Since the Opening Ceremony of London 2012, the world has embraced Olympic fever. Research from Nielsen revealed that there were more tweets about the Olympics on that single day than during the entire duration of Beijing 2008. The unprecedented social following of the Games is reflected in 67% of UK adults using Social Media to follow the Olympic Games live.
Taking a closer look at the Opening Ceremony on 27th July, we found the event was featured in an incredible 19% of all social media conversations that day.
In addition to the increased online buzz, Nielsen’s Daily Mobile survey found that 30% of UK adults aged 18-54 spent more time using Social Media that day than they would normally do.
Globally, over 900 million people watched the Opening Ceremony on 27th July. In the UK the audience peaked at 27 million, greater than the TV audience for last year’s Royal Wedding.
But, royalty remained in the spotlight with Her Majesty the Queen, David Beckham and Mr. Bean ranking as the most mentioned personalities of the Opening Ceremony. Producer, Danny Boyle was also a major topic of conversation, particularly amongst British users.
On Super Saturday (4th August), when Team GB won six Gold Medals and broke a world record in Cycling, 40% of UK adults spent more than two hours following the Games – with Facebook being the most popular social media channel and Twitter the most relevant among 18-24 year olds.
Overall, the increased following and conversation across both platforms has made London 2012 the most social Games ever.
Source: www.nielsen.com