Ever since the first tweet was sent, Twitter has been clocking up some impressive numbers. There is a library’s worth of Twitter stats, facts and figures out there on the internet, so we’ve collected the very best for your reading pleasure.

Whether you’re looking for some stimulating reading with your morning coffee, a self-confessed data geek, or a marketer who wants to understand how Twitter can help your brand, we’ve got the Twitter stats for you.

Twitter historical facts

Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Noah Glass and launched in July 2006

Jack Dorsey sent the first ever tweet on 21 Mar 2006

just setting up my twttr
— Jack (@jack) 21 March 2006


In August 2007 the hashtag debuts, first proposed by user @chrismessina

how do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]?
— Chris Messina (@chrismessina) 23 August 2007


On 15 January 2009, a US Airways flight crashed on NYC’s Hudson River. A photo posted to Twitter broke the news before traditional media, highlighting Twitter’s role in breaking news

In February 2012, Twitter announced a partnership with the Russian search engine Yandex.

In October 2012 Twitter bought Vine, which Twitter released as a standalone app in January 2013. It was hugely successful but eventually closed down in October 2016.

In November 2013, Twitter went public with shares being valued at $26 as the market opened and at $44 when it closed.

In March 2015, Twitter acquired the live streaming app Periscope.

In November 2017, Twitter expanded the character limit for a tweet from 140 to 280.

Twitter financial statistics

Twitter reached a peak in revenue of $717m in Q4 2015. In Q3 2017 it was $590m.

There are 3,900 employees.

Twitter first made profit in Q4 2017.

On November 7, 2013, Twitter priced their IPO at $26 per share. As of Jan 2020, it was $32.

You might like

99 Amazing Social Media Statistics and Facts

Read a collection of social media data looking at the major platforms and how people worldwide use them for pleasure and business.

Twitter user statistics

There are 330m monthly active users and 145 million daily users.

A total of 1.3 billion accounts have been created.

Of those, 44% made an account and left before ever sending a tweet.

Based on US accounts, 10% of users write 80% of tweets.

22% of Americans are on Twitter.

Only 550 million people have ever sent a tweet.

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

As of Q1 2019, 68m US citizens are monthly active users of Twitter.

80% of active users access the site via mobile.

707 is the average number of followers.

391 million accounts have no followers at all.

Barack Obama has the most followers, with over 111m, followed by Katy Perry and Justin Bieber.

Taylor Swift is the most influential person on Twitter. Donald Trump came second, with Narendra Modi in 3rd place.

Journalists make up 24.6% of verified accounts.

83% of the world’s leaders are on Twitter.

79% of accounts are held outside of the U.S.

Twitter estimates 23m of its active users are actually bots.

Twitter usage statistics

There are 500 million tweets sent each day. That’s 6,000 tweets every second.

The most retweeted tweet, one from a Japanese billionaire offering cash prizes, has 5.5m RTs:

ZOZOTOWN新春セールが史上最速で取扱高100億円を先ほど突破！！日頃の感謝を込め、僕個人から100名様に100万円【総額1億円のお年玉】を現金でプレゼントします。応募方法は、僕をフォローいただいた上、このツイートをRTするだけ。受付は1/7まで。当選者には僕から直接DMします！ #月に行くならお年玉 pic.twitter.com/cKQfPPbOI3
— Yusaku Maezawa (MZ) 前澤友作 (@yousuck2020) January 5, 2019


The most popular emoji on Twitter is the Face with Tears of Joy emoji 😂.

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

A day’s worth of tweets would fill a 10 million page book.

Twitter’s top 5 markets (countries) account for 50% of all tweets.

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

Twitter marketing statistics

65.8% of US companies with 100+ employees use Twitter for marketing.

$70m was spent on ads in 2017.

77% of Twitter users feel more positive about a brand when their tweet has been replied to.

58% of top brands have over 100,00 followers on Twitter.

92% of companies tweet more than once a day, 42% tweet 1-5 times a day, and 19% tweet 6-10 times a day.

Tweets with images get 150% more retweets.

The average Twitter user follows five businesses.

80% of Twitter users have mentioned a brand in a tweet.

54% of users surveyed by Twitter reported that they had taken action after seeing a brand mentioned in Tweets (including visiting their website, searching for the brand, or retweeting content).

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

60% of consumers expect brands to respond to their query within the hour, but the average is 1 hour 24 minutes.

76% of consumers are likely to recommend the brand following friendly service.

Companies using Twitter for customer service see a 19% lift in customer satisfaction.

Tweets with images receive 18% more click throughs, 89% more likes, and 150% more retweets.

In the 2016 Q1 shareholder letter, Twitter revealed total ad engagements grew 208% year-on-year.

Those are the most interesting and up-to-date Twitter stats and facts that we could find. These statistics provide an interesting and useful overview of Twitter users. For real-time, in-depth insights about your audience or competitors, Brandwatch provides detailed analytics to give your brand the advantage.