The London 2012 Olympics has spurred more than 150 million tweets, according to Twitter.
The social media platform claimed that Usain Bolt’s defence of his 200 metres title proved the most talked about athletic event, sparking around 80,000 tweets a minute.
Bolt’s 100 metres victory also attracted an average of 74,000 tweets per minute, causing the second highest social media sporting spike of the event.
However, the inclusion of the Spice Girls in the closing ceremony sparked the most Twitter traffic of the 17 day Olympiad. At its peak, around 116,000 tweets a minute were discussing the 5-piece’s reunion.
Tom Daley was the most discussed British athlete of the Games, in part due to the abusive tweets he received following his failure to win a synchronised diving medal.
Unsurprisingly, Andy Murray’s maiden major tennis victory over Roger Federer also proved hugely popular on Twitter, with over 57,000 users mentioning him during the match.
In total, ten athletes attracted more than a million tweets each, with Michael Phelps coming second behind Bolt but in front of fierce swimming rival Ryan Lochte. President Obama’s tweet to the swimmer to congratulate him on becoming the most successful ever Olympian was also hugely popular.
Football was the most talked about sport of the Games, attracting over 5 million Twitter mentions from users.
"The thrill of Olympic sport just wouldn’t be the same without the over-the-top spectacle of the opening and closing ceremonies," Twitter’s manager of editorial programming, Andrew Fitzgerald, wrote on the company blog.
"Both events drove an incredible volume of Twitter conversation, and experienced their own giant spikes in Tweets per minute."
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