It says something about human nature that the most tweeted about event in sport this year was Brazil’s 7-1 trouncing against Germany at the World Cup. The hosts fell from their perch the way Homer Simpson falls off a cliff: the pain went on and on and on and on and on and on and on. And the people of the world united to tweet in derision, delight, dismay and disbelief.
The World Cup dominated the attention of sports fans across the globe in 2014, with six of the 10 most mentioned moments coming from those 33 days in the summer. Mario Balotelli offering his romantic services to the Queen, Mario Götze scoring the final goal of the competition and Wayne Rooney’s strike against Uruguay were all popular topics, but the World Cup was a victory for the German concept of schadenfreude.
Biggest moments of 2014 on Twitter
Eight of the UK’s 10 most tweeted about moments of 2014 (so far) were related to sport. Brazil’s defeat to Germany tops the list, followed by Rooney’s equaliser against Uruguay. The World Cup dominates the list – six of the 10 biggest events on Twitter related to the World Cup, with two more from the Champions League.