Facebook announced the 1 billion World Cup interaction milestone was reached over the weekend, with no other single event has generated this much activity on Facebook in the history of the social media site, according to Reuters.
More than 220 million people have posted, "liked" or commented upon what other people are saying about the soccer tournament, Reuters reported.
The host country is driving the activity with the most activity coming from Brazil's opening match against Croatia, with the knockout round match against Chile coming in second, according to Reuters. Brazilian star Neymar has more than 7 million "likes."
Of the 20 most-liked comments by a World Cup athlete, 12 are by Neymar or teammate David Luiz, Reuters reported. The first week of the World Cup, which saw 459 million interactions on Facebook, more than this year's Super Bowl, the Sochi Winter Olympic Games and the Academy Awards combined.
The 1 billion mark was reached after traffic accelerated as the World Cup moved into the knockout round, according to Reuters. On Saturday, more than 31 million people put up 75 million posts, likes and comments about Brazil's nail-biting victory over Chile, which propelled the home team to the quarter-finals.
The soccer conversation measured between June 12 and June 29 involved 220 million people and 1 billion interactions, the Facebook data showed, and since the ball will be rolling for another two weeks, the tournament is set to break new records as the biggest social media event to date, according to Reuters.
"People are having conversations on Facebook about what they watch in a really unprecedented scale," Nick Grudin, the company's director of partnerships, told Reuters. "In addition to sharing and connecting with friends, people are engaging in real time with the media and the public voices they care about most."
Facebook's record numbers were possible because of widespread mobile penetration, with seven out of 10 users globally connect to the network from mobile devices, which represent roughly 60 percent of the company's ad revenue, according to Reuters.
