Back in the winter of 2022, not long after Elon Musk had purchased Twitter, the FIFA World Cup Final took place in Qatar. While, as ever, the vast majority of soccer fans were glued to their television sets and big screens in bars across the world, Musk was keen to trumpet the success of the event on Twitter (it still hadn’t been renamed at that point). Thousands of World Cup-related tweets were being sent per second while we watched Lionel Messi and Argentina secure the famous trophy. It was a sign that the social media age had truly arrived for sports.
24,400 tweets per second for France’s goal, highest ever for World Cup!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2022
Of course, Twitter has changed since then, and it is more than just the name. It is still a brilliant destination for live discussion on everything from team tactics to the best value in Super Bowl betting odds, but much of that content feels increasingly isolated. Many of the organically popular sports accounts have departed for platforms like Bluesky and Threads, and there is, most certainly, a push for the algorithm to get you engaged in “political twitter”
Twitter’s changes have impacted sports content
We aren’t here to criticize X or Elon Musk. Indeed, many people think it has improved under his stewardship, but certain changes have made it a less suitable destination for discussing sports while they are live, and it will be interesting to see how things go with the Super Bowl in February.
Consider, for example, the new system that pushes paid subscribers to the top of the comments. It’s been discussed ever since X introduced its subscription policy. Whatever its merits, it does move away from the old Twitter formula of the cream rising to the top in the comments section. For sports content, it means that non-subscribers comments simply get lost in the mix.
The other issue with the blue-checkmark prioritization is the monetization of those accounts, meaning that some account holders will simply comment inanely in a bid to get a share of the advertising revenue. Comments are either irrelevant or pointless, sometimes repeating back the sentiment of the original post. This is something that X’s new Head of Product, Nikita Bier, has admitted is a problem, and apparently there are big changes coming to how that revenue is earned. It’s desperately needed.
The bot problem has not gone away
And then there are the bots. It is almost universally accepted – by all sides in X’s political divide – that bots are annoying and harming the platform. They don’t tend to engage with sports content as much as they do with financials, such as crypto scams, and political content, but they can drown out the interesting sports observations that used to be Twitter’s hallmark.
On the other hand, there is still no better platform for fast-paced breaking news. If there is a controversial play in Super Bowl LX and you want to discuss it or get an opinion, it’s hard to think of a platform that will cover it as quickly. And while there has been an exodus to other platforms, some of the best sports accounts have stuck it out. Bodies like the NFL and NBA are also quick to put video content (which X prioritizes) up quickly on the platform, so it remains your best bet if you don’t have access to the game on television.
Still, those changes that have been made are calling into question X’s standing as the best destination to discuss sports as they happen. It seems Nikita Bier, and perhaps Elon Musk too, are realizing this to an extent, so maybe it’s not too late to eek out some improvements again.
