Tim Tebow sets Twitter record

REUTERS/Marc Piscotty

Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow jumps into the crowd after throwing the winning touchdown against the Pittsburgh Steelers during overtime in their NFL AFC wildcard playoff football game in Denver, Colorado, January 8, 2012.

By Craig Kanalley, Social Media Editor at NBC News

Not only did Tim Tebow record his first playoff victory as an NFL quarterback on Sunday, he set a Twitter record.

Twitter announced this afternoon that the social network erupted for 9,420 tweets per second after Tebow's 80-yard touchdown pass in overtime gave Denver a 29-23 win over Pittsburgh. That's a new tweets/per second record for a sports event. It also, inevitably, gave new life to the meme of Tebowing.

To put this into perspective, CNBC's Darren Rovell notes that Tebow's pass beat notable events in the past year like the Royal Wedding (3,966 tweets/second), Osama Bin Laden's death (5,106 tweets/second) and Steve Jobs's death (6,049 tweets/second).

The previous sports record was 7,196 tweets/second after Japan defeated the United States in a women's World Cup match, USA Today reports. Tebow's touchdown even topped Beyonce's announcement that she was pregnant at the MTV Music Awards, which led to 8,868 tweets/second.

At 8 p.m. ET on Sunday, "Tebow" was found in 6.46% of all tweets, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Tebow got plenty of attention on Twitter last night for another reason. The Associated Press NFL account @AP_NFL noted that he recorded 316 passing yards and 31.6 yards per pass, interesting since he is a fan of the Bible verse John 3:16. The stat was passed around the social network all night.

Even so, Tebow didn't set the all-time tweets/second record, as a Japanese movie prompted 25,088 tweets/second in December, per The Next Web. But there's always next game against the Patriots.

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Source: http://digitallife.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/09/10076965-tim-tebow-sets-twitter-record

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