Twitter live stream viewership rises for second debate

Viewership of the second presidential debate on Twitter rose compared to the first, even as viewership dropped on television.

Twitter said that 3.2 million people viewed the social network’s live stream of Bloomberg’s debate broadcast. That marked a 30 percent increase from the 2.5 million who watched the first meeting between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump.

{mosads}Seventy percent of the audience was under the age of 35, according to the company.

The surge in viewers on Twitter comes after it was announced that fewer people watched broadcasts of the town hall-style debate on television. Total television viewers of the matchup fell from 84 million to 66.5 million, despite the fact that the debate followed the release of a controversial tape in which Trump spoke in lewd terms about grabbing women’s genitals and trying to seduce a married woman.

Live-stream viewership of the event was relatively strong beyond Twitter.

Wired magazine reported that debate related content on YouTube garnered more than a 120 million views. More than seven million people tuned in to Facebook’s live-stream of the debate, broadcast in partnership with ABC News.

The debate also generated record amounts of chatter on Facebook and Twitter. Both said it was the most-discussed debates on their platforms in history.