Japanese Anime 'Castle in the Sky' Smashes Tweets per Second Record, Beating Beyonce

Twitter started summing up 2011 a few weeks ago, but it seems that the year still has a few surprises left. 2011 saw the Twitter activity record, as measured in tweets per second, broken several times.

It seemed that nothing could beat Beyonce's pregnant appearance at the MTV VMAs. The new record, just announced by Twitter, not only beats Beyonce, but smashes the previous figures.

A television screening of Hayao Miyazaki’s "Castle in the Sky" in Japan, where else, led to a huge surge in activity on the site. The peak was 25,088 tweets coming in every second.

For comparison, the previous record stood at 8,868 tweets per second and that's from last summer. Less than a year ago, the record was 6,939 set also by Japan, on New Year's Day.

"On Dec 9, the television screening in Japan of Hayao Miyazaki’s 'Castle in the Sky' led to 25,088 Tweets per second - a new Twitter record," Twitter wrote in a tweet.

Castle in the Sky is a 1986 anime classic that enjoys a loyal following. Still, it's quite surprising that it created such a commotion in Japan.

If anything, the new record indicates quite clearly just how popular Twitter is in Japan. The site took off early in the country, even before it became a mainstream hit in the US.

It was the first place where Twitter had a local version and Japan still accounts for a large percentage of both Twitter users and especially activity.

There are an estimated 10 million Twitter users in Japan. That's less than in the US, but it does seem that does users are a lot more engaged and more communicative.

2011 is drawing to a close so don't be surprise if this record is smashed again as the new year starts in Japan, a couple of weeks from now.