Katy Perry emerges the most followed Twitter person of the year

Katy Perry, (a singer, song-writer and an actress) has emerged the most followed person for 2014. It was the year that Twitter’s most-followed star Katy Perry  https://twitter.com/katyperry hit the 61 million follower mark. She is closely followed in second place by Justin Bieber on 57 million, and Barack Obama, who, with 50 million followers, is the third most-followed person in the world, and the most-followed political or world leader on the platform.

Katy Perry Twitter handle early this year

The top 10 most followed accounts in the world are: Katy Perry - 61m, Justin Bieber - 57m, Barack Obama - 50m, Taylor Swift - 48m, YouTube - 46m , Lady Gaga - 43m, Britney Spears- 39m,  Justin Timberlake - 38m,  Rihanna - 38m, and Instagram - 36m.

Here in Nigeria, Whiz Kid  holds the top position. The Nigerian award-winning singer, Ayo Balogun, a.k.a Wizkid was the first Nigerian artiste to reach one million followers on popular social networking site, Twitter.   He is followed by Davido,  D'Banj and Don Jazzy, all in the entertainment sector. Soccer star Victor Moses has the highest Twitter followers in the sports category.

2014 was a very exciting year on Twitter. It was the year in which England crashed out of the World Cup, the Queen sent her first ever Tweet, Scotland debated independence, and @Philae2014 Tweeted live from space as it landed on the Rosetta Comet.  

People send more than 500 million Tweets per day. Each one contributes something special to Twitter, but only one is recognized as the “Golden Tweet,” a.k.a. the most-Retweeted Tweet of the year. This year, the honor goes to @TheEllenShow’s starry photo from the March Oscars telecast. And for Twitter’s 284 million users, 2014 was also the year of the selfie as Ellen Degeneres’ now-famous Oscars photo became the most shared message ever on Twitter. https://twitter.com/theellenshow/status/440322224407314432

In fact, since January 1, the term ‘selfie’ has been mentioned more than 92 million times on Twitter - a 500% increase and 12x more than in 2013 - as people from all walks of life have come to Twitter to share their photos with followers around the world.

Sport also took a dominant spot in 2014. Worldwide, a record 672 million Tweets were sent about this year’s World Cup finals in Brazil. In a World Cup year it is perhaps no surprise that the UK’s top ten most-Tweeted-about moments were sport-related. The 7-1 sweep of mighty Brazil by Germany, not only set a soccer record, it was also a record on Twitter, as the match generated the highest number of Tweets in soccer history.

In Nigeria, the early exit of Nigeria in the World Cup was a disappointment for many soccer fans especially after Nigeria won the African Cup of Nations in 2013. The exit of Nigeria in the next edition of the Nation's Cup generated a lot of conversions on Twitter by both fans and leading media houses. Channels Television,https://mobile.twitter.com/channelstv is the media outlet with the highest number of Twitter followers in Nigeria.