Twitter Top 100 lists compared

In a previous post (Top Twitter Users) I listed several sites where lists of top Twitter users can be found. I wanted to get an idea on the quality of these lists. Do they contain the same Twitter users ? Do they provide the same data ?

I considered four top lists of Twitter users ranked by the number of followers.
1. Twitdir Top 100 followed : number 1 on the list has 94937 followers, there are 6586 followers for number 100
2. Twittercounter The top 100 most popular Twitter users : number 1 on the list has 94600 followers, there are 7156 followers for number 100
3. Twitterholic Top 100 based on Followers : number 1 on the list has 94894 followers, there are 6562 followers for number 100
4. Twittown Top 150 followers (only first 100 considered) : number 1 on the list has 6941 followers, there are 986 followers for number 100

The four lists combined count 179 different Twitter users. It is clear that the top 100 list from Twittown is outdated. Twitter user @BarackObama has only 5441 followers according to Twittown, in reality this Twitter user has 94937 followers.

Let's compare the three other list. The three lists combined cound 122 different Twitter users, see table below.

Twitdir has the highest values for number of followers. Twittercounter has the lowest values.
* If Twitdir is compared to Twitterholic, the differences are up to 43 followers.
* If Twitdir is compared to Twittercounter the differences are up to 337 followers.
* If Twitterholic is compared to Twittercounter the differences are up to 294 followers.

It looks like that Twitdir Top 100 followed has the most actual data, although some Twitter users are missing. On the other hand Twitdir is the least user friendly. The top 100 is presented in 10 parts, each consisting of 10 Twitter users. Furthermore it takes an awful lot of time to load the 10 pages. If you want a quick overview of all top 100 Twitter users, I would recommend the Twitterholic Top 100.

TwitterUser	Twitdir top 100	Twitterholic top 100	Twittercounter top 100
BarackObama	94937	94894	94600
kevinrose	66341	--	66251
leolaporte	57771	57762	57703
cnnbrk	43880	43857	43628
alexalbrecht	38623	38618	38595
MarsPhoenix	--	36237	36182
JasonCalacanis	36148	36130	36083
Scobleizer	35605	35590	35473
Veronica	33393	33382	33333
twitter	--	--	31820
TwitterUser	Twitdir top 100	Twitterholic top 100	Twittercounter top 100
THErealDVORAK	31476	31471	31399
macrumors	31376	31375	31353
hotdogsladies	27617	27614	27577
TechCrunch	26722	26705	26679
ijustine	23679	23675	23636
ricksanchezcnn	23176	23172	23152
twittervision	22982	--	22915
guykawasaki	21087	21084	21061
ev	19692	19683	19635
CaliLewis	19661	19656	19647
TwitterUser	Twitdir top 100	Twitterholic top 100	Twittercounter top 100
Twitterrific	19357	19344	19333
rtm	19287	--	19241
StephenColbert	18888	18881	18692
chrispirillo	18797	18790	18770
wilw	18769	18760	18740
patricknorton	18365	18365	18345
biz	18148	18144	18076
013	--	--	18134
twitlive	--	17465	17460
dooce	17280	17277	17077
TwitterUser	Twitdir top 100	Twitterholic top 100	Twittercounter top 100
laughingsquid	16797	16785	16762
chrisbrogan	16358	16343	16322
garyvee	16356	16339	16267
bloggersblog	15901	15901	15889
ambermacarthur	15427	15423	15419
darthvader	14864	14852	14830
woot	14636	14627	14588
gruber	14403	14398	14378
hashtags	--	--	14220
zappos	14088	14080	13983
TwitterUser	Twitdir top 100	Twitterholic top 100	Twittercounter top 100
mashable	13393	13382	13356
jowyang	13074	13068	13044
NotHenryRollins	12924	--	--
TwitPic	12781	12776	12747
feliciaday	12540	12534	12441
zefrank	--	12360	12332
davewiner	11962	11959	11947
hodgman	11846	11842	11764
dlprager	--	11815	11806
drhorrible	--	11698	11641
TwitterUser	Twitdir top 100	Twitterholic top 100	Twittercounter top 100
problogger	11652	11649	11631
jakemarsh	--	11598	11600
loiclemeur	11435	11426	11403
majornelson	10846	--	10834
Larry	--	10843	--
newmediajim	10820	10816	10785
timoreilly	10800	10792	10714
DannyTRS	10755	10755	10748
Ed	10676	--	--
Ed_Dale	--	10673	10646
TwitterUser	Twitdir top 100	Twitterholic top 100	Twittercounter top 100
WilHarris	10641	10640	10631
wordpress	10625	10617	10545
jeffcannata	10508	10507	10499
UstreamTV	10455	10440	10433
Ihnatko	10336	--	10332
skydiver	10308	10300	10265
mollywood	10267	10265	10260
twitter_status	10003	--	10009
jack	9921	9914	9881
zeldman	9846	9845	9816
TwitterUser	Twitdir top 100	Twitterholic top 100	Twittercounter top 100
jonathancoulton	9683	--	9663
SteveJobs	9677	--	9639
macworld	9639	9638	9603
jkottke	9612	9607	9592
TUAW	9500	9495	9482
steverubel	9428	9424	9418
technorati	9374	9369	9330
brianshaler	9333	9332	9331
om	--	9314	9292
xenijardin	9116	9112	9100
TwitterUser	Twitdir top 100	Twitterholic top 100	Twittercounter top 100
nytimes	8783	8783	8759
s	--	--	8711
osen	--	--	8632
SethGodin	8623	--	--
revision3	--	8555	8535
cnn	8426	8424	8410
warrenellis	8298	8293	8263
gapingvoid	8268	--	8263
missrogue	8144	8141	8129
factoryjoe	8060	8055	8050
TwitterUser	Twitdir top 100	Twitterholic top 100	Twittercounter top 100
socialmediaclub	8047	8036	8023
digg	8021	8018	8000
nprpolitics	7986	--	7909
simplebits	7780	7775	7767
sarahlane	7670	7663	7638
Maggie	7553	7554	7530
acedtect	7529	7527	7523
BreakingNewsOn	7475	7474	7462
DanRaine	7349	7349	7338
Damiano	7339	7332	7330
TwitterUser	Twitdir top 100	Twitterholic top 100	Twittercounter top 100
Dizzed	7269	--	--
jeffpulver	7249	7246	7239
springnet	7200	7200	7197
PhillyD	--	7195	--
buckhollywood	7177	7179	7161
CNETNews	7165	7162	7156
waynesutton	7147	7144	--
StephenTColbert	7026	7028	--
timer	7010	--	--
mybloglog	7004	--	--
TwitterUser	Twitdir top 100	Twitterholic top 100	Twittercounter top 100
fredwilson	6987	6983	--
lonelysandwich	--	6927	--
seesmic	6795	--	--
Pistachio	6792	6787	--
Zadi	6746	6733	--
mozillafirefox	--	6745	--
Borat	--	6674	--
adamcurry	6621	6618	--
Mickipedia	6586	6582	--
tferriss	--	6582	--
TwitterUser	Twitdir top 100	Twitterholic top 100	Twittercounter top 100
ryanblock	--	6568	--
briansolis	--	6562	--

These figures presented above date from Friday October 10, 2008.