The mid-2000’s changed our online lives forever. With dozens of social media websites popping up, a few of them have made it big and stayed at the top of their game. For over a decade, Twitter has been among the top three, both in user numbers, as well as in user and advertiser satisfaction rates.

Bringing us the revolutionary concept of microblogging, Twitter proved that you don’t need to write thousands of words for them to resonate with people around the world. You can, in fact, do it with just 280 characters.

You’ll find 60 useful Twitter statistics listed here to help you better understand the rise of this company. Here’s just a sneak peek:

Twitter Statistics To Tweet About!

  • Twitter has 229 million monetizable daily active users.
  • 762 million tweets are sent per day, or roughly 8,817 every second
  • A single day’s worth of Tweets would fill a 10 million page book
  • It took 3 years, 2 months, and 1 day to go from the first tweet to the billionth
  • 79% of Twitter accounts are held outside of the US
  • The top countries by users are the US, Japan, and the UK
  • 80% of active users access Twitter via mobile
  • The average number of followers on Twitter is 707

And now, let’s explore the numbers in more detail.

Twitter Stats and Facts

A dull message from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey marked the birth of the microblogging platform back in 2006. It now has more than 330 million active users monthly.

1. Jack Dorsey sent the first ever tweet on March 21, 2006.

(Source: Wired)

Jack Dorsey, one of the co-founders and the CEO of Twitter, sent out the first-ever tweet more than dozen years ago. This particular tweet was sort of disappointing, saying simply “inviting coworkers”—nowhere near as theatrical or profound as one might expect it to be.

2. The hashtag (#), first proposed by the user Chris Messina, debuted in August 2007.

(Source: Twitter)

Chris Messina, one of Twitter’s early users, suggested to Twitter’s audience that they use the # for groups, as they did on other platforms at the time, such as IRC. Obviously, this was one of the major milestones in Twitter’s history, as the hashtag became a leading feature we associate with this platform.

3. As of 2022, Twitter has over 229 million monetizable daily active users.

(Source: DataReportal)

How many people use Twitter per day?

Twitter stopped counting its monetizable monthly active users back in 2019 in favor of daily metrics.

The latest data we have comes from a report the company published in 2022. It shows that its daily active users averaged around 229 million.

4. Twitter has increased its year-over-year DAU by 11%.

(Source: CNBC)

The number of daily active users has been on a steady rise for Twitter, same as with the monthly numbers. Ever since its founding, the company has managed to either beat or maintain an 11% increase in DAU, year-over-year.

5. 762 million tweets are sent per day, or roughly 8,817 every second

(Source: Internet Live Stats)

Thanks in part to the stat listed above, another interesting question to answer is how many tweets per day are sent out? This constantly evolving platform can’t provide us with the exact number because it’s on a never-ending incline. However, as of January, 2020, the number is about 762 million.

6. 1 in 13 tweets contains a curse word.

(Source: MailOnline)

Twitter users happen to be fairly fond of cursing, as a month-long analysis of tweets showed. During this time, 1 in 13 tweets contained a curse word, and additional Twitter statistics show this swearing reaching its peak between midnight and 1:30 a.m. Users also seem to have favorite curse words, as the top seven used words accounted for 90% of all curses.

7. The number of Tweets sent daily is 500+ million.

(Source: Internet Live Stats)

So, how many Tweets are sent per day? More than 500 million, which equates to roughly 6000 Tweets each second!

8. A single day’s worth of Tweets would fill a 10 million page book.

(Source: Twitter)

In case you’re having trouble comprehending what 200 million tweets sent every day in 2011 looked like, you can imagine it as a book with 10 million pages. That immense book, which would be equivalent to 8,163 copies of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, would be constantly growing in order to keep up with Twitter’s traffic.

9. Twitter’s technology can handle 18 quintillion users.

(Source: Venture Beats)

Users have been consistently creating new Twitter accounts, as we’ve already established. In order to prepare the platform for even more users and more data, the Twitter analytics team has made sure to overestimate the company’s future needs and have the infrastructure available to handle 18 quintillion users; more than it will ever need.

10. It took 3 years, 2 months, and 1 day to go from the first tweet to the billionth.

(Source: Twitter)

It took Twitter users more than three years to send out the first billion tweets. In 2011, they were much quicker to do so, sending out a billion tweets in just one week.

11. Twitter discontinued live streaming in 2021.

(Source: CMSWire)

According to Twitter user statistics, its live-streaming platform Periscope attracted over 10 million visitors upon its launch. However, it ultimately couldn’t bring in as much business as the company had hoped. Therefore, Twitter decided to terminate it in 2021.

12. The US Airways crash in New York’s Hudson River in January 2009 heralded Twitter as a prominent news-breaking social media network.

(Source: The Telegraph)

Minutes after the plane had to make an emergency landing on the unusual runway that is the Hudson, Twitter was flooded with videos and tweets about the amazing effort Captain Sully somehow managed to pull off, saving all of the flight’s passengers.

Even though this was not the first time Twitter was at the forefront of the news, this event was the one that established Twitter as a valid platform for breaking news to the world.

13. During the 2014 FIFA World Cup Final, 618,725 tweets were sent in a single minute.

(Source: campaign)

This is a special one of our Twitter stats—the groundbreaking Twitter record of nearly 620K tweets in a minute happened during the 2014 Soccer World Cup Final, and not a single event has managed to match it since.

14. The CIA reads up to 5 million tweets a day.

(Source: TNW)

Due to the ever-present threat of terrorism, the CIA monitors all social media, including Twitter. Their intelligence teams are reporting an average of 5 million read tweets per day, ever since the surveillance project was started.

Twitter usage statistics played a major role in discovering domestic and foreign treats for the CIA. Numerous arrests have been made due to this type of research, and the issue of government agencies observing more and more aspects of our lives appears justified to the majority of the US population.

15. Twitter’s advertising revenue dropped to $1.06 billion in the first quarter of 2021.

(Source: Reuters)

The networking platform’s advertising revenue amounted to $1.06 billion in Q1 of 2022. According to Twitter marketing statistics, that’s a 0.4 billion deficit compared to last year’s Q4 number of 1.413 billion.

16. Twitter plans to reach $7.5 billion in annual revenue by 2023.

(Source: Reuters)

The platform predicts more sign-ups in the future, both in the US and internationally. In addition, investors should expect a low-to-mid 20% growth range in 2022.

17. 88% of total advertising revenue was from mobile.

(Source: BlueSky)

The last few years have been a hell for mobile web developers, as everyone and their grandma wants to optimize their mobile web presence. These Twitter advertising statistics indicate that the same goes for Twitter and the companies that advertise on it. As mobile users account for the majority of accesses, it’s only logical that they make up the majority of ad revenue as well.

Twitter User Stats

You won’t believe these stats! Twitter is undoubtedly the most successful microblogging platform in the world.

18. 500 million people visit the site each month without logging in.

(Source: Twitter)

The number of people who access Twitter every month without logging in is 500 million, more than there are active users. This number included those who regularly visit Twitter in order to catch up with what’s happening but never log in, as well as visits that occur when people click on Twitter links in Google search. Twitter statistics for business owners showed that this is the market they can expand to, causing the company to implement a new ad system that displays ads to everyone visiting the website.

19. 79% of Twitter accounts are held outside of the US.

(Source: Twitter)

According to Twitter’s official data, the large majority of Twitter accounts are from outside the US. With approximately 68 million active monthly users coming from the US, Twitter is at the bottom of the list of social network popularity in the US. Facebook, for example, has over 200 million active users in the US.

20. 38% of Americans aged 18–29 use Twitter.

(Source: Statista)

Twitter demographics as of February 2019 show that 38% of American users on Twitter are between 18 and 29 years old. Users older than 30 and younger than 49 make up 26% of Twitter’s demographics, while users over the age of 50 account for the rest. Interestingly enough, 7% of Twitter users are over the age of 65, showing us that the elderly like to join the fun as well.

21. 21% of American adults use this social media network.

(Source: Web Hosting Rating)

More than a fifth of American adults have found Twitter appealing and are using this social media network on a regular basis.

22. Twitter itself says that 80% of its users are affluent millennials.

(Source: Hootsuite)

Most Twitter users are millennials, according to the company’s own data. For those unclear of the age span that the term “millennial” covers, it ranges from those born in the early 1980s to those born in the 1990s and early 2000s, basically covering all the Twitter demographics.

23. 30% of Americans who earn more than $75,000 are on Twitter.

(Source: Hootsuite)

Americans who earn $75,000 or more per year represent nearly a third of Twitter’s population. This is a precious bit of data for advertisers, as this is the demographic they most commonly target; working middle-class citizens who are predominantly Caucasian.

24. 28% of Americans with college degrees use Twitter.

(Source: Pew Research Center)

Not that many Americans on Twitter appear to have a college education, according to research. With 7 in 10 people in the US using Twitter, less than half of them have received higher education.

25. The top countries by users are the US, Japan, and the UK.

(Source: SimilarWeb)

With 22% of users coming from the United States, Twitter trends seem to be keeping up with other social networks, as they’re all most popular domestically. With 12.6%, the Japanese follow the Americans, with the Brits trailing slightly behind with 6.01%.

26. 80% of active users access Twitter via mobile.

(Source: Twitter)

Desktop usage has been on a steep decline, and not only for Twitter users. It is estimated that 80% of all social network visits, including Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, have been from mobile phones. Our smartphones offer us the ability to access apps and websites from anywhere, which is a convenience unmatched by any other device.

27. 93% of Twitter’s video views occur on a mobile device.

(Source: Twitter)

Twitter statistics once again favor mobile devices, proving the advantage of mobile devices over desktop PC, as 93% of video views on Twitter are reported to be on a mobile device.

(Source: Similar Web) 

A significant portion of Twitter Lite’s audience loves the section. Finance takes second place with 12.2%, while the third position goes to Social with 8.7%.

(Source: Brandwatch)

One of our more charming Twitter statistics, the most common emotion among Twitter users these days appears to be the one that’s crying from laughter. Overall, positive emojis outweigh the negative ones in a ratio of 8 to 2, making Twitter one of the most positive places on earth.

30. Tweets about the Restoration topic have increased by 64% year-over-year.

(Source: Socialmediatoday)

The pandemic might have shifted perspectives on how people view their health. 

In 2022, 64% of Tweets relate to prioritizing wellness in today’s hectic world. 

That’s not all: 

According to Twitter usage statistics for 2022, there’s a 158% increase year-on-year with mentions regarding greenwashing.

31. Journalists make up 24.6% of verified Twitter accounts.

(Source: Adweek)

Nearly a quarter of all verified Twitter accounts are owned by journalists. The other most popular occupations on Twitter are actors (15%), business people (13%), and musicians (12%).

32. 83% of world leaders have a Twitter account.

(Source: Cision)

Most of the world leaders are present on Twitter, according to this piece of data. Former President Obama has a following of over 100 million, making him the most followed former or current president. Donald Trump has just over 50 million followers, while the next two spots on the list are taken by the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, and the UAE’s Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, both with nearly 20 million Twitter followers.

33. The first Twitter user to hit one million followers was Ashton Kutcher.

(Source: CNET)

Ashton Kutcher happens to be the celebrity who uses Twitter most efficiently. Or at least he was at one point.

In a race for the first ever account with a million followers, Ashton Kutcher managed to beat CNN, making his Twitter account the first one to reach this milestone. The actor live-streamed the finishing hour from his home, while CNN broadcasted live, too, with Anderson Cooper behind the desk.

This event was one of the first indications that Twitter and online media were well on their way to replacing traditional mediums, something that’s being confirmed by many of our Twitter stats.

34. Three of the five richest people in the world have a verified Twitter account.

(Source: The Independent)

Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Larry Ellison have a combined wealth of more than $205 billion. What connects these three, apart from their multi-billionaire status, is that they all have verified Twitter accounts.

35. The most liked Tweet in 2022 is from the family of Chadwick Boseman @chadwickboseman.

(Source: Path of Ex)

The Tweet confirming Chadwick’s death has garnered 7.1 million likes and 2 million retweets. 

Next is Elon Musk’s “Next I’m buying Coca-Cola to put the cocaine back in,” with 4.8 million likes and 704 thousand retweets.

In the third position is Barack Obama’s “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion…” with 4.1 million likes and 1.4 million retweets.

Twitter Follower Stats

Celebrities have their own armies of Twitter followers. Sometimes their number can surpass a small country’s population.

36. The average number of followers on Twitter is 707.

(Source: Brandwatch)

Examining nearly 100 million Twitter accounts, Brandwatch found that the average number of followers those accounts have is 707. This number represents an increase in average followers by 220% compared to 2012.

If we want to keep Twitter analytics free of celebrity bias and choose to ignore accounts that have over 100,000 followers, the average user has 453 people following them.

37. The Twitter post with the biggest amount of retweets was Carter Wilkerson’s tweet reading “HELP ME PLEASE. A MAN NEEDS HIS NUGGS” with 3,637,285 retweets.

(Source: Statista)

With over 3.6 million retweets, Carter Wilkerson managed to gain the title of the most retweeted tweet of all time. Challenged by Wendy’s, the famous fast food chain, Wilkerson failed to acquire the 18 million retweets needed for a year’s worth of chicken nuggets.

The second and third spot holders, Barack Obama and Penn State IFC, are nowhere near Wilkerson’s numbers, with 1.7 and 1.1 million retweets respectively.

(Source: Brandwatch)

Twitter follower stats show that, with over 100 million followers each, Barack Obama and Katy Perry have the most popular celebrity accounts on the platform.

39. 391 million Twitter accounts have no followers at all.

(Source: Variety)

More than 390 million accounts on Twitter appear to be dummy or locked accounts that have no following and no activity on the network. This issue proved to be a big problem for the company.

With nearly 400 million accounts with no following, Twitter seems to be storing a lot of unnecessary data on their servers, leading to increased upkeep costs.

40. Twitter permanently suspended 453 754 accounts in Q1 of 2021.

(Source: Twitter)

The social media website permanently suspended 453,754 accounts due to violations of its Child Sexual Exploitation rules. Thanks to its internal tools, it was able to identify 89% of those profiles, even before anyone reported them. 

In addition, Twitter statistics show ‌it suspended 44,974 accounts for promoting terrorism. Again, its tools helped identify 93% of such profiles.

41. 95% of requests to remove content came from five countries.

(Source: Twitter)

95% of Tweets that requested account removal for various illegalities came from five countries. The nations are Japan, Russia, Turkey, India, and South Korea, in descending order based on the number of appeals.

Twitter Advertising Stats

Twitter’s main source of revenue is advertising. So far its business is successful.

42. 68.8% of US companies with more than 100 employees use Twitter for marketing.

(Source: SPOKES Marketing)

Advertising on social media is what every marketing consultant suggests their clients do. Twitter, as well as other social media platforms, have the unmatched ability to reach millions of users, at a fairly low cost for advertisers. It should come as no surprise that Twitter statistics show that nearly 70% of businesses in America employing over 100 people are using Twitter to advertise their products or services.

43. 72% of US marketers are confident in their ability to create videos that drive views and engagement on Twitter.

(source: eMarketer)

More and more advertisers are employing Twitter for their marketing needs. With nearly 72% of them believing they are able to create videos that persuade Twitter users to engage with them, the confidence advertisers have in this platform and their own abilities has never been higher.

44. 58% of surveyed Twitter users have installed an app in the last month.

(Source: Twitter)

As the company’s own Twitter statistics show, 58% of users have installed an app that was promoted on Twitter in the last month. Good news for those trying to market their apps to a wide audience.

45. 67% of Twitter users said Twitter Promoted Videos in the “First View” position were not intrusive.

(Source: Magna)

Most Twitter users don’t find video ads and promoted videos intrusive in their main feed. Once again, good news for Twitter and advertisers.

(Source: Twitter)

According to Twitter marketing statistics, Delta’s travel Tweets have sparked the highest engagement. Kroger’s posts and polls on food-related topics are number two. And the streaming platform Netflix comes third.

47. The average Twitter user follows five businesses.

(Source: Twitter)

Pieces of information such as this one are what advertisers live for. With every user following five brands on average, Twitter is the place to be when it comes to advertising. Considering that more than a third of people, or 37%, who follow brands actually buy something from them, this data becomes even more relevant to Twitter advertisers.

48. 85% of Twitter users who follow SMBs said they believe Promoted Accounts help them discover new businesses.

(Source: cdn)

Users who follow small businesses on Twitter mostly find the Promoted Accounts feature to be helpful in discovering new businesses relevant to their needs.

49. 80% of Twitter users have mentioned a brand in a Tweet.

(Source: Twitter)

According to Twitter marketing statistics, 80% of users have mentioned a brand in one of their posts. Whether they are talking about their shoes, new cars, good or bad restaurant experiences, or cute cashiers, Twitter users mention brands a lot.

50. Companies using Twitter for customer services see a 19% increase in customer satisfaction.

(Source: Twitter)

Jack Dorsey, one of the co-founders of Twitter, declared that an increase of 19% in customer satisfaction was noted by the companies using this platform to conduct customer services. This data was declared in Dorsey’s welcome tweet to Apple Support, back in 2016.

51. 54% of users report having taken an action after seeing a brand mentioned on Twitter.

(Source: Twitter)

Over half of Twitter users say that they have either bought an item or a service mentioned on Twitter or told their friends about it after seeing someone else tweeting about it or discovering an ad. This type of chain reaction is what advertisers who are serious about their business are after.

This stat shows us just how many people use Twitter for the purpose of indulging their impulsive shopping needs.

52. 77% of Twitter users feel more positive about a brand when their Tweet is replied to.

(Source: Twitter)

Customers who have a complaint or want to engage with a brand for any other reason on Twitter seem to like being appreciated and responded to. 77% of those who tweet at brands reported having a more positive image of that brand after they received a response.

53. 78% of people who complain to brands on Twitter expect an answer within an hour.

(Source: Twitter)

Twitter statistics like these indicate how quickly Twitter has managed to gain a reputation as the social media platform where brand interaction with consumers is the quickest and most satisfactory to customers. In fact, Twitter seems so effective at this that most small and medium businesses have shifted their entire customer support services to Twitter. This is the reason why nearly 80% of users expect a quick response from the company they’ve messaged.

54. The average response time to user queries is 1 hour and 24 minutes.

(Source: Twitter)

Twitter marketing facts and stats all clearly confirm that users expect a quick response from brands and businesses on Twitter.

Even though the vast majority of users expect their questions and concerns to be answered within the hour, the average response rate exceeds that time frame by 24 minutes. Of course, there are some companies which make sure not to waste time responding to customers, but others seem to be slacking and dragging the average response time rate up.

55. The last two years have seen a 2.5x increase in customer service conversations on Twitter.

(Source: Twitter)

As Twitter’s popularity increased, the number of interactions conducted between customers and brands on the platform did too. With hundreds of millions of people trying to get the attention of large companies, developers had to find a way to keep up with demand. Twitter bots have become a standard in customer services on the platform.

56. 54% of the top 100 global brands send less than one reply per day.

(Source: Simply Measured)

These Twitter statistics show that while users appreciate the brands that respond to their inquiries on Twitter more, 54% of the most popular brands reply to those inquiries rarely.

57. The Cost Per Engagement (CPE) in Q2 of 2021 was 42%.

(Source: Statista)

2021’s Q2 saw a 42% CPE growth. That was way higher than Q1’s 19%. However, it dropped by 9% during the third quarter of the same year. During the first quarter of 2022, the number grew again – this time by 10%.

58. Tweets with images get 150% more retweets, 89% more likes, and 18% more clicks.

(Source: LinkedIn)

It is a known fact that social media users are more attracted by images than text. According to a short research conducted by Buffer, its last 100 tweets that included images had triple the number of retweets, nearly double the number of likes, and close to a fifth more in clicks than their plain-text posts receive. This small-scale data research shows that using images can significantly increase user engagement, especially with ads.

59. Total ad engagement decreased by 12% during the last quarter of 2021.

(Source: Reuters)

There was a major shift to videos during the pandemic as people looked for ways to stay sane. Twitter statistics show the move led to a 12% drop in Tweet ad engagements.

60. AMC’s The Walking Dead was ranked first with an online buzz volume of 308,000 tweets per telecast.

(Source: Statista)

When it comes to the popularity of TV shows among this set of Twitter statistics, second place is taken by FOX’s Empire with 142,000 tweets per airing, while The Bachelor takes the proud third place. These shows were able to reach the top partially due to HBO’s Game of Thrones not airing this year, as this show managed to convincingly hold the first spot every time it aired.

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