The 15 Most-Tweets-Per-Second Moments

Twitter records continue to fall left and right as more and more people — 100 million active users at last count — continue to flock onto the microblogging service every month. Half of those users log in every day to get their 140-characters-or-less dose of tweets.

The records they tend to break most frequently are the top tweets-per-second moments, many of which involve sports, entertainment or Japan.

The number one simultaneously tweeted event, by far, is the televised showing of 25-year-old anime movie Castle in the Sky (watch the trailer below) when it broadcast in Japan on Dec. 9, 2011. During one point in the TV broadcast, viewers joined forces, sending tweets at the same time to symbolically help the movie's characters cast a spell. They sent 25,088 tweets in one second.

Castle in the Sky dethroned Beyonce's MTV Video Music Awards pregnancy revelation. On Aug. 28, 2011, Beyonce sang, “I want you to feel the love that’s growing inside me,” confirming she and husband, Jay-Z, would be having a baby. At the end of the song, she dropped her mic, unbuttoned her top and rubbed her baby bump. Blue Ivy was born Jan. 7 and immediately made a vocal cameo in Jay-Z's song “Glory.”

The MTV moment is now number five on the tweets-per-second list, having fallen behind three sports-related incidents. Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow's 80-yard touchdown pass in overtime on Jan. 8, 2012, pushed Beyonce down the list first.

Then, on Feb. 5, 2012, two Super Bowl moments slipped into the number two and three slots: Twitter reaction reached 12,233 tweets per second at the end of the Giants vs. Patriots game and 10,245 TPS during Madonna’s halftime performance. Last year's most-tweeted moment at the Super Bowl hit 4,064 TPS.

The recent additions bumped off newsworthy events from 2011, including an earthquake on the U.S.'s East Coast in August, the raid on Osama bin Laden in May, the MLB Home Run Derby in July, the Super Bowl in February and the UK Royal wedding in April.

Which moments are you surprised to see in our top 15 ranking? Sound off in the comments.