Simon Cowell’s The X Factor is the most tweeted-about series on UK TV, according to new research by Twitter.

The ITV talent show generated 9.4m tweets in the 12 months to the end of May this year, nearly twice as many as the second-placed show, Channel 5’s Celebrity Big Brother, and 13 times its Saturday night rival on BBC1, Strictly Come Dancing.

An “elite” top 30 shows accounted for 50% of all TV-related Twitter activity, dominated by reality, entertainment and talent shows along with dramas such as Sherlock, Doctor Who and soaps. TV accounted for around 40% of all UK Twitter traffic during evening peaktime viewing hours.

With TV executives turning to social media to generate buzz – the modern equivalent of “watercooler TV” – 11% of shows enjoyed a ratings hike after being talked about on Twitter, according to the social media company’s own study.

However, the overall boost to audiences which benefited from social media was relatively limited, an estimated 2% increase.

The most tweeted-about drama was the 50th anniversary edition of Doctor Who, with 501,000 tweets, with Channel 4’s Crazy About One Direction, which proved controversial among the band’s fans, the most tweeted-about documentary. ITV’s The Brits was the most discussed single broadcast, with more than 4m tweets.

Andy Brown, the global chief executive of Kantar Media, which carried out the research published on Thursday, said Twitter had extended the traditional conversation with friends and family “outside the living room”.

“It is not as straightforward as assuming that a high number of viewers results in a large volume of tweets,” he said.

“Twitter friendly shows that encourage tweets during the broadcast or have a younger, evangelical audience for example can punch above their weight, thereby distorting overall perceptions.”

The study analysed 110m TV related tweets from 13 million users over a 12-month period, excluding news and live sport programmes.

Other most tweeted about shows included Cowell’s other ITV talent show, Britain’s Got Talent and so-called “constructed” reality shows, ITV2’s The Only Way is Essex and E4’s Made in Chelsea.

BBC1’s Question Time and BBC2’s Top Gear were also in the top 30 series, ahead of BBC1’s The Great British Bake Off and Channel 4’s Gogglebox.

Unsurprisingly perhaps, programmes with younger audiences tended to have more Twitter activity, as did programmes which encouraged audience participation through viewer votes and debate.

Despite having a smaller share of the audience, ITV leapfrogged BBC1 in terms of Twitter volume thanks to the “X Factor effect”, with both ITV2 and E4 also punching above their weight.

While the X Factor topped the chart, the report said it suffered a big drop in Twitter volume on the previous year, suggesting the social media platform could be used as an early indicator of the long term health of a show.

Top 10 TV series on Twitter*

1. The X Factor (ITV) 9.4m

2. Celebrity Big Brother (Channel 5) 5.3m

3. Britain’s Got Talent (ITV) 3.1m

4. Made in Chelsea (E4) 2.6m

5. I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here (ITV) 2.6m

6. The Only Way is Essex (ITV2) 2.5m

7. Big Brother (Channel 5) 2.5m

8. Hollyoaks (Channel 4) 2.4m

9. EastEnders (BBC1) 2.3m

10. The Voice (BBC1) 2.1m

* Total TV tweets, 1 June 2013 to 1 May 2014

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