LOS ANGELES -- "I don't understand award shows," Kanye West admitted Sunday at the MTV Video Music Awards.
But awards shows sure do understand him.
West tends to bring ratings and ignite conversations all over social media -- so much so that he helped this year's VMAs break Twitter's record for the most tweets sent about a non-sports program in the United States. The broadcast generated 21.4 million tweets, up from 12.6 million in 2014.
Nielsen Social, which has been tracking Twitter activity for television since 2011, reported the record-breaking data Monday. Those 21.4 million tweets were sent by 2.2 million people, and nearly 11.8 million people saw those tweets 676 million times.
In comparison, this year's Grammys attracted 13.4 million tweets. The Super Bowl, which is considered a sports program, incited 25.1 million tweets in February.
The top-tweeted VMAs minute came at 10:49 p.m. ET (247,525 tweets) when West announced that he's running for running for president in 2020. He jokingly (maybe) revealed his bid and dropped the mic to wrap up his acceptance speech for the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award.
Does he have your vote America? @kanyewest accepts the Video Vanguard award http://t.co/pyg3SBh8gq— MTV (@MTV) August 31, 2015
"It don't matter, though. It ain't about me. It's about ideas, people who believe in truth. And yes, as you probably could've guessed by this moment, I have decided in 2020 to run for president," Kanye said to a stunned crowd that included his wife, Kim Kardashian.
The night was filled with similarly buzzy moments, including Taylor Swift appearing during Nicki Minaj's opening number, Minaj and Miley Cyrus's onstage verbal spat, and Justin Bieber's post-performance tears.
But the hottest talking point of the night was Kanye's presidential bid, as viewers feverishly spread the news, created instant memes and tried to predict his running mate.
Kanye is so cute, y'all.— Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake) August 31, 2015
Kanye West vs Donald Trump for president. #VMAs pic.twitter.com/h40EZVXXrq— Not Will Ferrell (@itsWillyFerrell) August 31, 2015
#KanyeWest2020 Who will be his vice president? — Brian A. Hernandez (@BAHjournalist) August 31, 2015
Who would you rather have for president? RT for Kanye West FAV for Donald Trump pic.twitter.com/Zo2AxFSSbn— ☆ (@blessedagb) August 31, 2015
This is ready. http://t.co/tROJgIWSz2 #VMAs— Tumblr (@tumblr) August 31, 2015
A photo posted by King Kylie (@kyliejenner) on Aug 30, 2015 at 8:00pm PDT