Lady Gaga is no longer Queen of the Twitterverse.
Who dethroned her? Justin Bieber, of course.
The Biebs now reigns supreme as the Twitter user with the largest audience — the first king of 140-character quips since Ashton Kutcher way back when — with more than 33.3 million followers.
But it's all online love between the pop stars, according to an @ladygaga tweet a few days before last week's coup: "So proud of @justinbieber and all the Beliebers! I'm only happy to see your fans growing in size, you all deserve it! Monsters support you!"
Gaga had been atop the digital chatter since overtaking Britney Spears in August 2010, according to Twitter Counter, which tracks stats on the social network.
Being a pop star — or president of the United States — helps when trying to crack into the Twitter elite. Aside from Bieber and Gaga, the top 10 tweeps based on the number of followers are Katy Perry, Rihanna, Barack Obama, Spears, Taylor Swift, YouTube, Shakira and Kim Kardashian.
As for locals with big followings? It's a more varied group.
Author Neil Gaiman may be the most popular with 1.8 million followers. The Timberwolves' Ricky Rubio has 1.1 million followers tweeting in English and Spanish. Owl City, a k a musician Adam Young, has more than 950,000 followers. Food guru Andrew Zimmern and Timberwolf Kevin Love count more than half a million followers each.
They're not quite Twitter royalty, but not even the pope — with only 1.4 million followers in English — can call himself that. □
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