Katy Perry has a reason to celebrate, and it has nothing to do with her newly released album, Witness.
On Friday, Perry reached 100 million Twitter followers — and she’s the first person to do so. For comparison, fellow pop stars Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus have 85.1 million followers and 33.3 million followers, respectively. Beyoncé has 14.8 million Twitter followers, but she rarely tweets.
Katy Perry joined Twitter in February 2009, and she’s sent more than 8,500 tweets since then. In January 2016, Perry became the most-followed person on Twitter, with 80 million followers at the time.
Her first tweet, about having a cold in Berlin, has more than 4,500 likes and more than 5,700 retweets.
Just got into Berlin… feeling better thank you, have my vicks inhaler by my bedside… and P.S. I TWITTTTER! GAH. Such a follower!
— KATY PERRY (@katyperry) February 21, 2009
According to data from Twitter, Perry’s most retweeted tweet was an unfortunate joke about suicide in 2012.
IF ONE DIRECTION DOESN'T PERFORM ON THE VMA'S I AM GONNA JUMP OFF THIS LEDGE
— KATY PERRY (@katyperry) September 6, 2012
Perry’s other most retweeted tweets include praise for Niall Horan, Justin Bieber, and Demi Lovato, as well as a Hillary Clinton GIF and a message of support for the victims of the Manchester terror attack.
The tweets are all about support, praise, and sympathy for other people. Maybe humility and selflessness are the keys to Twitter success? Perry definitely doesn’t hold back her praise for other artists.
@NiallOfficial congratulations, you didn't let me down! xo
— KATY PERRY (@katyperry) March 13, 2012
Praying for everyone at @ArianaGrande's show
— KATY PERRY (@katyperry) May 22, 2017
WE ARE BELIEBERS! http://t.co/pivBJmII
— KATY PERRY (@katyperry) October 4, 2012
Time, the ultimate truth teller.
— KATY PERRY (@katyperry) May 9, 2015
— KATY PERRY (@katyperry) July 13, 2016
The new song Skyscraper by @ddlovato is pure perfection. Her voice is one of the BEST undiscovered beauties. Can't wait for the full record.
— KATY PERRY (@katyperry) July 13, 2011
Still, every story has its caveats. In a TwitterAudit report pulled last month, Digital Spy found that 67% of Katy Perry’s Twitter followers are reportedly fake. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Perry’s team purchased bots to follow her. But as with any social media account these days, her follower numbers should be taken with a grain of salt.
