Twitter celebrates 10 years since the birth of the Hashtag

The hashtag was born on Twitter on August 23, 2007, and over the past ten years, it has evolved from a way to simply ‘tag’ or categorize Tweets, to one of the most recognizable and widely used symbols of the digital age.

In celebration of the 10th birthday of the hashtag, Twitter invites users to join in the celebration by Tweeting with #Hashtag10 to activate a 24-hour custom emoji.

So what were the most used hashtags EVER?

Globally, an average of 125 million hashtags are shared every day on Twitter, helping people on Twitter to see what’s happening in the world and explore what’s being talked about right now. Back in 2007, the most Tweeted hashtag was used around 9,000 times. 10 years later, the most-used hashtag so far in 2017 was used over 300 million times.

On this day ten years ago, Chris Messina @chrismessina Tweeted  #barcamp, the first time a hashtag was used on Twitter. Since this first Tweet, the hashtag has become a part of the common vernacular. From monumental world events and awareness campaigns, to weekly throwback pictures, it all happens with a hashtag, and it all happens on Twitter.

how do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]?

— ⌗ChrisMessina (@chrismessina) August 23, 2007

The top 4 hashtags, in order of popularity, on Twitter are:

1. #FollowFriday

• The first #FollowFriday was on Jan 16, 2009, and there have been over half a billion #FF (or #followfriday) uses since then.

2. #NowPlaying

• The first use of #NowPlaying or #NP was a Tweet about the song “Open your Heart” by Lavender Diamond in 2007.
• #NowPlaying or #NP has been Tweeted more than 1 billion times.

3.#ThrowbackThursday

• #ThrowbackThursday and #TBT have been Tweeted 120M times.

4. #OOTD

• #OOTD has been Tweeted over 2 million times.

Award Shows

• Five of the biggest hashtags of the past ten years stem from fans Tweeting while they watch award shows – whether Tweeting to vote for an award or live Tweeting the event, together, these five hashtags were used over 3 billion times.
  • #MTVHottest
  • #MTVStars
  • #KCA
  • #iHeartAwards
  • #BestFanArmy
• Some of the biggest hashtags used to vote for artists include
  • #BTSBBMAs
  • #EMABiggestFansJustinBieber
  • #EMABiggestFans1D
  • #vote5sos
  • #PushAwardsKathNiels    

TV/Movies

• The most Tweeted television show hashtag of all time is #TheWalkingDead
• The most Tweeted about movie hashtag of all time is #StarWars

Sports

• The most Tweeted global sporting event hashtag is #Euro2016
• The most Tweeted sporting event hashtag in the US is the #SuperBowl
• The most Tweeted about league hashtag is #NFL
• The most Tweeted team hashtag is #MUFC
  

Gaming

• The most Tweeted gaming hashtag of all time is トレクル (TreCru/Treasure Cruise) with over 269 million uses of the hashtag.