This teen's love for chicken nuggets helped him break the record for the most retweeted tweet of all time
An American teenager has broken the world record for the most retweeted tweet ever. Carter Wilkerson's attempt to win a year's supply of his favourite food - chicken nuggets - broke Ellen DeGeneres' record when he passed 3,430,249 retweets on Tuesday.
The 16-year-old
started his Twitter challenge on April 5 when he asked the Wendy's fast food chain how many retweets he would need to receive a year's supply of chicken nuggets for free.
"18 million," came the reply from the fried chicken store's official Twitter handle - within a minute of his tweet.
"Consider it done," replied Carter, despite having only 150 Twitter followers at the time.
He then turned to the Internet, posting a screenshot of the tweets, writing: "Help me please. A man needs his nuggs."
The Internet responded, and how. His tweet was retweeted by a whole host of celebrities and companies including Apple Music, Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Twitter.
On Tuesday, his message had been retweeted more than 3.4 million times, beating the record that Ellen set at the 2014 Oscars, when she posted an all-star selfie that included Bradley Cooper, Meryl Streep, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Lawrence. That tweet currently has 3.4 million retweets. That bump came after the TV host
tried to hold on to her old record by proposing whoever retweeted the teen's tweet also retweet her picture.
As of writing this, Carter's plea for free chicken nuggets has over 3.5 retweets and counting. That's the most ever on the platform. And while, no, it's not quite 18 million, Wendy's has not only granted the teen his wish of a year-long supply of free chicken nuggets, but also pledged a $100,000 donation to a children's adoption foundation in his name.
And if Carter was hoping to hang on to the free stuff Ellen promised him to let her keep her record, he better think twice:
Meanwhile, Carter, not satisfied with just breaking a world record and his "nuggs", has now got his sights set on 18 million retweets:
Will he get there? Watch this space for more.
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