Olympics amassed 187 million tweets, 1.5 billion Facebook interactions – USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook won gold in the Rio Summer Olympics’ social media conversation, garnering 1.5 billion post interactions by 227 million people.
Twitter also amassed a winning number of interactions, with users sending out 187 million tweets about the games yielding 75 billion impressions (or views on and off Twitter).
The numbers come from data released by both social media platforms mid-day Monday, the day after the end of the Rio 2016 games.
Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt and Neymar Jr. joined the podium for being the most-talked-about and mentioned athletes on Facebook and Twitter, in that order.
Facebook users primarily discussed swimming, gymnastics and track and field, while soccer replaced gymnastics in the top three most-discussed sporting events on Twitter.
Zac Efron kissing 19-year-old Simone Biles, who won a record of four gold medals in women’s gymnastics in a single games, was the most retweeted athlete tweet during the games, amassing almost 163,000 retweets and nearly 459,000 likes as of now.
His meeting with Biles was also the fourth-top post on Facebook, and the platform’s most “loved” post.
The top Facebook post was of beloved Portuguese soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo congratulating Jamaican sprinter Bolt for his gold medal victories in the 100-meter, 200-meter and 4×100-meter relay. Bolt’s gold medal win in the 100 was also the second-most tweeted about moment during the Olympics competition.
Celebratory post by Neymar Jr., Brazilian soccer player whose penalty kick helped win Brazil its first national medal in soccer, was Facebook’s second-most shared post and the most-tweeted about moment during the Olympics.
Other top posts include: Japanese gymnast celebrating his team’s gold on Twitter, Argentine tennis player winning silver in the men’s singles match on Twitter and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulating Indian badminton player PV Sindhu winning India’s first medal in a women’s competition on Facebook.
Phelps’ Facebook Live video confirming his retirement was the most-viewed live broadcast by an Olympic athlete during the games, currently at 3.9 million views.
Brazilians, Americans and Brits engaged with the Olympics most on Facebook, based on the percentage of users who took part in the conversation.