Twitter has released its top UK trends of the year so far (there are still a few days left for something to creep in there) and it will come to little surprise, to fans or Twitter users, that sport leads the way for when people are using the platform most.

Last year the Olympics brought the country together in a way we’ve never seen before.  It was truly the social media games and gives Rio in 2016 a hell of a benchmark to work to.  This year we haven’t had that key sporting event so the field is more widely spread.

Football was again the big winner, with the biggest spike seen on Twitter in the UK being Manchester United being knocked out of the UEFA Champions League by Cristiano Ronaldo’s Real Madrid.

It’s interesting that this was ahead of the biggest sporting news for the country this year.  That was of course Andy Murray becoming the first British man to win the Wimbledon singles title since Fred Perry back in 1936.  That only made 3rd place in the table.

The other big sporting moments were;

• England draw 2-2 with Brazil in a friendly, in a match that marked the official reopening of the Maracanã stadium ahead of the Brazil 2014 World Cup
• Real Madrid beat Borussia Dortmund (2-0) in the Champions League semi-final second leg, but are knocked out of the championships on aggregate
• Wigan win the FA Cup Final, the first major trophy in their history
• England beat Scotland 3-2 in an international friendly at Wembley
• Bayern Munich beat FC Barcelona 4-0 in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final, equalling Barcelona’s worst ever European defeat in their history
• England beat Poland 2-0, qualifying for a place in the Brazil 2014 World Cup

So what were those non-sporting moments that deprived sport of taking all 10 places?  They were New Years Eve and Mumford & Sons closing performance at Glastonbury.

Digging more into football and sport generally.  You can see the Top 10 trends for both sections, showing how big football is in this country.  It is our number 1 sport by some distance for a reason.

One interesting fact to take out of the ‘other sport’ table is that 4 were events that happened outside of the UK and didn’t involve any british teams/players.  They were of course, #NFL, #ThankYouSachin, Superbowl and #RedSox.  Showing that when you take away football, our sporting tastes are quite eclectic when placed alongside rugby, cricket, tennis, athletics and F1.