So until the credit card bills arrive from all of that extra online shopping over Christmas 2013, 2013 might seem to be long forgotten. 

The year on Twitter insight is however not forgotten, giving a round up of the most popular trending topics.

What were the top 10 tweet topics? 

It seems us Brits keenly take to Twitter to discuss sporting events, as only two of the top 10 trends aren’t sports related.

The top 10 events that created the biggest spikes in UK Twitter traffic in 2013 were:

  1. 5th March: Real Madrid beat Manchester United 2-1, knocking them out of the Champions League.
  2. 1st January: New Year 2013 arrives.
  3. 13th July: British male, Andy Murray wins Wimbledon for the first time since 1936.
  4. 2nd June: England draw 2-2 with Brazil ahead of the Brazil 2014 World Cup.
  5. 30th April: Real Madrid beat Borussia Dortmund 2-0 in the Champions League semi-final second leg.
  6. 11th May: Wigan win the FA Cup Final, their first major trophy.
  7. 14th August: England beat Scotland 3-2 in an international friendly at Wembley.
  8. 23rd April: Bayern Munich beat FC Barcelona 4-0 in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final.
  9. 30th June: Mumford and Sons close the Glastonbury Festival, featuring The Vaccines and Vampire Weekend.
  10. 15th October: England beat Poland 2-0 to qualify for the Brazil 2014 World Cup.

But the UK top trends weren’t all about sport.

What else was talked about?

Major talked-about topics, favourited and retweeted messages showed how Twitter allows fans closer access to their idols and their news, both to celebrate and congratulate but also to offer support and condolences.

Top Twitter themes include the unfortunate deaths of well-loved celebrities (Baroness Thatcher, Nelson Mandela, Cory Monteth and Paul Walker to name a few), breaking One Direction news of engagments, birthdays and pictures of Harry Styles sleeping, and of course the arrival of the royal baby, Prince George.

 Royal Baby tweet

And of course, television, with Twitter supporting ‘second-screen‘ behaviour.  The below example shows live tweeting during the show. 

Made In Chelsea tweets

What about everything else?

There were of course a lot more events, news, and people tweeted about in 2013.

The below lists show topics trending most frequently in the UK in 2013 – whether positive or negative!

Twitter topics UK 2013

So what?

This insight shows is that more than ever, both new and existing audiences are increasingly using Twitter to research, discuss and offer opinions on almost every kind of topic, sharing in the buzz of major events around the globe.

In an ever-changing digital landscape where the role of social media faces greater challenges but also opportunities, Twitter remains one of the fastest channels to gain access to real-time news as it breaks, but also exclusive content from celebrities.