer than that.

That Clinton administration was bonkers. Turned that ship around AND left office with a budget surplus.

How is Italy in there? Being from Europe I genuinely don't consider Italy a thriving economy at all. I'd figure a Scandinavian country or the Netherlands should be doing better.

Italy's manufacturing sector is pretty huge. Fiat, Leonardo, and Fincantieri are all global heavyweghts. Although I'd imagine being one of the world's top tourist destinations and also having a reputation for both excellent food and prestigious luxury goods doesn't hurt.

It does also just have more people than Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Belgium, and the Netherlands combined
Italy has a large population and I bet economy in northn Italy is larger than than Denmark and Sweden combined along with nice agricultural land on addition to manufacturing mentioned by @skua
Italy is in the G7

Really confusing way to show it with multiple countries appearing and disappearing.

Why does Brazil start and stop several times?

It was contending for last place.
Probably fell in and out of the top 10 a few times

Large jumps from 2020 to 2024

Cries in Japanese, British, Irish, French...