World Cup 2014 Attracts One Billion Facebook Interactions

The 2014 World Cup in Brazil is already the most talked-about event in Facebook's decade-long history - and we're only half way through the tournament.

Facebook data - obtained by Reuters - shows that in the first half of the tournament alone, over one billion posts, likes and comments have been recorded on the world's largest social network.

Measured between the opening ceremony on 12 June up to the second day of last-16 games on 29 June, the data shows that over 220 million people mentioned the World Cup over 1 billion times.

With the tournament not set to finish until the World Cup final on 13 July, the global celebration of football is set to break new records as the biggest social media event to date.

"People are having conversations on Facebook about what they watch in a really unprecedented scale," Nick Grudin, the company's director of partnerships, told Reuters. "In addition to sharing and connecting with friends, people are engaging in real time with the media and the public voices they care about most."

Tweets per minute record

The World Cup is not only breaking records on Facebook, but also on Twitter with the last 16 clash between hosts Brazil and fellow South Americans Chile breaking the record for most tweets per minute (TPM) for a live event.

According to data from Twitter, Saturday's match saw 389,000 TPM recorded at the moment that Gonzalo Jara missed the last penalty, eclipsing Superbowl 48 where the peak generated 382,000 TPM.

The match also became the most-discussed game of the tournament so far on the micro-blogging site, generating 16.4 million tweets, eclipsing the opening game which also involved Brazil and generated 12.2 million tweets.

Capitalise

Facebook and Twitter are both trying to capitalise on TV-related traffic around big events like the World Cup to become the main second-screen platform for conversations about what is happening on television.

This is a trend started several years ago by Twitter with Facebook looking to play catch up on - as it could turn into a significant source of ad revenue for the company.

Football's global appeal is one of the reasons that it has been so widely discussed, mentioned and liked on Facebook, with the first week of the World Cup alone seeing 459 million interactions on the social network - more than this year's Super Bowl, the Sochi Winter Olympic Games and the Academy Awards combined.

"This Cup has been a catalysing cultural moment for people around the world," Grudin said, "and we see it reflected on Facebook."