18-07-2014

Record tweets for Brazil 2014: over 101 million in 6 languages

Record tweets for Brazil 2014: over 101 million in 6 languages.
Hitting record peaks on the day of the final: around 9 million conversations.
Almawave presents the overall Social Analysis results for Brazil 2014: the World Cup analysed via Twitter.

Rome, 18 July 2014 – Argentina featured as the absolute leader in the World Cup on Twitter, with Messi the undisputed star, for better or for worse. And what about Germany?

Germany does not even make the podium, coming in at fourth place. And in the line-up of the most talked about soccer players on the social network, Muller is the first to appear from the German team, popping up in ninth place.

These are some of the interesting facts to emerge from the picture put together by Almawave, the technology innovation company within the AlmavivA Group, regarding the overall analysis of World Cup Brazil through Twitter, entitled Social Analysis for Brazil 2014.

What was really significant was the number of tweets analysed: over 101 million, which were collected and analysed between the 12 June and 13 July in 6 languages: a record number never seen before for any other event. Most conversations were held in English (59.1%) and Spanish (32%), followed quite a way down by Portuguese (3.3%), French (3.1%), German (1.5%) and Italian (1%).

The analysis found more than 2,000 concepts being discussed, which were grouped into 6 categories: in addition to the sporting event itself (88% of tweets), Twitter also hosted discussions on media & personalities (5%), the organisation (4%), economy (1%), tourism (1%) and social issues (1%). On 13 July, the day of the final, the record peak conversations was recorded with 8,981,217 tweets: a level of comparable interaction was only reached on the day of the opening match with 8,579,788 tweets.

But Twitter also reflected the outcomes on the sporting field, allowing Argentina and Messi to take their revenge, and award them the cup that they were unable to lift at the Maracanã stadium: Argentina was the most talked about team (16.8%), followed by Brazil, The Netherlands and the new champions Germany, in just fourth place. Among the players, the maximum number of conversations (10.7%) came in for Lionel Messi, followed in second place by Neymar and Arjen Robben in third place. As expected, nothing for Italy: neither its national team, nor the players, nor the coach made it into their respective top 10 categories: there is some consolation for Andrea Pirlo who was rated as the Italian player with the most tweets, with Mario Balotelli and Giorgio Chiellini following his lead.

Finally, regarding sentiment around the event itself: the tone was neutral in 58% of cases, but a significant percentage (29%) referred to negative opinions, especially in respect of issues off the playing field, such as the considerable gains by FIFA on television rights, the lack of security in terms of public order and the delays and waste in terms of infrastructure.

According to the Twitter population, the balance sheet for Brazil 2014 was negative: more inflation than growth, more unemployment than jobs created, and more environmental damage than redevelopment.