Women's World Cup Final Breaks Twitter Record

ABC News, Associated Press, LONDON July 18, 2011

The Women's World Cup final between Japan and the United States set the record for tweets per second, eclipsing the wedding of Prince William and Kate and the death of Osama bin Laden.

Japan rallied twice to tie the United States 2-2 after extra time before winning a penalty shootout on Sunday in Frankfurt, Germany. The U.S. was aiming for its third World Cup victory, while Japan lifted the World Cup trophy for the first time after going 0-25 against the Americans over the years.

The exciting climax drew 7,196 tweets per second, according to Twitter. Paraguay's penalty shootout win over Brazil in a Copa America quarterfinal later the same day came close to beating it with 7,166.

The previous record of 6,939 was set just after midnight in Japan on New Year's Day. Other spikes include bin Laden's death (5,106 per second) and the Super Bowl in February (4,064).

Spain's World Cup win over the Netherlands in July 2010 managed a high of 3,051, although the record for the tournament (3,283) was set when Japan beat Denmark in the group stage — another statistic pointing to Twitter's popularity in Japan.

The record-breaking numbers Sunday reflect a sharp rise in Twitter usage. Its users send 200 million tweets per day, compared to 10 million two years ago, according to Twitter.