Justin Bieber's Twitter account boasts an impressive 47 million followers, with reports saying he earns a new follower every 2 seconds. Lady Gaga's Twitter-based monsters are 40 million strong, the Daily Mail pointed out. But none of the two artists has earned the recognition of being this year's most retweeted celebrity. Not even Katy Perry, the celebrity with the most Twitter followers.
You ask: How can that be??? Which other fan base can beat the Beliebers and the Little Monsters?
The Gleeks, apparently.
Lea Michele's first tweet after her boyfriend Cory Monteith's death in July this year is the most retweeted message of the year, logging a total of 408,000 retweets "from users in 133 countries," according to Yahoo! Lifestyle
The 27-year-old actress and singer sent her "heartfelt" message on July 29, 16 days after Monteith's passing. She included a photograph of the couple wearing big smiles and dark shades in her tweet, which read:
"Thank you all for helping me through this time with your enormous love & support. Cory will forever be in my heart."
The Golden Tweet of 2013 is owned by a celebrity who, interestingly enough, only has 4 million followers - which is much much less than Bieber's or Lady Gaga's.
Coming in second place is the post regarding Paul Walker's tragic death, garnering about 400,000 retweets. The tweet, which was sent by the actor's media team, read as follows:
"It's with a heavy heart that we must confirm Paul Walker passed away today in a tragic car accident..."
The topic of the third most retweeted message was nowhere near tragic or "noble" - it's about One Direction singer Niall Horan's happy one-liner on his 20th birthday about not being a teenager anymore. His whoop was retweeted 375,000 times.
The fourth and fifth most retweeted posts were from fellow One Direction band member Zayn Malik - at 344,000 for sharing a photo of band mate Harry Styles in deep slumber, and 336,000 for a tweet regarding his engagement to Perrie Edwards of the Little Mix.
Will the One Directioners win next year's Golden Tweet citation? At the rate they're going, they very well might just do that for their golden boys.