Such was the extent of BTS’s dominance that the South Korean pop group topped the list for both the most-liked tweet and the most tweeted account. The single most liked tweet of 2018 was a BTS tweet of the also popular #InMyFeelingsChallenge, which copies the dance from a song by rapper Drake. The tweet of the video generated some 1.7 million likes .Beyond this, a review of Twitter provides a timely reminder of the subjects that have preoccupied the attention of social media users during 2018.
Power of Twitter – 6 Twitter facts
Total Number of Monthly Active Twitter Users: 326 million.
Total Number of Tweets sent per Day: 500 million.
Percentage of Twitter users on Mobile: 80 percent.
Number of Twitter Daily Active Users: 100 million.
46 percent of Twitter users are on the platform daily.
74 percent of Twitter users say they use the network to get their news.
To arrive at the most popular tweets a lot of number crunching was required. 2018 saw 125 million hashtags tweeted every day as well as 500 million GIFs posted – which adds up to a lot of data.
Following BTS, the next most popular tweet was one from former U.S. President Barack Obama, who composed a tweet following the Parkland, Florida shooting. This tweet received 1.6 million likes. Following this, the most popular tweets came from or were associated with LeBron James, Drake, Kanye West and Ariana Grande.
The most tweets in any single day related to the Winter Olympics, for the closing ceremony on February 25th. However, the single most popular sporting event was the football (soccer) world cup.
For those who prefer virtual realism to the play fields, Fortnite generated the most buzz among video games. Another popular subject was movies, with Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War and Incredibles 2 being the most tweeted about films during the year.
In the social sphere, the social movements and activities receiving the most tweets were the anti-violence campaign March For Our Lives, NFL player protests, Black Lives Matter, and tweets associated with the #MeToo movement (against sexual assault and harassment).
Digital Journal has undertaken a similar review of Google search terms. See the article “From ‘world cup’ to ‘Meghan Markle’ — Google top trends for 2018.”
