With millions of fans tuning into the game worldwide, the Super Bowl is one of the most popular events of the year – something that was increasingly evident on Facebook.
Last year's Super Bowl was the most talked-about sporting event of the year on the social networking site and the second most-mentioned event of 2012, just behind November's presidential election.
In 2012, Super Bowl Sunday also saw the second largest volume of posts in a single day on Facebook, just behind New Year's Day.
But as always, the Super Bowl is a truly international event with other countries buzzing about this year's game such as Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Austria and Australia.
This year, a family rivalry, surprise halftime show appearance and major power glitch gave people even more to talk about during the matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers.
Facebook tallied mentions of keywords made in posts and comments throughout the game to see exactly which moments bubbled to the top, receiving the most talk on Facebook.
TOP MOMENTS OF SUPER BOWL XLVII
1. Ravens win the Super Bowl 2. Beyonce's halftime performance 3. Blackout in the Superdome 4. Jacoby Jones' 108-yard kickoff return for a Ravens touchdown (and Justin Tucker's field goal kick) 5. Joe Flacco's 56-yard pass to Jacoby Jones for a Ravens touchdown (and Justin Tucker's field goal kick) 6. Joe Flacco's 13-yard pass to Anquan Boldin for a Ravens touchdown (and Justin Tucker's field goal kick) 7. Frank Gore's six-yard run for a 49ers touchdown (and David Akers' field goal kick) 8. Destiny's Child surprise appearance with Beyonce during the half time show 9. Ray Lewis' retirement 10. David Akers' field goal kick from 27-yard line
HALFTIME SHOW
Beyonce's halftime show was the second most talked-about moment of the night. Mentions of “Beyonce” started to increase just before 8 PM ET. By 8:22 PM ET, mentions of her name had jumped nearly 49,000%.
Destiny's Child's surprise appearance was the eighth most-discussed moment from the night; mentions of the group, as well as “Kelly” and “Michelle” all jumped over 10,000%.
Fans kept track of Beyonce's setlist too, with tracks like “Crazy in Love," “Single Ladies," and “Halo” trending throughout the performance, followed by fans declaring Beyonce had “killed it” – a phrase which jumped more than 40,000% as she took her bow.
POWER OUTAGE
The most unexpected moment of the night also became one of the night's most unforgettable, making the blackout inside the Louisiana Superdome the third most talked-about moment of the game.
The lights cut out just minutes after Beyonce's halftime show, inspiring posts about her "killing it" and "stealing all the electricity."
Mentions of “lights” on Facebook jumped 66,000% around 8:37 PM ET, and discussion of the “blackout," “power," and the “outage” continued for the next several minutes.
MOST-MENTIONED PLAYERS
Here are the most-talked about players from the game, in order of total mentions they received:
1. Ray Lewis 2. Joe Flacco, named this year's Super Bowl MVP (Last year's Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning was one of the most talked about public figures on Facebook in 2012.) 3. Colin Kaepernick 4. Jacoby Jones 5. Torrey Smith 6. Vernon Davis 7. Michael Crabtree 8. Anquan Boldin 9. Frank Gore 10. David Akers
Did you watch the Super Bowl? Tell us your experiences below
By Allie Townsend, Facebook Editor - Betsy Cameron Williams, Facebook Data Analyst