England’s World Cup journey tracked in text messages

Mobile carrier O2 have tracked England fans’ emotions throughout the World Cup by analysing the volume of text messages sent during matches.

The study found that when England desperately needed a goal against Slovenia last week, Jermaine Defoe’s strike sparked the biggest emotional reaction of the tournament, with an astonishing 285,000 texts per minute sent in celebration—around 4,700 per second.

To put that into to context, less than half that number were sent in the same period the week before.

And as the nation was gripped just before the final whistle went, texts plummeted down to around 190,000 moments before the end of the match, before shooting up to just under 245,000 celebratory texts when the final whistle sounded.

Unsurprisingly, the England v Algeria match drew a lukewarm response from fans, although numbers shot up in response to Wayne Rooney’s rant after the final whistle, with 260,000 texts sent in response.