Beyonce's pregnancy revelation at Sunday night's MTV video music awards (VMAs) has broken a Twitter record.
The site recorded 8,868 tweets per second on the subject, after the singer opened her jacket to reveal her baby bump following her performance on the most highly –watched VMAs ever (12.4 million viewers).
The Beyonce pregnancy tweets broke a previous record of 7,196 tweets per second on the subject of Japan’s win over the US in the women's World Cup football final in July.
Beyonce, 29 is expecting her first child with her husband of three years, rapper and producer Jay-Z, 41.
Football is also the subject of the next highest volume of tweets per second ever sent.
There were 7166 tweets sent after Brazil's loss to Paraguay in the Copa America.
Beyonce is pregnant, Britney Spears snubs Lady Gaga
On new years day this year, there was a rush of Twitter activity, with 6,939 tweets per second recorded as the new year arrived in Tokyo.
More than 5000 tweets per second circulated as news spread of the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in May.
Other peaks for Twitter activity include the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan, with 5530 tweets per second, and the royal wedding in April, with 3966 tweets per second.
Twitter announced in June that its users are sending 200 million tweets a day, up from 65 million a year ago.
Meanwhile, a friendship between Cheryl Cole and Hollywood actress Cameron Diaz is being played out on Twitter.
It is thought that the pair, who are currently working together on What To Expect When You're Not Expecting have bonded, with the Sun reporting that Cameron wants to take Cheryl out for "dinner and cocktails."
A source added that the pair is "getting on really well on set. Cameron loves her Geordie accent and keeps getting Cheryl to say certain words."
Taking to Twitter for the first time yesterday, Cheryl wished her new BFF a happy birthday, saying: "Happy birthday Cameron, you sexy beeeyyaatchh… X (sic)"
