MTV’s 2015 VMAs didn’t quite measure up to last year’s awards show in terms of total viewers, but those who watched had a lot to say on Twitter. Nielsen Media reports that Sunday’s Video Music Awards were the most tweeted about non-sports program since they began tracking Twitter TV activity in October 2011.
With Miley Cyrus hosting the event, there were bound to be buzzed-about moments, but few could have predicted just how many there were. From Cyrus’ left breast making a brief cameo appearance to Kanye West announcing an upcoming presidential run, there was no shortage of material for Twitter users to comment on. Some 2.2 million people tweeted about the VMAs, says Nielsen, racking up a whopping 21.4 million messages between them.
Only a Super Bowl has topped the MTV awards show’s mayhem. It far outpaced last year’s VMAs, inspiring 69 percent more tweets. 2014’s 12.6 million tweets look paltry in comparison, even though that year’s show attracted 10.1 million viewers compared to 2015’s 8.3 million, according to Deadline.
Over the course of Sunday’s show, it was apparently West’s big news about a 2020 run for president that got the most people talking on Twitter. Nielsen reports that the most tweeted minute coincided with his announcement — a moment in which the social media site was flooded with 247,525 tweets. Overall, the messages posted throughout the show led to 676 million impressions, which were seen by 11.8 million people, Nielsen shared via Twitter.
676M @twittertv Impressions for Sunday’s 2015 @MTV #VMAs — 2.2M authors posted Tweets—topping #SocialTV Sunday http://t.co/eQoW7v5wAn
— Nielsen Social (@NielsenSocial) August 31, 2015
Not surprisingly, compared to its competition, the 2015 VMAs were far and away the top performer of the night. AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead came in at second with 8 million tweets going out about the show.
