Murray mauls Olympics in Twitter stakes

Andy Murray didn’t just set a record yesterday by becoming the first British male in 77 years to win Wimbledon, he also smashed a number of UK Twitter records.

According to the social network’s UK office, the final attracted 120 000 tweets per minute. That outstripped the 116 000 tweets per minute that happened during the Spice Girls’ performance at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Olympics, a moment that saw the largest spike in tweets per minute of the games.

Murray’s first tweet after his victory also passed 77 000 retweets and faves less than an hour after it was sent out.

Can't believe what's just happened!!!!!!!

— Andy Murray (@andy_murray) July 7, 2013

Murray also outstripped his opponent Novak Djokovic when it came to mentions on Twitter, as this chart shows:

The world number two’s march to the final was a massive boon for this Twitter following too. Over the course of the championship his following grew 20% and he added 131 000 followers over the last day alone.

Although Twitter did massively well for a second screen medium, professional services company Deloitte says that TV still had a much bigger reach.

“While Twitter did really well,” says Deloitte director responsible for technology, media, and telecommunications research Paul Lee, “the big screen did far better, attaining a peak audience of 17.3-million. A good story raises the tide for all media, but television remains the super tanker. When it comes to a visual event, people turn to the largest screen available”.

“The really fortunate still want to cluster together,” he added, “with the scenes at Murray Mound reminiscent of the collective euphoria and emotional roller coasters of last year’s games. In this digital age, while we continue to collect digital devices and spend more time online, the human need for old-fashioned socialising remains as resilient as ever.”