MANILA, Philippines–A total of 5.2 million tweets were sent during the 12-round title fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. in Las Vegas, according to statistics released by TwitterData.
Mayweather, who beat the Filipino by a unanimous decision, was mentioned in 3.6 million tweets. Pacquiao was mentioned in 1.6 million tweets, TwitterData said.
TwitterData, an official Twitter site which provides Twitter’s analyses, also said traffic peaked at 147,000 tweets per minute during the fight.
The report, however, did not indicate whether the tweets for Mayweather were cheers or jeers.
Mayweather was booed after he was declared the winner.
NBA finals
Compared to other world sporting events, the so-called “Fight of the Century” has been described by some media people as a mere “hiccup,” based on statistics from TwitterData.
Last year, the World Cup in Brazil was mentioned in 672 million tweets during the tournament, the data showed.
When Germany beat Argentina’s Lionel Messi and company for the World Cup, football fans sent 618,725 tweets per minute, according to TwitterData.
The National Basketball Association Finals last year was on top of every basketball fan’s mind.
According to Twitter, over 17 million tweets discussing the final of the best-of-seven series were posted.
When the San Antonio Spurs ended the three-year winning streak of the Miami Heat, the championship game was discussed by NBA fans over 136,654 tweets per minute.
Super Bowl
Another US sporting event, the Super Bowl, dominated the Twittersphere with 28.4 million tweets from American football fans globally.
#SB49 was the hashtag used when the New England Patriots beat the Seattle Seahawks in the 49th Super Bowl Cup.
Although not a sporting event, the birth of the daughter of Prince William and Princess Kate on May 1 also generated high activity on Twitter.
The royal baby was mentioned in 1 million tweets, perhaps a preview of her own future popularity on social media.–With a report from Paul Vincent Balois, Inquirer Social Media