The World Cup Is Facebook's Most-Talked-About Event Ever

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Brazilian stars Neymar (10) and David Luiz celebrate on Saturday after beating Chile on penalty kicks.

Image: Frank Augstein/Associated Press

By Kurt Wagner2014-06-30 18:22:55 UTC

Few companies are enjoying the World Cup more than Facebook.

The social network announced on Monday that the World Cup has generated more than one billion interactions on the site, making it the largest event — sports or otherwise — in Facebook history.

See also: 24 World Cup #TBT Photos That Deserve a Red Card

Those interactions, which include Likes, comments and posts on the platform, were generated by 220 million Facebook users. Despite the tournament's popularity, that's still only 17% of the Facebook's total user base.

The World Cup has dwarfed other popular Facebook moments from the past year. Despite multiple weeks of conversation, the Winter Olympics in Sochi generated just 120 million interactions from 45 million people. The Super Bowl generated 185 million interactions from 50 million people.

The popularity of the World Cup is due in large part to interactions generated by its star players, particularly those from the host country of Brazil.

Neymar, the 22-year-old Brazilian striker with four goals in just four matches, has been on his social media game as well. He's generated seven of the top 10 most popular posts from the tournament so far. This photo of him alongside teammate Hulk garnered nearly 2.5 million Likes.

Another Brazilian player, defender David Luiz, has published five of the 20 most popular posts.

Americans haven't been able to compete on Facebook with the tournament's international stars. USA goalie Tim Howard's photo that he posted following the team's 1-0 loss to Germany last Thursday is the 53rd most popular World Cup post so far with more than 37,000 Likes.

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Topics: Brazil, Facebook, hulk, neymar, Social Media, Sports, team usa, world cup