The social media site Twitter has revealed the biggest global Twitter trends of 2016 and they were: The Rio Olympics, Donald Trump's election as US president and augmented reality sensation Pokemon Go.

Meanwhile, the biggest single spike in Twitter activity in the UK was sparked by England's shock defeat to Iceland at Euro 2016, as 128,000 tweets per minute were sent in the wake of the 2-1 loss that dumped England out of the tournament.

Euro 2016 was also the fourth biggest overall Twitter trend of the year.

The second biggest activity spike was also provided by football - in the wake of Leicester City's remarkable Premier League title triumph, which was confirmed with the final whistle at Stamford Bridge and Spurs' 2-2 draw with Chelsea in May.

The global trends list also featured the Oscars in fifth place, with Brexit, Black Lives Matter, Donald Trump, the phrase "RIP" in honour of a range of celebrity deaths throughout the year and Game Of Thrones completing the top 10.

The drama in Westeros was not the most talked about TV of the year in the UK however - that prize went to Celebrity Big Brother, which beat the Great British Bake Off and Love Island to top spot.

Despite One Direction taking a break this year, Harry Styles took top spot in the most followed UK celebrities list thanks to his 29.5 million followers, closely followed by Adele, his bandmates Louis Tomlinson and Liam Payne, with Emma Watson in fifth.

Zayn Malik, Ed Sheeran, Wayne Rooney, Simon Cowell and Stephen Fry make up the rest of the top 10.

As a platform it was a mixed year for Twitter however, with user numbers still not growing quickly enough for some investors - the site sits more than a billion users behind Facebook - while Twitter also confirmed it was cutting 9% of its global workforce and it was to close video app Vine.

Twitter's biggest global trends of 2016 have revealed social media's obsession with the Olympics, politics and Pokemon Go.

While #Rio2016 was the biggest of the year, the US election, Oscars, Brexit and Donald Trump also featured in the top 10 as politics dominated many conversations.

Top 10 global trends on Twitter

1. Rio2016

2. Election2016

3. PokemonGo

4. Euro2016

5. Oscars

6. Brexit

7. BlackLivesMatter

8. Trump

9. RIP

10. GameofThrones

Top trends in politics

1. Brexit

2. Trump

3. Election2016

4. Turkey

5. iVoted

6. PanamaPapers

7. JuniorDoctors

8. Budget2016

9. Labour

10. Chilcot

Top trending TV shows in the UK

1. CBB

2. GBBO

3. LoveIsland

4. XFactor

5. Eurovision

6. GameOfThrones

7. BBCQT

8. SSNHQ

9. PMQs

10. BRITs2016

Most followed celebrities in the UK

1. Harry Styles (29.5m)

2. Adele (27.5m)

3. Louis Tomlinson (23.5m)

4. Liam Payne (23.5m)

5. Emma Watson (23.4m)

6. Zayn Malik (20.4m)

7. Ed Sheeran (16.6m)

8. Wayne Rooney (14.1m)

9. Simon Cowell (12.7m)

10. Stephen Fry (12.3m)