Greta Thunberg and Andrew Tate are both winners in their controversial Twitter feud — if their follower counts are anything to go by

• After Greta Thunberg and Andrew Tate sparred on Twitter, their accounts both spiked in popularity.
• Twitter users called attention to how large, ideologically opposed accounts can boost each other.
• Social-media users have long grown their profiles by calling out accounts with large followings.

Greta Thunberg and Andrew Tate spiked in followers after they feuded on Twitter on Wednesday, leading some to call attention to how large accounts can amplify each other.

Tate's account grew by over 108,000 followers on Twitter on the day of the spat, a much higher number compared to an average growth of around 40,000 a day for the week before, according to the data-analytics website Social Blade. Thunberg, whose account had previously been losing hundreds of followers a day, shot up by 163,000 followers that same day.

The interaction started after Tate, a self-styled guru who's become known for misogynistic, male-oriented tips and speeches, called out the 19-year-old environmental activist on Twitter. He asked for her email address so that, he wrote, he could email her a list of his car collection's emissions.

Thunberg replied by saying he could send an email to "smalldickenergy@getalife.com." The clapback went viral, amassing almost three million likes and over 180 million views in a day.

—Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) December 28, 2022

Many people across the internet cheered on Thunberg's diss against Tate, who has made a name for himself by putting down women and making misogynistic statements such as saying he needs authority over women and that female self-defense is a "bullshit" concept, although some people also suggested her comment constituted body-shaming.

Since then, Tate responded to Thunberg's putdown on Twitter by saying she should "get a life" and taunting her about the email address name, although the response was widely derided.

In the wake of the feuds, some users called attention to how accounts can leech off each other's popularity by sparking drama that draws widespread attention. 

"A classic move people use that gains more Twitter followers is to attack a bigger, ideologically opposed account, offering some likelihood they'll amplify you," the marketer and digital analyst Dan Barker wrote on Twitter, attaching a picture of Thunberg's follower growth from Wednesday.

—dan barker (@danbarker) December 28, 2022

Other users also argued that the back-and-forth between the pair served mainly to amplify their accounts, especially as Tate was suspended from Twitter until Elon Musk took over the platform.

Influencers and politicians have a history of raising their profile thanks to feuds and drama that garner attention, often using the quote-tweet function to call out large ideologically opposed accounts, which can often grab more eyeballs. 

Thunberg herself has a history of drawing attention by responding to criticism from or sparring with high-profile figures. She has changed her Twitter bio multiple times to mock derisive remarks from politicians including former President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.