For sure, the virus has "changed the way we Internet", but has Covid-19 also been the most discussed topic ever in the whole history of web and social media? 🤔
We know that Covid-19 did have an effect on web traffic, but that doesn't necessarily correlate to discussions *about* the epidemic. During a webinar about Social Intelligence and Covid-19, I was recently asked whether Covid-19 has been the most discussed topic online ever. "Unprecedented" was definitely the answer that immediately popped in my mind, but I wanted to give a more factual benchmark against recent events and trends as discussed online. So I searched on Digimind for the peak of mentions of these highly discussed topics in 2019 and first half of 2020:
🌳🔥 Amazonian rainforest wildfires: 17M
⛪️🔥 Notre-Dame fire: 21M
🐨🔥 Australian wildfires: 39M
✊♻️ #ClimateStrike movement (combined with Greta Thunberg's UN speech): 60M
✊🏿✊🏾 #BlackLivesMatter movement: 107M
🇺🇸🇺🇦 Trump-Ukraine scandal / impeachment process initiated: 129M
🦠😷 Covid-19: 750M
Even some highly discussed topics like Trump (100M monthly mentions on average) or Climate Change (35M monthly mentions on average) look small in comparison to the Covid-19 peak in mentions! That being said, after a few months the volume is quickly decreasing as Covid-19 now becomes part of the new normal. In cumulative volumes however, Trump has accumulated more than 2.4B mentions since 2019 whereas Covid-19 is "just" at 1.9B.
So, to answer the initial question, will Covid-19 be the most discussed topic over time? Probably not. But as a peak? Definitely.
Want to learn more about Social Media & Web Insights in the age of Covid-19? Check out our dedicated Covid-19 Resource Center or download our latest Industry Report: