As the end of the year quickly approaches, some take the time to reflect on the events of the past 12 months. The Independent is no different, and the online news provider recently released a list detailing the most popular tweets of 2017.
As we join in on the fun and take a look at the top 10, the results may be quite surprising, especially with the omission of a certain controversial Twitter warrior who gets everyone talking.
The microblogging site has a few metrics that can indicate popularity – retweets vs likes vs replies vs total interactions – and it has taken the metric of retweets to determine the most popular tweets of the year. We will focus on just a few of the top 10, with the full list from the Independent available here.
8. Peter Crouch’s family
Stoke City footballer Peter Crouch has always been known for his height, and now he is becoming equally big on Twitter. Crouch regularly treats his 369,000 followers to some comical genius in his tweets, and in June, he tweeted this:
Summer for me is about time with family . pic.twitter.com/dtft1CZoyl
— Peter Crouch (@petercrouch) June 19, 2017
Poking fun at his own height, the 6 foot 7 inch former England international accumulated over 150,000 retweets to earn eighth spot on the list.
6. Jeremy Clarkson is down with the kids
Opinionated petrolhead Jeremy Clarkson proved that he is up to date with the latest trends with his tweet on July 24, sharing a snap of himself dabbing.
Dab on it wagwan x 💯 pic.twitter.com/pGvtjSHL5p
— Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) July 24, 2017
2. The concert that shook the world
In May this year, a terror attack on the Manchester Arena took place during an Ariana Grande concert, killing 22 people. Grande tweeted the below as her response to the attack:
https://twitter.com/ArianaGrande/status/866849021519966208
This tweet accumulated over 1.1 million retweets, to become the second most retweeted tweet of the year. In order to help unite the country, and the world, Grande organised a benefit concert to help the families of those who didn’t come home.
1. The chicken nugget saga
The most retweeted tweet of the year belonged to a 16-year-old American from Reno, Nevada. What was this tweet about that had everyone hitting the retweet button? It was, quite simply, chicken nuggets.
Yo @Wendys how many retweets for a year of free chicken nuggets?
— Carter Wilkerson (@carterjwm) April 6, 2017
Carter Wilkerson simply tried his luck with fast food chain Wendy’s and asked how many retweets he needed to accumulate to win a year’s supply of chicken nuggets. The reply from the fast food outlet was 18 million, prompting Wilkerson to call upon the Twitterverse to help him reach the goal.
https://twitter.com/carterjwm/status/849813577770778624/photo/1
While Wilkerson never made it to 18 million retweets, he did manage to break the world record for the most retweeted tweet ever, passing the previous record of Ellen DeGeneres. His record was even ratified by Guinness World Records:
Congratulations to @carterjwm who just broke @TheEllenShow's record for most retweeted tweet on @Twitter #NuggsForCarter pic.twitter.com/gwKyq8zmfP
— Guinness World Records (@GWR) May 9, 2017
Many different topics and trends can send Twitter into a tizzy, and although some celebrities have millions of followers, that did not stop a regular Twitter user from bashing out the most retweeted tweet of the year, breaking records in the process.
What will 2018 bring for the microblogging site?
- Chrome to warn users regarding insecure web forms - August 20, 2020
- Google trials virtual business cards in India - August 14, 2020
- DuckDuckGo claims Google market share would drop if users given choice - August 11, 2020
