How did you express your emotion when your favorite team scored a goal in this World Cup? Most predictably, you yelled first in front of your TV screen and the next thing you did was putting up a status or tweet without second a thought. Even though, the tournament unfolded in Russia this year, social media giant Twitter was probably the second home ground for the football fanatics all across the globe. Twitter has been action-packed for the entire span of the month. We’ve seen tons of emotions, analysis, frenzied celebrations across Twitter. Soon after the World Cup final, Twitter shared insights into the World Cup conversation, compiled by Twitter employees Jay Bavishi and Elaine Filadelfo. With 64 nail biting matches and 115 billion twitter impressions, let’s take a look at how Twitter spiced up the event for the fans, critics, teams, nations and brands all around the world.
While this edition of the World Cup surpassed all of its previous editions in terms of excitement, suspense and jittery. Every match kept our nerves on edge, as we questioned every prediction we made. The World cup final match between France and Croatia was the most tweeted match followed by Brazil vs. Belgium and Brazil vs. Mexico. When it comes to biggest peaks of Twitter conversation moments, Mbappe’s goal against Croatia, which was France’s fourth and decisive goal in the final, topped the rank, measured in Tweets per minute. Coutinho’s stunner against Costa Rica in extra time was second in the list while South Korea’s 2-0 victory over defending champion Germany was third in the ranking. Other two noteworthy mentions are France’s victory over Croatia to lift the trophy after the final whistle and Belgium’s knocking Brazil out of the World Cup.
When it comes to most crazy footballing nations, Brazil took the crown by beating Japan. England was ranked third on the list for their famous ‘It’s coming home’ chant. Surprisingly, the position of most mentioned team of the world cup on Twitter was snatched by Brazil followed by champion France. Next three position was secured by Argentina, England and Portugal respectively.
Brazil’s Neymar Jr. was the most mentioned player on Twitter, probably not in a positive manner, while young sensation and crowned, ‘Young player of the tournament’, Kylian Mbappe was second on the list. Other two position belonged to the legends of the game, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Surprising everyone, American style lager brand Budweiser was crowned as the most mentioned brand in the world cup for their ‘Light up the FIFA World Cup’ campaign. Their success was heavily backed by sponsorship, advertisement and social media integration. Giants of sportswear industry, Adidas was ranked second on the list which also sponsored most national team’s jersey in this World Cup. Renowned beverage brand Coca-Cola was third on the list without surprise. While Adidas won the ‘battle of jerseys’, Nike won the ‘battle of football cleats’. Nike was the top brand that manufactured boots for the football players in the World Cup and was ranked 4th on the list. Only tech company on the list was Apple, which was ranked 5th on the list as most mentioned brand on Twitter during World Cup 2018.
Written by Farhan Fuad Orzin
