Twitter reveals the UK’s most retweeted posts of the year

A man’s quest for free chicken nuggets was the most retweeted post of 2017 in the UK on Twitter, the social site has revealed.

In April, Carter Wilkerson asked US fast food chain Wendy’s how many retweets he would need in order to receive free nuggets for a year. His post of their reply – asking for 18 million – has been retweeted more than 3.6 million times since.

The post is now the most retweeted in the social media site’s history, and the food chain has agreed to award Wilkerson his nuggets.

Wilkerson’s post topped the list ahead of singer Ariana Grande’s response to the terror attack following her concert at the MEN Arena in Manchester in May, in which the US star said she was “broken”.

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Footballer Jermain Defoe’s “sleep tight little one” tribute to Bradley Lowery was the third most retweeted post of the year in the UK.

The young Sunderland fan had formed a touching bond with the striker during an awareness campaign for cancer in young children, but died of neuroblastoma in July.

Former US president Barack Obama was fourth among UK users with his message of equality that “no one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion”, which has in total been retweeted more than 1.7 million times globally.

Former footballer Andy Johnson completed the top five with a message to #EndTheStigma surrounding mental health and to support Everton star Aaron Lennon after he was detained under the mental health act.

Jeremy Clarkson’s attempt to dab and six-foot-seven-inch Stoke striker Peter Crouch appearing alongside two giraffes and joking of spending “time with family” also appeared in the top 10.

There were also places in the top 10 for tweeting police officer PC Dave Wise, who posted on the subject of suicide prevention.

Completing the top 10 was Fiona J, whose tweet on breast cancer awareness went viral, as did @officialwinemom and her caption on a video of Jeremy Corbyn at a Labour conference.

Twitter UK managing director Dara Nasr said: “The UK’s biggest retweets of the year are a great way to look back on some of our more notable tweets, and what a collection we have from poignant moments, acts of amazing charity and the usual dose of comedy.

“In what’s been a tough 12 months for many, this year’s top 10 UK retweets really show the difference people can make on Twitter, no matter whether you have just a handful of followers or many millions.”