Twitter’s Best of 2018 Was Highlighted by BTS, El Rubius and a Barack Obama GIF
The day with the most tweets was Feb. 25, for the Olympics closing ceremony


K-pop superstars BTS were behind the most-liked tweet of 2018, while the most retweets came on a tweet from YouTube gaming personality El Rubius and the most-quoted tweet, featuring former President Barack Obama, came from Twitter user @SummerCansler.
BTS also took the title of most-tweeted-about in 2018, while the day of the closing ceremony for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games from PyeongChang, South Korea, Feb. 25, was the day with the most tweets in 2018, and more than 500 million GIFs were tweeted this year, for an average of 1.6 million per day, or over 1,000 per minute.
The most-liked tweets of 2018 were:
The top retweets of 2018 were:
The most quoted tweets of 2018 were:
The most tweeted hashtags of 2018 were:
- #nowplaying
- #newprofilepic
- #bbb18 (Big Brother Brasil)
The most-tweeted about celebrities in the U.S. in 2018 were:
- BTS
- LeBron James
- Kanye West
- Drake
- Exo
- Ariana Grande
- Cardi B
- Beyoncé
- Park Ji-Min
- Nicki Minaj
The year’s most-tweeted-about movies were:
- Black Panther
- The Avengers: Infinity War
- The Incredibles 2
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi
- Deadpool 2
- Love, Simon
- A Wrinkle in Time
- Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
- Crazy Rich Asians
- The Shape of Water
The most-tweeted-about television shows of 2018 were:
- Saturday Night Live
- Roseanne
- Grey’s Anatomy
- The Walking Dead
- Big Brother
- The Voice
- Live PD
- Supernatural
- Game of Thrones
- Riverdale
And the most-tweeted-about streaming shows were:
The most-tweeted-about musicians in 2018 were:
- BTS
- Kanye West
- Drake
- Exo
- Ariana Grande
- Cardi B
- Beyoncé
- Park Ji-Min
- Nicki Minaj
- Rihanna
2018’s most-tweeted-about movements were:
- March for Our Lives
- National Football League Protests
- Students Stand Up
- #MeToo
- Black Lives Matter
The most-tweeted-about athletes this year were:
- LeBron James
- Colin Kaepernick
- Kobe Bryant
- Kyrie Irving
- Tom Brady
- Dwyane Wade
- Serena Williams
- Kawhi Leonard
- Chris Paul
- Stephen Curry
The most-tweeted-about sporting events were:
- 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia
- 2018 Winter Olympic Games from PyeongChang, South Korea
- National Basketball Association Finals
- 2017-18 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship tournament
- NFL Draft
- U.S. Open Tennis Championships
- NBA Draft
- WWE WrestleMania
- NBA All-Star Game
- National Hockey League Stanley Cup Finals
2018’s top-tweeted teams were:
- Cleveland Cavaliers
- Los Angeles Lakers
- Philadelphia Eagles
- Golden State Warriors
- New York Yankees
- Boston Red Sox
- Boston Celtics
- Los Angeles Dodgers
- Real Madrid
- New England Patriots
The top-tweeted sports commentators in 2018 were:
- Adam Schefter
- Shannon Sharpe
- Jemele Hill
- Skip Bayless
- Darren Rovell
- Stephen A. Smith
- Adrian Wojnarowski
- Joe Rogan
- Colin Cowherd
- Shaquille O’Neal
The most-tweeted-about games of 2018 were:
- Super Bowl LII (Philadelphia Eagles vs. New England Patriots)
- College Football Playoff National Championship (Alabama vs. Georgia)
- AFC Championship Game (Jacksonville Jaguars vs. New England Patriots)
- NBA Finals: Game 1 (Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Golden State Warriors)
- NFC Championship Game (Minnesota Vikings vs. Philadelphia Eagles)
- NFC Divisional Round Playoff Game (New Orleans Saints vs. Minnesota Vikings)
- FIFA World Cup Final (Croatia vs. France)
- World Series: Game 5 (Boston Red Sox vs. Los Angeles Dodgers)
- NBA Finals: Game 4 (Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Golden State Warriors)
- AFC Divisional Round Playoff Game (Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Pittsburgh Steelers)
The most-used sports hashtags of the year were:
- #wpmoychallenge
- #raw
- #flyeaglesfly
- #nbavote
- #worldcup
- #superbowl
- #nfl
- #wwe
- #eagles
- #nba
The most-tweeted-about video games in 2018 were:
- Fortnite
- Call of Duty
- Overwatch
- Pokemon
- EA Sports Madden NFL
- NBA 2K
- Super Mario
- Super Smash Bros.
- Splatoon
- Grand Theft Auto
2018’s most-tweeted-about political figures were:
- Donald Trump
- Barack Obama
- Hillary Clinton
- Brett Kavanaugh
- Sarah Huckabee-Sanders
- Paul Ryan
- Ted Cruz
- John McCain
- Nancy Pelosi
- Mike Pence
Finally, the most-tweeted-about news outlets of the year, followed by their most-tweeted about journalists or hosts:
- Fox News, Sean Hannity
- CNN, Jake Tapper
- The Hill, Joe Concha
- MSNBC, Kyle Griffin
- The New York Times, Maggie Haberman
- ABC News, George Stephanopoulos
- NBC News, Andrea Mitchell
- The Washington Post, Philip Rucker
- AP, Zeke Miller
- NowThis News, Versa Sharma