Top 10 Twitter events in 2012
2012 was full of big events which sent waves across the popular social networking platform, Twitter – from the US elections to online activism, the world was always on board to have their say.
While the 2012 Summer Olympics dominated people’s attention in 2012, a number of events also pushed up activity on the platform.
Here are the top 10 events that made the most waves on Twitter in 2012:
2012 Summer Olympics
The 16-day Summer Olympics in London generated 150 million Tweets.
The closing ceremonies – specifically, the Spice Girls’ performance, Twitter said – amassed the largest Olympics-related spike at 116,000+ Tweets per minute.
The largest competition-related buzz was when Jamaica’s Usain Bolt won gold in the 200m sprint, generating 80,000 tweets per minute.
2012 US Elections
The first round of the US presidential debates produced 10 million tweets, Twitter said, with 31 million+ tweets sent about the election on Election Day.
During the vote counting, election buzz on Twitter spiked, hitting a peak of 327,452 tweets per minute
MTV Video Music Awards
During the MTN VMAs, 52 million votes were cast via Tweets for the “Most Sharable Video” for the show.
The VMAs itself generated 14.7 million tweets, according to Twitter, while the biggest peak was when One Direction won Best Pop Video with 98,307 tweets per minute.
Taylor Swift’s performance was the night’s second biggest moment, generating 86,275 tweets per minute, Twitter said.
Super Bowl
During the US Super Bowl, 13.7 million Super Bowl-related tweets were sent during the game on 5 February – one million of them appeared in the final five minutes.
Tweets spiked when an incomplete pass by the Patriots sealed the Giants’ victory, at 201,466 tweets per minute, Twitter said, while Madonna’s halftime show saw 108,077 tweets per minute.
Euro 2012
During the Euro 2012 final – in which Spain beat Italy 4-0 – Juan Mata’s goal sparked 267,200 Tweets per minute.
Superstorm Sandy
Superstorm Sandy hit the US East Coast hard in October 2012, leading Twitter to be used as a news wire for people concerned, all over the world.
Between October 27 and November 1, people sent more than 20 million tweets about Sandy’s impact and aftermath, Twitter said.
UEFA Champions League Semi-Final
During the Champions League semi-final between Barcelona and Chelsea, total global traffic on Twitter peaked at 184,535 tweets per minute.
This followed Fernando Torres’ goal to tie the game for Chelsea.
“Summer Wars” obsession
Thousands of Japanese Anime fans took to Twitter to create their own “live” event by tweeting a line from Japanese anime movie “Summer Wars” at the exact time the character said it in the film.
Whitney Houston’s passing
When news broke of Whitney Houston’s death on 11 February 2012, the news spread to millions of her fans over Twitter.
The news of her passing generated more than 10 million Tweets – 73,662 tweets per minute, according to Twitter.
SOPA/PIPA
The controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) – which was up for debate in the US – drew millions into online protests which played out over Twitter and other websites.
As the debate heated up, #SOPA on Twitter exploded from 106,000 mentions to 3.5 million – in 24 hours.
Similarly, in the same day, 86,500 #PIPA mentions grew to more than 655,500, Twitter said.
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