Twitter reports record 10,000 tweets per second at Super Bowl

PanARMENIAN.Net - Twitter said users were firing off a record 10,000 tweets per second in the final three minutes of the Super Bowl.

Madonna's half-time performance during the New York Giants 21-17 victory over the New England Patriots also saw a surge in Twitter activity with users tapping out an average of 8,000 tweets per second for five minutes, the San Francisco-based short-messaging service said on its Twitter feed.

The 10,000 tweets per second in the final three minutes of the game, when Giants quarterback Eli Manning guided his team downfield for the game-clinching touchdown, topped the previous record of nearly 9,000 tweets per second set in August with Beyonce's pregnancy announcement at the MTV Video Music Awards.

The previous record for a sporting event was the 7,196 tweets per second at the final whistle of Japan's thrilling upset win over the United States in the women's World Cup final in July, AFP reports.

Twitter's more than 100 million users sent more than 60 billion tweets last year.

Roughly 100 million watch the Super Bowl every year, making it one of the most viewed events in the world.

According to Venture Beat, social TV startup Bluefin Labs said it saw 11.5 million comments during the game, up six fold over last year.

The official Super Bowl Twitter account has just 37,871 followers. Some 50 employees and volunteers manned the Super Bowl Command Center for social media.

The NFL has about 2.8 million Twitter followers and 4.5 million Facebook NFL page likes. Verizon added 400 additional 3G and LTE antennae for 3G and LTE service. AT&T added 200 new cell sites in Indianapolis.

InMobi reported that 40 percent of respondents to its survey said they used mobile devices in response to TV ads and 45 percent estimated they would spend 30 minutes or more on their mobile devices during the game. About 39 percent said they would use their mobile devices in response to TV commercials. About 27 percent said they downloaded a Super Bowl mobile app; and 30 percent said they used mobile devices most during commercials.