The World Cup group stage Twitter recap

The thrill of each goal, the ecstasy of each victory, the impatient wait for your squad to return to the pitch — the #WorldCup has brought people across the globe to Twitter to share in every heart-pounding moment.

With the group stage now complete, we’ve compiled metrics and visualizations that illustrate how the conversation has unfolded on Twitter since the matches began.

Top Matches
The match between Brazil (@CBF_Futebol) and Costa Rica saw the most Twitter conversation during the Group Stage. Here are the top 10 most-Tweeted matches during group play:

Top Moments
With Costa Rica vs. Brazil and Germany vs. Republic of Korea coming in as the top matches of the round, it only makes sense that four of the top five Tweeted moments - as measured in number of Tweets per minute -
of the Group Stage came from those matches.

Top Players
Brazil’s Neymar Jr. is the most mentioned #WorldCup player so far on Twitter, followed by Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo. 

And these stars are the players most often paired in Tweets with the "goat" emoji (as a reference to Greatest Of All Time):

1. Lionel Messi (Argentina)
2. Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal; @Cristiano)
3. Guillermo Ochoa (Mexico; @yosoy8a)

The thrilling action will continue as the World Cup enters the knockout stage. To see the latest insights about the conversation on Twitter, follow @TwitterData and @TwitterSports.