The war of the words leading up to Super Bowl XLVI has begun, with fans and players alike discussing the anticipation of the big game only days away. In an interesting twist this year, however, the battlefield has moved from on the field to on the Internet — and more specifically, on Twitter.
Chevrolet is tracking the Twitter conversation surrounding the two teams playing on Sunday as part of its “Road to the #SuperBowl” campgain, and the results are a little surprising.
So far, the Patriots have a commanding lead in tweets per minute and in total tweets, with nearly 300,000 mentions on the social media site as of Tuesday night. The Giants are lagging behind with only around 200,000 total tweets mentioning Big Blue.
A large part of the Patriots’ success in the Twittersphere can be attributed to one player, Chad Ochocinco. Ocho’s three million Twitter followers are vocal in their discussion of the wide receiver, and he is leading by a wide margin as most-mentioned athlete.
There have been over 107,000 tweets about Ochocinco in the buildup to the big game. In comparison, Tom Brady has only 32,000 mentions and the Giants leading player is Victor Cruz with 22,000 at last count. For all the buzz about Rob Gronkowski‘s ankle, the Pats tight end is only at 21,000 mentions.
The numbers may fluctuate throughout the week, but one things for certain: the only numbers that will really matter will be on the scoreboard at Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday.
