Filipino sports fans make Twitter their homecourt in 2021

Sports conversations on Twitter Philippines dominated the micro-blogging platform with over 19.6 million tweets in 2021.

The micro-blogging platform was the go-to hub of Filipinos in discussing basketball events, the Olympics and esports.

According to Twitter, sports conversations among Filipinos skyrocketed last year with 22.50% growth as compared to data from 2020.

Globally, discussions about sports also increased with a staggering 3.7 billion tweets compared to the 2.7 billion tweets in 2020.

Meanwhile, in Southeast Asia, there is a 40% increase or over 95 million sports-related tweets during that year as compared to 2020.

Twitter cited the comeback of highly anticipated sports competitions as main reasons for the surge in sports chatter online.

These include the Paralympics 2020 #Paralympics2020, the Tokyo Olympics #Tokyo2020 and the Euro football 2020 #EURO2020.

Twitter listed the three main events and moments with the loudest cheers among Filipino sports fans.

First gold Olympic medal, other achievements

In July 2021, weightlifting champion Hidilyn Diaz made history for bringing home the Philippines’ first gold medal at the women’s 55-kilogram category for weightlifting after lifting a combined weight of 224 kg.

A tweet about this achievement was also the most engaged tweet on local Twitter for 2021.

READ: How Hidilyn Diaz scored gold on Philippines’ #YearOnTwitter 2021

The tweet was posted by the official Twitter account of the Olympics on July 26, 2021.

History. Made.

Hidilyn Diaz has won the first ever gold medal for Philippines!#PHI #Gold #PHI #Gold #PHI #Gold pic.twitter.com/hrhavf2Iyp

— Olympics (@Olympics) July 26, 2021

Aside from Diaz, Filipino athletes Margielyn Didal, EJ Obiena and other Filipino athletes also captured the hearts of Twitterverse during the Tokyo Olympics games.

Basketball

Filipinos generated more than 6.2 million tweets about basketball-related topics on Twitter. This is a jump of 6.90% as compared to 2020.

Twitter attributed majority of the tweets to the excitement surrounding the NBA All-Star and NBA Playoffs in 2021.

They tweeted their reactions, shared videos of their game highlights and sought for game updates on Twitter.

Lebron James and Stephen Curry were among the top players Filipinos mostly tweeted about in 2021.

The hashtag #nbaallstar was also mostly used.

It’s this time of the year, again, kung saan magpupuyat ng madaling araw para manood ng NBA Playoffs 🔥 lesgoooo bye acads na muna HAHAHA

— Φ×Φ (@StephenWITHe) May 19, 2021

Wins for esports games

As Philippine teams in the esports arena continued to make waves globally, the competition itself also gained ground among Filipinos via Twitter.

Last December, gaming group Blacklist International from the Philippines was hailed as world champions of the recently concluded Mobile Legends: Bang Bang World Championship (M3).

The games themselves also made impact to Filipino games in 2021.

Genshin Impact, Valorant Esports and Mobile Legends are among the most talked about games among Filipinos for that year.

READ: Philippines remains a top community for gaming in 2021, Twitter says

Twitter and sports

Maurizio Barbieri, head of Sports and Gaming Partnerships for SEA and Greater China at Twitter said that sports fans around the world found a way to keep the passion for their favorite sports and players alive through Twitter.

“As events faced postponements and cancellations last year, sport fans on Twitter kept the passion and fervor alive by cheering, encouraging, and celebrating the wins together wherever they were,” Barbieri said.

“As competitions resumed this year, the built-up anticipation resulted in a global frenzy that transcended borders, with Twitter connecting the like-minded community to give them front row seats to all the action and a valuable avenue to participate in the excitement,” he added.