Who is albert12798? Meet Twitter’s mysterious troll that ‘ratios’ everyone

Brad Norton

Becoming the next viral sensation on social media can happen to anyone at any time and perhaps no one else has proven that better than the latest account to explode overnight, as ‘albert12798’ has taken Twitter by storm.

Virality is often random at best. There’s never really an explanation behind why certain things or certain people ‘blow up’ on the internet. It can be a random meme, an indescribable video, or even a person.

The latest viral sensation may be taking over Twitter day by day, but they’ve left everyone scratching their heads. Albert12798 is an account that seemingly came out of nowhere. Created in September 2020, this blank slate of a profile has amassed over 300,000 followers at the time of writing.

But how did this all happen? Who is the social media troll behind one of the fastest-growing accounts we’ve ever seen? Let’s break down everything we actually know about the most mysterious Albert on the internet.

Who actually is albert12798?

The latest overnight phenomenon has kept essentially all personal information under wraps. There’s no profile picture, no banner, no real media of any kind outside of your typical memes. Moreover, there’s nothing in the way of a full name, location, or background.

Put simply, Albert is a complete mystery and an intentional one at that. Whoever’s pulling the strings behind the scenes has set everything up in such a way as to not reveal a single detail.

If you look through who the account follows, it’s mostly other social media meme stars and celebrities. Albert follows everyone from 100 Thieves viral content creators The Mob, along with Fortnite pros and musicians. As far as Dexerto can tell, there’s no direct owner of the account in the ‘following’ list.

Albert12798’s rise to the top on Twitter.

albert12798 on Twitter
Albert12798 has ratioed some of the biggest names on social media.

Barely a few months into things, this new account has blown up in a major way over the past few weeks. While Albert began his Twitter journey in September, things only truly started picking up in December.

The account has gained over 100,000 followers in the past week alone, with December being by far the fastest-growing month.

Albert's growth on Twitter
Albert12798 has become a viral sensation at the tail end of 2020.

But how has this completely random account gathered this much of a following? Mostly through trolling. This account will appear underneath some of the biggest internet celebs replying with memes, or just dropping a ‘ratioed’ and leaving.

From Jake Paul to Sommer Ray and plenty others, Albert has ratioed some of the biggest names on the internet.

Undeniably his biggest impact with a single ‘ratio’ was in response to Playboi Carti. But he’s even taken aim at esports organizations like Luminosity as well, relying on his enormous following to outweigh any post he replies to.

What is a Twitter ratio?

If you’re unfamiliar with the term, it couldn’t be simpler. Regardless of the main tweet, if a reply underneath is met with more engagement, it has ratioed the original post. Say a picture of an apple gets five likes but a response with a banana gets 10 likes, the banana has ratioed the apple.

It’s often done as a way to show up or embarrass the initial tweet. If someone posts a controversial opinion, others might simply reply with ratioed to rally the masses behind them and assert their dominance.

There’s no nailing down exactly when this trend kicked off. Though it’s clearly seen an uptick throughout the latter half of 2020.

Albert also has a Twitch account, though no more information can be found here. His Twitch profile has a few different digits with ‘1270’ ending his name instead. 

While there’s clearly a presence, the character is yet to go live on Twitch. 4,300 followers have already amassed in anticipation of a stream. So who knows, maybe it’s just a matter of time before we see this viral personality taking on Twitch.

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About The Author

Brad Norton is the Australian Managing Editor at Dexerto. He graduated from Swinburne University with a Bachelor’s degree in journalism and has been working full-time in the field for the past six years at the likes of Gamurs Group and now Dexerto. He loves all things single-player gaming (with Uncharted a personal favorite) but has a history on the competitive side having previously run Oceanic esports org Mindfreak. You can contact Brad at brad.norton@dexerto.com