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Germany’s thrashing of Brazil smashes Twitter records

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Germany's ruthless 7-1 semi-final demolition of tournament hosts Brazil had records tumbling – both on and off the pitch. 

The thrashing was Brazil's heaviest ever defeat, eclipsing a 6-0 loss at the hands of Uruguay in 1920 as well as being the side's first defeat at home in a competitive fixture in 39 years.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was also the biggest ever victory in a World Cup semi-final. 

But the match also smashed records off the field, becoming the most talked about sporting event ever on Twitter.

The social network reported that the game drew in 35.6m tweets, crushing the previous record of 24.9m amassed during the 2014 Superbowl when the Seattle Seahawks destroyed the Denver Broncos. 

Twitter also says that Germany's fifth goal, scored by Sami Kedhira, just before the game's half-hour mark triggered 580,166 tweets per minute (tpm); comfortably surpassing the previous record of 389,000 tpm recorded during the Brazil-Chile game in the earlier rounds of the tournament. 

Among other things, Twitter has ambitions to be the leading social network for users to discuss sports. The World Cup has been a significant event for the San Francisco-based tech company as users have flocked to Twitter while watching the game, using mobiles or other second screens. 

Given yesterday's figures, it's safe to say tweets sent during this World Cup will have easily eclipsed the 150m tweets sent during the 2012 London Olympic games.

Twitter says there are on average 500m tweets sent each day, with 250m active users on the social network per month, a figure that has tripled since the first half of 2011. Almost eight in 10 of those active users now come from mobile. 

In Germany, the match attracted a record 32.6m viewers, making it the most watched programme in the country since records have began, according to the Guardian.