Wanna’ know who’s still using X, and what they’re discussing the most in the app?
Note: It’s not politics, despite that seemingly being what gets the most attention these days.
X has published an overview of key trends from 2026, including data on the most discussed musicians, TV shows, sports leagues, and more, which provides some additional insight into who’s using X, and why.
And while Elon Musk has tried to make as many people as possible see his posts in the app, and has used his massive presence to push his own political agenda, there are many, many other discussions still happening via X posts.
First off, on music, which continues to generate a lot of discussion in the app. In 2025, Justin Bieber (11.2 million posts), Stray Kids (45.7m) and Cardi B (10.1m) led the way in music discussion.
Though the discrepancy here is huge, with K-pop band Stray Kids leading the pack. That, in itself, provides some interesting insight into the scope of the popularity of K-pop, and the international audience on X.
In terms of TV shows, Netflix was the big winner this year, with “Stranger Things” generating 12.4 mentions in the app, and “Squid Game” prompting 10.9 million.
The Stranger Things talk will no doubt also see another big boost before the year is out, when the final episodes of the show are released.
In sports, the Premier League was the most mentioned individual sports league, with 582.7 million posts related to the top-tier football competition.
Sports have traditionally been the most discussed topic in the app, with other sports leagues, including the NBA, driving a heap of engagement also.
On the fashion front, the Met Gala, where rich folk get to showcase the absurdity of what they spend their money on, also drove a lot of discussion.
So, cool, I guess.
X has also shared the most used emojis in posts:
If you’re interested in emoji use, or you want to try and work out what the higher application of these specific icons in posts actually means within historical context (note: I don’t think it means much).
Some interesting insights into the year that was on X, which provides some perspective on the breadth of discussion, and relative community engagement in the app, though it is also interesting to note that each of these topics is only a tiny fraction of overall engagement within each topic.
For example, last year, sports-related discussion generated 1.4 trillion impressions in the app. As such, Premier League engagement is only a fraction of the whole, which also underlines the scope of activity in the app, as over 500 million users engage across a range of topics.
But as a higher-level overview, these are what got people talking on X, and what’s driving interest in the X community.
On a related note, X has also relaunched Global Trends in its Explore section, so you can see which posts are generating discussion at any given moment.
That could give you another means to tap into trending discussion, or see what X users are saying about the latest topics.
