To mark the 15th anniversary of the Twitter hashtag, we explore some of the most popular hashtags over the past four years alongside the people and topics at the heart of the platforms discussions.

43 Million + Tweets – #NFT
The new blockchain phenomenon has gained a huge community following on social media this year, with giveaways proving to be highly successful in promoting the influencers at its forefront. Despite their recent drops in value, NFTs remain a core discussion topic on Twitter.
60 Million + Tweets – #COVID19
With the lockdowns of the past two years leading to Twitters userbase doubling since 2019 (businessofapps.com), the virus became a dominant topic on the platform. Over 11 million tweets used the hashtag in March 2020, and it has remained a relevant topic in 2022 due to this years Partygate controversies

95 Million + Tweets – #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar
The recent military coup in Myanmar (formally Burma) has resulted in the deaths of over 2,100 people according to the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners (BBC). Despite this, civilians continue to organise protests and strikes to oppose the new government on Twitter, fuelling the staggering amount of uses of the hashtag. Similarly, Black Lives Matter and EndSARS have been huge topics on Twitter, demonstrating the power the social media platform has in regards to social and political movements.

107 Million + Tweets – #IHeartAwards
The IHeartAwards hashtag has had by far the most uses over the past four years. Fans flock to Twitter to vote for their favourite bands and artists across a variety of categories at the annual award show, with the massive fanbase of the South Korean boyband BTS being the primary users of the hashtag. The success of the hashtag has given brilliant exposure to IHeartMedia, displaying the staggering power that Twitter voting can have in terms of brand promotion. Two of the voting hashtags in this awards ceremony are listed in the Top 10 most used hashtags below
The Top 10 Most Used Hashtags since 2018

- #IHeartAwards
- #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar
- #Covid19
- #BestFanArmy
- #EndSARS
- #NFT
- #BestMusicVideo
- #MAMAVote
- #BTSArmy
- #got7
Topics of Prominence

Alongside these two controversial figures, YouTube has been a core subject of discussion on Twitter. Most content creators on the video sharing platform use Twitter to interact with their fans and promote new videos, prompting the organisation to be mentioned in over 100 million tweets since 2018. YouTubers have also complained about the sites support system frequently on Twitter. Many have voiced their annoyance at their videos being banned for no reason with their fans support, leading to approximately a third of YouTube’s mentions on Twitter being of a negative sentiment.
With data diversity at the core of our business, Twitter is one of the many consumer discourse spaces we study in order to unpack insight and learnings for our clients. Get in touch to find out how we can help you achieve your business objectives using Fluency’s data-diverse lens.

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