Lady Gaga becomes world's top twitterer

At 10:30am GMT yesterday the star recorded 5 635 460 followers, versus current Twitter Queen, Britney Spears, at 5 646 028. At current rates of follower growth, Lady Gaga was set to storm past Britney yesterday or, at latest, today, Friday 20 August. Lady Gaga's surging popularity brings Britney's reign at the top to a brief end - she only claimed the Twitter crown from Ashton Kutcher less than three months ago. At that time Famecount.com had forecast that Lady Gaga would soon usurp Spears.

The milestone further cements Lady Gaga's status as the world's most popular star online. On 25 June, she overtook Obama to become the world's most popular living person on Facebook, and currently claims over 16 million fans on the network. www.famecount.com/all-platforms On an aggregated basis across Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, Famecount.com can also confirm that Lady Gaga is now by far the most popular entity online.

But Bieber's bidding for the throne

However, even with this extraordinary achievement the pop princess cannot afford complacency. While she may be the most popular star, she is not the fastest growing. Canadian teen sensation, Justin Bieber, is currently racking up almost 800 000 new followers a month, and Famecount predicts that on present trends he may challenge for the Twitter throne within six months.

Daniel Dearlove, founder of Famecount.com commented, "This milestone is yet more evidence of the extraordinary popularity that Lady Gaga has rapidly achieved. Social networks like Twitter are helping stars turbo charge their ascent to fame, and extend their engagement with fans as never before".

World's top 10 Twitterers.

Source: Famecount.com.