Twitter has shared an overview of the top tweets and trends of 2021, including the most like tweets, the most retweeted comments, the most discussed TV shows and movies and more.

And all in all, it’s a fairly good summary of the state of the world in 2021 – to start, the most-liked tweets underline the dominance of US politics. And also BTS.

That ‘Hello literally everyone’ tweet was posted during the great Facebook outage of October 2021, in which the online world freaked out for about 6 hours after an erroneous configuration change an Menlo Park. We made it through, though only barely.

The most retweeted tweet of the year also came from BTS, with this message in support of racial tolerance and equality.

Asian communities were unfairly targeted in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, and many took to Twitter to share their support, and add their voice to calls for such division to cease.

The most tweeted about movies of the year list includes some classics:

Shrek still remains a highly memed, highly discussed, and beloved movie franchise, while Black Panther has also become a memorial film, of sorts, for actor Chadwick Boseman, who passed away in August last year.

The most tweeted about TV shows overall had a distinctly international flavor:

“The most Tweeted TV shows included reality TV competition favorites Big Brother Brasil and A Fazenda 13, while K-drama Squid Game changed how we’ll view children’s games forever, taking the third spot for most discussed TV show worldwide. Escapism was another big theme from TV this year, creating a movement which manifested through meme creations, costume wearing, and more. 

In terms of US shows, specifically, the listing was:

Game of Thrones – still a thorn in fans’ sides even years after the finale, though there is, of course, the new Game of Thrones shows coming out in the near future. Which will no doubt be perfect, true to the book renditions that will leave all fans happy.

Twitter has also shared insights into the most discussed sports teams and events, as well as the most used emojis:

That makes sense, with the crying and the laughing in the top two. For reference, those were also the most used tweets in 2020, and 2019 as well, though the order was the other way around, with the laughing while crying emoji being the most used overall.

It feels like a year where movie and TV discussion has been more prominent, because most of us have been stuck indoors more often, and in that respect, the overall snapshot provides an interesting perspective on what’s resonating with audiences right now.

The listing also underlines the expanded usage of Twitter around the world, with more international trends creeping into the overall lists, which means that more expansive - and ideally inclusive - conversation is emerging, exposing people to different cultures and content via the app.

You can check out Twitter’s full 2021 trends list here.