The Super Bowl blows up Twitter, generates 28.4M tweets

The game-ending interception takes the crown as the most tweeted moment

Now that is what I call a Super Bowl! That final two minutes of this year's game, oh man, it was mind blowing! The catch! The interception! The fight!

It all happened so fast I even missed the interception because I was busy writing on Facebook how Jermaine Kearse was going to supplant David Tyree as the greatest Super Bowl catch of all time. It never even occurred to be that the Seahawks would put that ball in the air with 20 seconds left in the game. Why... just, why?

(Poor Jermaine Kearse. If the Seahawks had won, that catch would have been all anyone was talking about for years. He is the biggest loser in all of this.)

Twitter, too, was freaking out about the interception. As you probably guessed, it was the most tweeted moment of the entire game, with 395,000 tweets per minute, the company has revealed. 

Look at what happened on Twitter's interactive map when that moment occurred:

In second place was the end of the game, when the Patriots officially beat the Seahawks, with 379,000 tweets per minute. In third was the end of Katy Perry’s halftime performance, with 284,000 TPM.

In all, over 28.4 million global Tweets containing terms related to the game and halftime show were sent during the live telecast, starting from kickoff through 30 minutes after the clock expired. That makes it the most Tweeted Super Bowl ever, surpassing last year’s game, which saw a total of 24.9 million tweets sent out.

Considering how close this year's game was, and how exciting, especially compared to the Seahawk's complete dismantling of the Broncos in 2014, I thought the different between the two would be  a lot wider.

As you may have seen, earlier this week I previewed the "Twitter Super Bowl," with some of the players that I thought might show up on Twitter.

Turns out I did really well, because four of the five players I picked to make an impact were among the most tweeted during the game.

On the Patriots side the top players were:

1. Tom Brady
2. Rob Gronkowski (@RobGronkowski)
3. Julian Edelman (@Edelman11)

I predicted that Brady would be there (because, duh) and Gronkowski, another popular player who had gotten his name into the Deflate-Gate thing (btw, now that the game is over, are we going to finally stop talking about that?) The only player I didn't mention was Edelman, who only has 302,000 Twitter followers, but made a big impact by scoring the game-winning touchdown. 

On the Seahawks side, the top players were;

1. Marshawn Lynch (@MoneyLynch)
2. Russell Wilson (@DangeRussWilson)
3. Chris Matthews (@TheRealCMaTT13)

Lynch and Wilson were obvious choices; Lynch made a big spectacle with his “I’m here so I won’t get fined” press conference and Wilson was the starting quarterback of the reining champion team. My pick for the third spot was Richard Sherman, but his role in the game seemed to be muted by injury.

Instead it went to Chris Matthews, the 6-foot-5 wide receiver who came out of nowhere (he only has 11.5 million Twitter followers) to make his first ever NFL catch during the game, winding up with four grabs for 109 yards and a touchdown.

You really never can tell who is going to be a hero, and who is going to be humiliated. And that’s what makes it so great to watch!

(Image source: tallahasseescene.com)