Twitter smashes traffic record during Women's World Cup final

Twitter activity reached new peaks during the final moments of Sunday's thrilling Women's World Cup soccer final, with Japan rallying twice to defeat the United States in a penalty kick shootout after regulation time ended in a 2-2 tie. Twitter averaged 7,196 tweets per second as the match drew to its close, breaking the previous record of 6,939 tweets per second, set just after midnight in Japan on New Year's Day 2011. In addition, Paraguay's penalty shootout win Sunday over Brazil in a Copa America quarterfinal is now second with 7,166 tweets per second.

When Spain defeated the Netherlands in the World Cup 2010 final a year ago, Twitter reached a high of 3,051 tweets per second. Twitter peaked at 5,106 tweets per second following the death of Osama Bin Laden in May and hit 4,064 tweets per second during Super Bowl XLV in February.

The Twitter platform now delivers 350 billion tweets a day. Twitter currently boasts more than 200 million registered user accounts and is on pace to generate ad revenues of $150 million in 2011, up from $45 million a year ago, according to research firm eMarketer. Mobile tweets make up over 40 percent of all Twitter posts, the firm said earlier this year, adding that 50 percent of all active Twitter users also are active on mobile.

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