Katy Perry overtakes Justin Bieber as most followed person on Twitter

Perry's latest album Prism has boosted the pop singer to the top spot with 46.51m followers

James Vincent
Monday 04 November 2013 11:07 GMT
Comments
Katy Perry performs "Roar" during the release party of her album in Los Angeles
Katy Perry performs "Roar" during the release party of her album in Los Angeles (REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

After holding the title for more than nine months Justin Bieber has been unseated as the most followed person on Twitter by Katy Perry.

The buzz around Perry’s new album Prism has pushed the 29-year-old pop artist into the top spot with 46.51 million followers edging out Bieber’s 46.49m.

Bieber himself became the most followed individual on Twitter in January this year when he reached 33.3m followers, overtaking Lady Gaga who is currently no.3 on the site with 40.39m.

Gaga’s popularity on the social media website set a number of records after she de-seated Britney Spears in 2010, becoming the first person to pass the 10 million, 20 million and 30 million milestones for follower count.

Pop stars continue to dominate the most-followed chart on Twitter, with Taylor Swift holding the fifth spot (36.23m), Britney Spears at no.7 (33.74m), Rihanna at no.8 (32.50m) and Justin Timberlake at no.10 (27.98m).

Barack Obama is the only figure in the top ten not involved in the entertainment industry (the official accounts for YouTube and Instagram fill out the vacant slots at no.6 and no.9) with his 39.27 million followers clinching him the fourth most-followed spot.

These figures are eclipsed in like-for-like comparison with Facebook, where Lady Gaga still reigns supreme with 60.35m likes (behind Perry’s 59.25m and Bieber’s 57.27m) although recent research suggests that Twitter might have surpassed Facebook as the most popular social network with the young.

A report last month from market researcher Piper Jaffray found that 26 per cent of US teens named Twitter as the “most important” social networking site, with only 23 per cent indicating that Facebook was most important.

Facebook themselves have refuted this with their own in-house research and the steadily rising popularity of Instagram (bought by Facebook in 2012 for $1bn) suggests that Mark Zuckerberg’s online social empire is far from crumbling.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in