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Cubs, Indians duel in most tweeted World Series of all time

Baseball fans flooded social media like never before during the Fall Classic.

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Terry Collins Staff Reporter, CNET News
Terry writes about social networking giants and legal issues in Silicon Valley for CNET News. He joined CNET News from the Associated Press, where he spent the six years covering major breaking news in the San Francisco Bay Area. Before the AP, Terry worked at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis and the Kansas City Star. Terry's a native of Chicago.
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Alfred Ng Senior Reporter / CNET News
Alfred Ng was a senior reporter for CNET News. He was raised in Brooklyn and previously worked on the New York Daily News's social media and breaking news teams.
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Terry Collins
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The Chicago Cubs weren't the only ones celebrating. Twitter said this year's championship was the most tweeted World Series ever.

 Rob Tringali, MLB Photos via Getty Images


This year's World Series proved to be a grand slam on Twitter.

The social network said Thursday more than 18 million tweets were sent about the World Series between the Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Indians, including 10.5 million tweets during the nail-biting, heart-pounding Game 7 alone, both records for Twitter. Also, Facebook said some 33 million people were talking about the World Series on the social network, generating 150 million interactions. Meanwhile, telecom giant AT&T said fans attending games in Chicago and Cleveland used nearly 5 terabytes of data, equating to more than 14 million social media posts with photos.

The Cubs finally ended their curse on Wednesday, doing the unpredictable by beating the Tribe 8-7 in 10 innings. Not only is it their first World Series in 108 years, but it ends the longest championship drought by any major American pro sports team.

After rallying to tie the series at 3-3, the Cubs stormed out to an early lead in Game 7, only to see the Indians fight back and push it into extra innings. An untimely rain delay upped the ante, as Twitter users eagerly watched to see which curse would be broken first: Chicago's Billy Goat or Cleveland's Rocky Colavito.

Among the first to congratulate the Cubs was President Barack Obama, a diehard Chicago White Sox fan, who nonetheless made this special request on Twitter to the new champs from the North Side:

Then there's Nick Offerman, who seemingly couldn't hold back his emotions:

Famed astronaut Scott Kelly took a very wide view of the Cubs' destiny:

Perhaps not to be outdone, famous physicist Neil deGrasse Tyson shared this:

And check this out. This tweet from @RaysFanGio, from nearly two years ago on November 4, 2014, got traction during Game 7 due to its uncanny accurate prediction. The Tampa Bay Rays fan sent the tweet when the Cubs hired Joe Maddon of the Rays to be their manager. The tweet has since been retweeted more than 150,000 times.

Fast forward to Wednesday night and a certain NBA All-Star, Golden State Warrior Draymond Green, had a quick flashback to losing to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers during last season's NBA Finals:

But the Cubs rejoiced:

And the Indians were gracious in defeat:

Update, November 3, 2016 at 2:10 p.m.: Adds information about Facebook and AT&T.