Second Donald Trump-Hillary Clinton Showdown Unseats First as Most Tweeted Debate Ever

The second presidential debate has become the most tweeted debate of all time with more than 17 million tweets sent related to the event. 

The Oct. 9 showdown between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump broke a record set by the first presidential debate, which spawned 17.1 million Twitter interactions when it took place Sept. 26. 

Sunday also became the most tweeted day of the 2016 presidential election, with nearly 30 million tweets sent. 

But overall online chatter was not as strong as the first debate. Nielsen reports that there were 62 million social media interactions on Facebook and Twitter about the debate from 18.2 million people in the U.S. That’s compared to the first showdown, during which there were 83 million interactions from 24 million people in the U.S. 

On Sunday night, online buzz peaked between 10 p.m. ET and 10:14 p.m. ET when there were 5.6 million interactions as the candidates discussed taxes and Syria, per Nielsen.   

The most tweeted moment of the Sunday night debate, which followed a town hall format, was when Trump said he disagreed with his running mate, Mike Pence, over his Syria policy. The No. 2 most tweeted moment was when Trump called himself a gentleman, and the No. 3 most tweeted moment was when Trump said he would jail Clinton in a Trump administration. 

Top 3 Tweeted Moments of the US presidential #debate: pic.twitter.com/ZxUsdrLLMK

— Twitter Government (@gov) October 10, 2016

The most retweeted tweet of the evening came from Muslim author Moustafa Bayoumi, who was responding to Trump’s comments that American Muslims should police each other. 

I’m a Muslim, and I would like to report a crazy man threatening a woman on a stage in Missouri. #debate

— Moustafa Bayoumi (@BayoumiMoustafa) October 10, 2016

Trump had the largest share of Twitter chatter during the evening with 64 percent of the conversation, compared with Clinton’s 36 percent of the conversation. 

The most-tweeted-about issues during the debate were terrorism, foreign affairs, the economy healthcare and guns. But the topic that received the most Twitter discussion was Trump’s treatment of women. 

Clinton’s Twitter following grew by 25,000 during the 90-minute debate, while Trump added 16,000 new Twitter followers. 

The Hollywood Reporter will continue to update this story with additional data from the debates as it becomes available. 

Oct. 9, 8:58 p.m. Updated with the number of tweets sent during the second debate.

Oct. 10, 9:17 a.m. Updated with data from Nielsen’s Social Content Ratings. 

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