World Cup 2014 Set to Break Social Media Record

The 2014 FIFA World Cup, which kicks off today in Brazil, is already set to make history in social media as the tournament is expected to be the most talked-about sporting event globally.

According to Adobe Systems’ study, which looked at Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and other social media sites, the amount of social mentions of the World Cup will exceed those of the Super Bowl and the Olympics. The World Cup has already been generating a lot of buzz before it has even begun. Since June 2013, the phrase “World Cup” has been mentioned over 19 million times in 196 countries, marking a wider reach than the Super Bowl and the Olympics.

However, it looks like the U.S. won’t be contributing much to the World Cup conversation. The study shows Americans account for 8% of the conversation, while Japan and the U.K. come out on top, with 37% and 11%, respectively. According to an Reuters/Ipsos survey, only 7% of Americans state they will closely follow the World Cup this year, while 66% do not plan to watch any of it.

The World Cup will likely significantly impact Twitter specifically. The study says that Germany has the most active users on Twitter about the World Cup with 17% of the country’s total users. In another study from GlobalWebIndex, it was discovered that one in three Twitter users in the U.K. are more excited about the upcoming World Cup than the last one in 2010.

Many of the attitudes expressed on social media were found to be positive, however there were some negative sentiments about it. Brazil expressed the most sadness, anger, and disgust about the event.

As for the most talked about players on social media, the Adobe study discovered that Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo takes the lead with 1.5 million mentions in May. After him is Brazil’s Neymar with 1.2 million.