Katy Perry overtakes Justin Bieber as most followed person on Twitter

Perry's latest album Prism has boosted the pop singer to the top spot with 46.51m followers

Katy Perry performs "Roar" during the release party of her album in Los Angeles (REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni)

After holding the title for more than nine months Justin Bieber has been unseated as the most followed person on Twitter by Katy Perry.

The buzz around Perry’s new album Prism has pushed the 29-year-old pop artist into the top spot with 46.51 million followers edging out Bieber’s 46.49m.

Bieber himself became the most followed individual on Twitter in January this year when he reached 33.3m followers, overtaking Lady Gaga who is currently no.3 on the site with 40.39m.

Gaga’s popularity on the social media website set a number of records after she de-seated Britney Spears in 2010, becoming the first person to pass the 10 million, 20 million and 30 million milestones for follower count.

Pop stars continue to dominate the most-followed chart on Twitter, with Taylor Swift holding the fifth spot (36.23m), Britney Spears at no.7 (33.74m), Rihanna at no.8 (32.50m) and Justin Timberlake at no.10 (27.98m).

Barack Obama is the only figure in the top ten not involved in the entertainment industry (the official accounts for YouTube and Instagram fill out the vacant slots at no.6 and no.9) with his 39.27 million followers clinching him the fourth most-followed spot.

These figures are eclipsed in like-for-like comparison with Facebook, where Lady Gaga still reigns supreme with 60.35m likes (behind Perry’s 59.25m and Bieber’s 57.27m) although recent research suggests that Twitter might have surpassed Facebook as the most popular social network with the young.

A report last month from market researcher Piper Jaffray found that 26 per cent of US teens named Twitter as the “most important” social networking site, with only 23 per cent indicating that Facebook was most important.

Facebook themselves have refuted this with their own in-house research and the steadily rising popularity of Instagram (bought by Facebook in 2012 for $1bn) suggests that Mark Zuckerberg’s online social empire is far from crumbling.