For as large as Twitter has grown in four-plus years, the social media giant nevertheless experienced all-time volume records this week, thanks to two major sporting events.
First, the World Cup kicked off on June 11, and since then the world has experienced not only Vuvuzelamania but also near-daily Twitter outages. And with a statement today on its official blog, Twitter confirmed that this past week bore witness to the three highest Tweets-per-second rates the company has ever recorded. (It's also a reason why the company is delaying a much-needed back-end upgrade.)
First, the June 11 opening match of the World Cup between Group A leader Mexico and host nation South Africa set an all-time TPS rate of 2,704, when Mexico scored the game-tying goal. (For context, Twitter servers process approximately 750 tweets every second on a typical weekday.) Just three days later, Japan's first goal against Cameroon broke the record with a staggering 2,940 TPS. Although, Brazil nearly toppled that mark in short order. Three hours after Keisuke Honda became a national hero in Japan, Brazil's first goal against North Korea pulled down a 2,928 TPS, just barely missing the mark.
And yet, the Japan/Cameroon record also couldn't hold. Last night's NBA Finals Game 7 between Boston and Los Angeles scored the most TV viewers since Michael Jordan broke the heart of every Utah Jazz fan 12 years ago. It also saw Twitter crack the long-mythical 3,000 TPS mark, setting an all-time record of 3,085 as the Lakers celebrated the 18th title in franchise history.
The only question now is, will the July 11 World Cup final in Johannesburg possibly crack 5,000 tweets per second? Based on prior events, if Mexico or Brazil is in the final, that goal certainly seems reachable.
Photo: Quinn Rooney - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images
