The new trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens may not have debuted until 7:08 pm PST, but as far as the Internet was concerned Oct. 19 was Star Wars Day the redux. We waited impatiently all day, posting things like #XWing and #TIEfighter on Twitter just to see the new custom emojis pop up. And then we finally got it and it was breathtaking.
In the hours surrounding the trailer's release, from 4:48 p.m. until 7:48 p.m. PDT—about half an hour after it played during halftime of Monday Night Football—#TheForceAwakens was mentioned 390,000 times on Twitter. At the minute the trailer started airing the tweets-per-minute were streaming in at 3,800 and then quickly crescendoed to 17,000 just three minutes later. (That’s 283 freak-outs per second.) Watching the frequency line shoot up at a nearly 90-degree angle is like being able to hear the screams of fandom get louder and louder before peaking after the trailer ended, at which time we could all fully focus on posting our reactions to social media while scream crying.
For comparison, actual Star Wars Day generated 1,800 tweets per minute at its highest point. And while there was no big release on May 4, the whole day generated 1.2 million tweets overall. In other words, the new trailer managed to gin up 30 percent of the buzz of an entire day’s worth Star Wars activity in one-sixth of the time. Do you think we were maybe a little excited?
About an hour before the trailer went live, director JJ Abrams tweeted a note to fans of all creeds and colors and species saying he hoped we would like it. Job well done, you bad little robot.
X content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
