You may think that Beliebers would be at the top of the list here, but Japan actually holds the top four honors for the most tweets in one second. Lo and behold, here are the top four tweets:
- “Balse” 8/2/2013, 143,199 tweets per second (TPS)
- “Akeome” 1/1/2013, 33,388 TPS
- “Balse” 12/9/2011, 25,088 TPS
- “Akeome” 1/1/2013, 18,438 TPS
Interestingly enough, there are only two unique words, as Japan just beat their own records. Balse is the spell of destruction from the Studio Ghibli classic Castle in the Sky (my personal favorite), and it’s on the list as it has gained a cult following online. The movie debuted in 1986 so it’s no spring chicken, but its airings on television has many viewers tuning in each year. Users on 2 Channel, Japan’s and perhaps the world’s largest online forum, made plans to tweet Balse at the exact moment that the phrase was recited in the movie. Nothing brings Japan together quite like Ghibli!
Also on the list is akeome, which is slang abbreviation for Happy New Year. It will be interesting to see if akeome will beat last year’s record, but I doubt it’s going to unseat the champion – there’s nothing quite like the efforts of organized otaku.