Warsaw: Twitter says its users fired off more than 15,000 tweets per second when Spain made its fourth goal in European Championship final, setting a new sports-related record on the social networking site. The surge in tweets came just weeks before the Olympic Games in London are expected to spur more record-setting activity on social networking sites from tweets to postings of photos and other material.
Twitter said it registered a total of 16.5 million tweets worldwide during the soccer match yesterday in Kiev, where Spain defeated Italy 4-0. It said total global traffic on its platform peaked at 15,358 tweets per second as Spain made its fourth goal, a new record for a sporting event.
As fans increasingly use social media to connect during major sports competitions, new "tweet per second" records are constantly being set. Twitter registered a peak of 12,233 tweets per second during the final three minutes of the Super Bowl in February.
An earlier record was set during the final match of the 2011 Women`s World Cup, a match in Germany that saw 7,196 tweets per second, including 13 from President Barack Obama.
In that game, Japan`s team defeated the US on penalty kicks following a 2-2 draw. Among those who tweeted yesterday was Pele, the retired Brazilian star. He congratulated Spain and said he was looking forward to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
PTI