25,088 tweets per second is the new single-topic record, set by ‘Castle in the Sky’ anime screening

Twitter has a new record-setting topic on its books following the recent screening on Japanese television of Hayao Miyazaki’s Laputa: Castle in the Sky. The classic anime prompted a deluge of tweets that reached the ludicrous velocity of over 25,000 tweets per second. Beyonce Knowles’ pregnancy announcement in August was Twitter’s previous title holder at nearly 9,000 tweets per second, but the adulation for Myazaki’s 1986 adventure tale was evidently too strong to keep bottled up.

Japan Trends reports that Castle in the Sky is broadcast around this time every year in Japan, where a social networking tradition has grown around the movie. A cry of “Balse!” during the climactic scene is echoed by viewers simultaneously with the broadcast, which is likely what caused the historic moment for Twitter’s stat keepers. Hey, cult movies can exist even without having the word “star” in their title.