World Cup 2010 Most Popular Web Event Ever

NEW YORK — When a World Cup goal is scored, Twitter celebrates.

The social networking site is seeing huge traffic when a big goal is scored in the soccer tournament. Though Twitter normally sees about 750 tweets per second on an average day, there were 2,940 tweets per second, then a record, after Japan scored against Cameroon on Monday.

Nearly as much traffic was reported after Brazil's first goal against North Korea on Monday, as well as after Mexico's tying goal against South Africa on June 11.

Twitter has yet to announce its numbers for Friday's U.S.-Slovenia 2-2 draw, which was likely to have caused huge amounts of activity.

Basketball, though, is still trumping soccer. Thursday night's NBA Championship game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics generated as many as 3,085 tweets per second.

Enormous traffic from the World Cup has contributed to frequent outage problems for Twitter. The site is postponing a planned network overhaul until the World Cup tsunami is over.

The World Cup has infiltrated the web far beyond Twitter. From live video streams of the World Cup games to live blog updates on the matches, the World Cup is inspiring "web mayhem," writes the Globe and Mail, so much so that it has been credited as the "most popular web event ever." Says the Globe and Mail,

The World Cup has now surpassed Barack Obama's election as the biggest event in the history of the Web. On day 1 of the football championship, the number of Web visitors per minute soared. Even now, worldwide Web traffic is well above normal.

Traffic to FIFA's website has surged, the site now receiving as many page views as Facebook. Ghana Web writes that nearly ten million visitors racked up 265 million page views on FIFA's World Cup website the day Brazil beat North Korea.

Comments

[GOPBossLimbaugh]

11:20 AM on 06/21/2010

I forgot to mention the most fundamental thing without which you cannot even start implementing the tactics : TECHNIQUE!

Yes, Ball Control (have you ever tried running a hundred meters race while controlling the ball with your feet???)

Do you know how hard it is to stop a ball with your foot and control it while on the run???
My goodness! This is NOT American Rugby (NFL) where you catch the ball with your HAND and run with it. No! Here, you are running a 200m race, and a ball is passed to you, travelling at 80mph. You have an Initial Velocity in your direction and the ball has its own velocity and direction. You have to KILL the ball, then carry it along with you in your direction. Did you study momentum change in Physics! Then you will know what I am talking about!
But to make it easy to understand, JUST TRY IT OUT!!! As a kid you may have kicked the ball aimlessly around, but that does NOT mean you were playing Soccer.

Have you tried killing the ball with your chest???

Have you tried taking a coordinated high jump to meet the ball(traveling at high speed) in the air and then to head it accurately into the net, or defensively away from your net, or in the direction of your partner??

Do you know how difficult it is to control the ball while your opponent is jostling with you for its ownership?
I'll stop here!!!

[GOPBossLimbaugh]

10:22 AM on 06/21/2010

To DoesNotComputer again:

If you think it is just by chance (kicking the ball randomly around) that Portugal could score 6 goals while North Korea could NOT score a single goal, then I have to start doubting how bright you are!

If you think it is by chance that Brazil is 5 times World Champions out of all the Countries competing every 4 years then I have to doubt how bright you are!

[GOPBossLimbaugh]

10:14 AM on 06/21/2010

To DoesNotComputer:

Why are you wasting your time fighting against ANY good thing that is said about soccer on this thread?
If soccer is NOT that fantastic why are YOU here?

There's NOTHING YOU can do against the popularity of the Beautiful Game, NOTHING!!!

He is absolutely right! Soccer is the MOST popular game everywhere else in the World and it is just a matter of time before it catches up in America, period!

As for "simplistic", nobody will blame you for being ignorant of soccer's complicated tactics and strategies, given that you obviously are NOT used to the game.
What makes you look bad, however, is the ARROGANCE with which you express that total IGNORANCE!!!
Soccer is HIGH SPEED LAWN CHESS!!!

ONE SEES WHAT ONE IS ABLE TO SEE!
You are ONLY able to see men running around kicking a ball. Others see a WHOLE LOT MORE! Learn to be humble and your ability to see will gradually start to improve!

Soccer at this level is packed full with offensive and defensive tactics, strategies, tricks, physical fights, athleticism, psychology, Referee influencing (psychology again), etc. And all that at lightening pace!

[DoesNotComputer]

08:54 AM on 06/21/2010

I could never comprehend everyone's fascination with soccer. It's fun to play when you're eight and just feel like running around aimlessly while kicking a ball, but to watch it religiously as an adult, I just don't quite get it. No evident strategy, no choreography whatsoever, minimal teamwork beyond passing the ball. All that desultory running around and virtually nothing gets accomplished.

[ATomCat3]

09:53 AM on 06/21/2010

>> "No evident strategy, no choreography whatsoever, minimal teamwork beyond passing the ball."

funny that, you're describing exactly what i see in "american football".

[DoesNotComputer]

01:32 PM on 06/21/2010

I don't like football, either.

[GOPBossLimbaugh]

10:15 AM on 06/21/2010

Nobody will blame you for being ignorant of soccer's complicated tactics and strategies, given that you obviously are NOT used to the game.
What makes you look bad, however, is the ARROGANCE with which you express that total IGNORANCE!!!
Soccer is HIGH SPEED LAWN CHESS!!!

ONE SEES WHAT ONE IS ABLE TO SEE!
You are ONLY able to see men running around kicking a ball. Others see a WHOLE LOT MORE! Learn to be humble and your ability to see will gradually start to improve!

Soccer at this level is packed full with offensive and defensive tactics, strategies, tricks, physical fights, athleticism, psychology, Referee influencing (psychology again), etc. And all that at lightening pace!

[gutenmorgen]

08:41 AM on 06/21/2010

I have always been puzzled by the strong emotional attachment of many fans to players and teams of any sport. I suspect that it is an addiction.

[GOPBossLimbaugh]

01:47 PM on 06/21/2010

Well, if you think LOVE is an addiction!

[engz]

03:21 AM on 06/21/2010

You gotta wait till the final match. NBA will no longer trump World Cup.

[Dan Krier]

12:41 AM on 06/21/2010

Why would the World Cup be so popular? It's not like I started a blog about it too. Oh wait...

http://omgfifaworldcup.tumblr.com/

CHECK OUT THE LINKS. Have some extra fun w the World Cup. I do.

http://omgfifaworldcup.tumblr.com/

Dan Krier

[taxolotl]

10:38 PM on 06/20/2010

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!!

[BlazeKING]

09:49 PM on 06/20/2010

Well... It is the greatest game in the world, after all.

[casaroonc]

08:34 AM on 06/21/2010

Duh!

[DoesNotComputer]

08:56 AM on 06/21/2010

If by "greatest game in the world" you mean Chess / Texas Holdem / Warcraft III, then yes.

[GOPBossLimbaugh]

02:08 PM on 06/21/2010

My favorite games in the World are Chess and Soccer!
If I am enjoying a game, then I am most likely playing chess or analyzing a soccer match!
No wonder, given that Soccer is HIGH SPEED LAWN CHESS!

[Wahchintonka]

09:29 PM on 06/20/2010

"The social networking site is seeing huge traffic when a big goal is scored in the soccer tournament."
Hard as the US tries, it is never going to convince the world that the World Cup is a soccer tournament, not a football tournament.

[LatteLiberals]

10:14 PM on 06/20/2010

The US isn't trying to convince the world to change the name of the game. Jesus.

You can blame the English for the world "soccer" they invented it and pasted it on to their former colonies.

[dim]

12:00 AM on 06/21/2010

Soccer is just short for association football. What's the problem?

[David Christensen]

08:46 PM on 06/20/2010

Well I guess Glenn Beck is wrong...AGAIN! Maybe the U.S. is kind of getting interested in soccer/football.

[DoesNotComputer]

08:57 AM on 06/21/2010

With all due respect, meh.

[GOPBossLimbaugh]

02:16 PM on 06/21/2010

Poor YOU!!!

[acslaterson]

08:26 PM on 06/20/2010

I want to know the data used from streaming through ESPN3 and phones. I probably have watched 5 or 6 games on my iPhone through MobiTV because I have had to work.

[Danilo-11]

07:29 PM on 06/20/2010

What a joke, comparing a game 7 NBA final game to a 1st round World Cup game.
I bet the World Cup final will have at least 5 times as many tweets as the game 7 NBA final

[jd43]

08:48 PM on 06/20/2010

You are correct. Seriously, how many people outside of the USA gives a hoot about the NBA?

[MonkeeCharms19]

09:17 PM on 06/20/2010

I'm sorry...gives a hoot about what?

[shaggyct]

05:51 PM on 06/20/2010

Doesn't surprise me. Football is a common language pretty much wherever I've been in the world. With the exception of the U.S., you can go into a bar or cafe in almost any other country in Europe, Latin America or Asia and find people either talking about it or watching it. It's one of the few things that almost every culture has in common, and that's another reason for calling it the beautiful game.

[AntonioSaucedo]

07:07 PM on 06/20/2010

It depends on whom you ask. There are millions of Americans who know, enjoy, follow, and play the game. And the vast majority are non-Hispanic BTW.

[piul05]

09:28 PM on 06/20/2010

It's true.

The last time I went to Tunisia, my boyfriend and I went to visit the market (souk) and as they know in advance what group of tourists will be around, they always ask you, "Are you Portuguese/French/Italian/German?", in order to make conversation. When I said I was Brazilian, their words were "Roberto Carlos, Ronaldinho, Kaká". They brought out the mint tea, and talked happily for some ten minutes in broken English about the Brazilian squad, their squad, etc., whilst I tried on earrings.

It's nice to have something akin to a universal language to break the ice.

[Kam Fet]

05:43 PM on 06/20/2010

What do you expect? the world is watching their Football world cup.