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Super Bowl 49, pitting the Seattle Seahawks against the New England Patriots, was a nail-biter on the field and a wildly popular event on the Web, new data from social networks Facebook and Twitter shows.
More than 65 million people took to Facebook to discuss the Super Bowl, yielding 265 million posts, comments, and likes, the world’s largest social network said on Monday. That engagement helped Super Bowl 49 become the most talked-about Super Bowl in Facebook’s history. Twitter issued a similar report, saying that Super Bowl 49 was “the most tweeted” Super Bowl of all time, with more than 28.4 million tweets hitting the service during the game and halftime show.
The Super Bowl is historically a major event for social networks as people take to their accounts and share opinions on the game and halftime show. The insight shared by Twitter and Facebook helps gauge the game’s reach and what people thought it.
But for Facebook and Twitter, analyzing and sharing data showing the strong connection between social networks and entertainment should helps attract advertisers. Bridging the gap by engaging people on social networks while they’re watching a television show is a key component in both companies’ revenue stream.
Super Bowl 49 proved to be a new high watermark for user engagement on both Facebook and Twitter. The 65 million unique Facebook users discussing the game was 15 million more than last year’s 50 million users doing so. This year’s Super Bowl also attracted more than 3.5 million more tweets than last year’s.
According to Twitter, the biggest moments from the Super Bowl came when Malcolm Butler intercepted a pass at the end of the game, generating 395,000 tweets per minute. Mention of the New England actually winning the game prompted 379,000 tweets per minute. The end of artist Katy Perry’s halftime performance generated 284,000 tweets per minute.
Facebook measured its engagement by the number of people who hit its network to talk about a specific event. Facebook saw 1.36 million people per minute engaging in social activity after the Patriots won the game. Perry’s finale and a third-quarter pass giving the Seahawks a 10-point lead generated activity by 1 million and 701,000 people per minute, respectively. The Butler interception nabbed fourth place with 676,000 people per minute heading to the social network to share thoughts.
