I updated the stats in my social media presentations and the top 10 Twitter accounts by most followers as of October 16, 2013 were:
1. Justin Bieber
@justinbieber
45.8 Million
2. Katy Perry
@katyperry
45.1 Million
3. Lady Gaga
@ladygaga
40.3 Million
4. Barack Obama
@barackobama
38.3 Million
5. Taylor Swift
@taylorswift13
35.5 Million
6. YouTube
@youtube
34.8 Million
7. Britney Spears
@britneyspears
33.0 Million
8. Rihanna
@rihanna
32.2 Million
9. Instagram
@instagram
28.1 Million
10. Justin Timberlake
@jtimberlake
27.2 Million
My personal Twitter account doesn’t feel so big compared to these. Lol.
The place of Katy Perry in the second position is a real surprise. I thought she was under Lady Gaga, even in an inferior position compared to Rihanna. Definitely, the world of Pop appropriates Twitter. Sure, the president of the United States is the exception to the rule, but his position in this ranking has a certain logic.
It’s amazing the number of followers that has each of these accounts. I think that they themselves aren’t aware of the potential behind these numbers. It is very interesting to analyze as a simple 140 character message can change the course of Internet from one moment to another.
I didn’t realize that I could follow YouTube or Instagram. What do I know? I’m relatively new to Twitter and not following any of the top 10. The only one who I’d consider would be Mr. President. I’d be curious to know what he has to say in roughly 140 characters.
Don’t feel so bad about not stacking up to these Twitter giants, David. I have just a lone follower and he likely took pity on me for being such a hapless tweeter.
Do these stats include the individuals who create 5, 10, 15 alt accounts, so that their star can have so many followers? Or the fake followers that one can purchase for $5 and get 1000 followers?
I don’t think that all 40 million are bogus, but I’m sure that plenty must be.
That’s a good point. I’m not sure if they have done something against it, but Twitter is rampant with follow bots and other ‘tweet-management’ software (read: spammers) that sometimes it’s confusing to know whether the one who just followed you is a real person or not.
On the other hand, these are very popular people that don’t really need the additional followers so I guess it’ll be something like 95% of the followers come from real accounts.
What I find sad is that Justin Bieber and Katy Perry have more subscribers than Barack Obama. They aren’t that talented or important. Justin Bieber’s popularity has gotten to his head, spitting on fans and punching people. Really, who cares?
Wow. Justin Bieber has more followers than our president! I mean I guess it does make sense considering that most of Twitter users are younger people who don’t care one bit about our government. and like BloomTech said, it’s amazing the number of followers each of these people have.
Oh geeze, Bieber’s up there? I’m starting to suspect that these statistics don’t actually translate to too much in terms of what people want to hear. I’ll give him credit, and the other musicians too, they’ve certainly done something right, to an apparently large number of social networkers. Then again, social networking always seems to revolve around music, food, and memes, so maybe I shouldn’t be surprised.
As with Facebook, music artists dominate the list, and likewise they dominate the list of the most viewed YouTube videos. The overlap between the three social networking sites is noteworthy in and of itself, too; Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Rihanna — these are the ones we typically are seeing in those top spots.
While I’ve gotten used to seeing these same names, I still think the number of followers are quite staggering. Justin Bieber’s 45.8 million, for instance, is bigger than the total population of most of the counties in the world, I would think. But I suppose it’s best not to compare such numbers to equivalents in the real world. By that yardstick, he’s still far behind the likes of Facebook with its one billion + users!
What is the point of following celebrities, do you really need to know what any person is doing at this very second? What ever happened to personal privacy? I don’t know why or how Twitter is as successful as it is.
Wow! Not what I expected! Thanks for sharing this info! It’s so hard to believe that a singer who spits on his fans has more followers than the President of the United States! Although I’m sure there are some who’d say the President hypothetically ‘spits on his fans’ too. It’s mostly singers on this list. While music is great, and a big part of all of our lives’, I would have liked to have seen some other people on the list. Like the Dalai Lama, or maybe even an author of literature of some sort; but it is, what it is, I guess. Lesigh.
Is it surprising? I easily expect this kind of thing.
Biebier Justin is one of the world’s most popular singers. All girls must follow the account of Justin Bieber.
Other Twitter appartiennt all personalities or famous enterprises. The Top 10 will still be the same next year.
Anyway, know it will not be a grown difference. It’s really interesting.
I expect to see even more amazing things.
I’m not surprised that JB is still the leader of the Twitter pack, but I don’t believe that these numbers reflects the number of his fans, I think the recent addition to his followers no longer care for his music, most are curious, gossip hungry people waiting for another juicy post or feedback from Justin’s escapades and scandals. His fans are dwindling and he’s in a downward spiral. Social Media has been very good to Justin Bieber’s career, youtube and his talent ofcourse practically launched him to stardom. If he doesn’t straighten up soon, Social Media and his twitter followers will also be a witness to his downfall.
It is really surprising to see Barack Obama in fourth place and feeling a bit curious to check out this survey. I am new to twitter and may be that’s the reason for I being surprised to this. I really wanted to know what Mr. President posts in just 140 characters and is that really sufficient space for him to express all his experienced views.
I also wonder to see that there are three celebrities above him with quite a near margin. Anyways good survey that you have made.
And yet again, another Top 10 list populated with music related stuff, in this case artists. Music producers sure do know how to make a name for themselves. I mean, most YouTube views are on music videos, and now I see top Twitter accounts are those of musicians…
Not really sure how I feel about that.
Justin Bieber seriously no thats just no right! who wants to follow him. Anyway not too surprised by the rest. Awesome to see instagram hitting the top 10.’And does make sense that most of the top 10 are “big” stars.
I also really hope people realise that Barack Obama won’t actually be tweeting. Some other person just does it from him.
Hmm didn’t see Beyonce on the list, but perhaps she has a higher position in Instagram? Also, where are the Kardashian sisters, they practically share everything to everyone. These top 10 people have such great power to influence the world, hope they use it well.
I always assumed that Lady Gaga would be number 1 so I’m socked to see Bieber there. Well it seems that his fans are still loyal even after all the bad things he’s done to them. I don’t like the guy at all.
I really loved to see Katy Perry in top 3 and I would never have guessed she would have so many followers. I guess people in her marketing team are really doing a great job! Britney Spears is also a surprise and I can’t really explain why she has so many followers still.
It’s interesting that so many singers are in the top charts. Not that celebrities being up there is surprising, but more the lack of actors in the list. For a set of celebrities whose entire career revolves around communication (speaking, gesturing etc.), I’m unsure why they aren’t making more headway in digital communication. Saying that though, it’s likely down to good marketing for the top 10.
As far as I remembered, though, Twitter has not always been like that. A tweet was 160 characters in 2012, and businesses get to tweet more. But now, I guess Twitter’s tweets are just strictly 140 characters or less. That missing 20 characters, where have they gone to? Text messages on phones are usually 160 characters, while when sharing on Twitter, we need to shrink the links too. And that takes quite an effort.