More than 51 million viewers in the UK watched at least 15 minutes of the television coverage of the Games over the two-week run this summer. Online records also tumbled for the BBC and other media firms, as they pronounced the first 'truly digital Games'.
© Adam Davy/PA Wire/Press Association Images
A survey by Starcom MediaVest Group has now indicated that 90% of the UK's adult (over 18) population watched the Olympics through a combination of TV, PC, mobile, tablet and social media; heralding a shift in viewing behaviour.
Some 21.9 million viewers watched at least some of the around 2,500 hours of live coverage provided by the BBC over 24 dedicated video feeds over various platforms, including the interactive TV Red Button.
Extrapolating data from a survey of 1,010 UK adults, Starcom estimated that 6.6m of these viewers had pressed the Red Button for the first time during the Games.
A total of 8.8 million viewers watched video on-demand coverage of London 2012 on TV, PC and mobile platforms, while 7.2m followed the action on a mobile phone or tablet device, with 28% using mobile media for the very first time.
New viewing behaviours also took greater hold during the Games, including 'dual screening', in which people watch television on the main screen, but also use an additional device, such as an iPad or laptop, to access additional information and content around what they are watching.
The survey revealed that 2.7 million UK adults 'dual screened' for the first time during London 2012, mostly to read or post about events on social media sites while also watching the action.
Some 6.4m adults used social media such as Facebook and Twitter as their information source on Olympic events. This was higher among younger viewers, as 47% of 18-24-year-olds got their Olympic fix from social networks.
However, 'traditional' media also performed well, with 46% of all adults reading about the Games in a newspaper and 29% hearing about events on the radio.
Starcom MediaVest Group UK digital research manager Scott Thompson said that the BBC's extensive coverage of the Games helped to introduce "new media technologies and behaviours to new audiences".
"The huge volume of coverage posed a new challenge for many consumers - how to navigate dozens of channels and thousands of hours of TV footage to find the events they wanted to watch," said Thompson.
"For many, TV's Red Button provided the solution and - even though it has been around for over a decade - gave 6.6 million viewers their first real reason to experiment with it.
"Once people have cleared the initial hurdle of experimenting with new technologies or behaviours, the barrier to repeating them is lowered as they have a clearer understanding of the benefits, and the confidence to use them again. We expect to see more evidence of these sorts of behaviours in the future."
London 2012 in pictures:
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