Super Bowl-related social activity was up Sunday on both Facebook & Twitter

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Both Facebook and Twitter are reporting increased social activity during Sunday’s Super Bowl after a big drop last year. As you likely know by now, the New England Patriots won the game after the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history, and in the first overtime game the Super Bowl has ever seen. Adding to the exciting finish, the game was marked by a series of ads tied to current events that also drew a lot of social buzz.

Facebook says 64 million users were part of the Super Bowl conversation on Sunday, up from 60 million last year — about a 7 percent gain. The company says there were 240 million Super Bowl-related interactions this year, which is up from 200 million last year. That’s a 20 percent increase.

The story is somewhat similar on Twitter, where the company says there were 27.6 million global tweets about the Super Bowl yesterday. That’s up 2.2 percent over last year’s game. Twitter also likes to count tweet impressions — i.e., how many times tweets are seen both on and off Twitter. Yesterday’s game reached 5.6 billion impressions, which is a 30 percent gain over last year’s 4.3 billion impressions.

For both social networks, this year’s numbers are a bounce-back after fairly significant declines between the 2015 and 2016 Super Bowls. The exception to that is tweet impressions, which have more than doubled since 2015.

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Facebook also shared a few other data points worth noting:

  • More than 90 percent of this year’s interactions happened on mobile.
  • There were about 262 million views of Super Bowl-related videos this year.
  • On Instagram, 44 million users were involved in Super Bowl-related activity that totaled 150 million interactions.

Facebook defines an “interaction” as a post, comment or reaction. Its data covers the period from Midnight PT yesterday (February 5) through 8:24 p.m. PT — a little more than 20 hours. Twitter says its data covers an eight-hour period from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET.

(Charts made via Beam.)


About The Author

Matt McGee is the Editor-In-Chief of Marketing Land and Search Engine Land. His news career includes time spent in TV, radio, and print journalism. After leaving traditional media in the mid-1990s, he began developing and marketing websites and continued to provide consulting services for more than 15 years. His SEO and social media clients ranged from mom-and-pop small businesses to one of the Top 5 online retailers. Matt is a longtime speaker at marketing events around the U.S., including keynote and panelist roles. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee. You can read Matt’s disclosures on his personal blog. You can reach Matt via email using our Contact page.


 

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