-Photo by AFP

SAN FRANCISCO: Twitter users fired off a record number of tweets per second at the final whistle of Japan's thrilling upset win over the United States in the women's World Cup final.

The San Francisco-based real-time blogging service said Twitter users sent 7,196 tweets per second after Japan defeated the United States in a penalty shoot-out.

Twitter, in a statement on its @TwitterGlobalPR feed, said another football match was next in terms of the highest number of tweets per second ever sent: Brazil's shock loss to Paraguay in the Copa America.

Twitter users sent 7,166 tweets per second at the conclusion of that match.

Twitter's previous record was the 6,939 tweets per second sent on January 1, 2011 as the New Year arrived in Tokyo.

Osama bin Laden's killing also sparked a Twitter frenzy with more than 5,000 tweets per second being sent as news spread of the death of the Al-Qaeda leader.

Other peaks for Twitter activity include April's royal wedding, with 3,966 tweets per second, and the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan, with 5,530 tweets per second.

Twitter, which was founded in 2006, said last month that Twitter users are sending 200 million tweets a day, up from 65 million a year ago.