Beyonce Pregnant: New Twitter Record Set After Baby News

Did you hear the news? If you were on Twitter last night there’s a good chance that you did. Jay-Z and Beyonce are pregnant. Beyonce made the announcement about her pregnancy last night during MTV’s Video Music Awards and set off a Twitter frenzy that set a new record for tweets per second.

According to Twitter’s official global PR feed, @TwitterComms, last night at 10:35 p.m, there were 8,868 tweets being sent per second.

TwitterComms tweeted:

“Last night at 10:35pm ET, Beyonce’s big MTV #VMA moment gave Twitter a record bump: 8,868 Tweets per second.”

That’s a higher TPS rate than when Osama Bin Laden was killed.

News about Beyonce’s pregnancy broke a few hours earlier when the singer was walking the red carpet.

MTV tweeted:

“OMG Beyonce just made a huge announcement on the #vma carpet! #baby!!!!!”

But the huge spike in traffic didn’t occur until a few hours later when the singer took the stage to perform “Love on Top.”

Before singing, Beyonce said as she rubbed her five-month baby bump:

“I want you to feel the love that’s growing inside me.”

According to the AFP, Beyonce’s pregnancy news beat the previous tweets per second record by more than 1000 tweets. Here’s a list of some of the biggest spikes in Twitter traffic over the last few years.

• 7,196 tweets were sent per seond during the Women’s World Cup final between Japan and the United States in July.
• 7,166 tweets per second were sent when Brazil lost to Paraguay in the Copa America.
• 6,939 tweets per second when Tokyo rang in the New Year.
• 5,530 tweets per second were sent after the March 11th earthquake that rocked Japan.
• More than 5,000 tweets per second were sent after Osama Bin Laden’s death.

MTV was hoping to use social media in a big way last night, and well, they succeeded. MTV used a Twitter tracker throughout the broadcast to show celebrity tweets and what topics were hot at the moment.

MTV explained:

“Fans who want to get in on the VMA action can head to our MTV Twitter Tracker, where the section labeled ‘buzz’ will display photos of the celebs getting the most mentions. The photos will shrink and grow depending on popularity from moment to moment, so you’ll always know who’s blowing up.”

Needless to say, Beyonce’s pregnancy ruled the night. Beyonce, 29, and Jay-Z, 41, have been married for three years. This is their first child together.