Katy Perry Becomes First Twitter User to Hit 100 Million Followers

Singer Katy Perry, who just released her electronica-inflected album “Witness,” has become the first Twitter user to reach 100 million followers.

Perry joined Twitter in February 2009, reaching 50 million followers on @katyperry by mid-2012. The second most-followed Twitter account belongs to Justin Bieber, who currently has 96.7 million followers. Next in line are Barack Obama (90.8 million), Taylor Swift (85.1 million) and Rihanna (74.1 million).

Of course, how many millions of those followers are actually spam accounts or bots is unclear. CEO Jack Dorsey told Wall Street analysts in April that Twitter is continuing to battle bogus bots, which he said make up less than 5% of accounts.

Twitter congratulated Perry on reaching the milestone with a retrospective video of her tweets over the years:

She’s also set new records on YouTube, with the video for single “Bon Appetit” topping 16.8 million views in 24 hours after it was released last month (breaking her own record, previously set with “Roar”). Her “Witness” tour in the U.S. and Canada kicks off Sept. 9 and runs through February 2018.

In addition, Perry recently landed a gig as a judge on ABC’s reboot of “American Idol,” and this week helped announce the audition schedule for the show.

Perry also will be part of YouTube original series “Best.Cover.Ever,” the singing competition show from Ryan Seacrest Productions and Endemol Shine North America. And she live-streamed a YouTube-exclusive special, “Katy Perry – Witness World Wide,” which ran for 96 hours from June 8-12 that drew more than 49 million total views. The broadcast followed Perry the entire time (including when she was sleeping), culminating in live performance of “Chained to the Rhythm” with Pentatonix. Featured guests during the live-stream included James Corden, Sia, Dita Von Teese, and YouTube stars Liza Koshy and Gigi Gorgeous.

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