But for millions of these viewers, the Games had already begun. Well, virtually: because at the end of June we saw the global release of London 2012 - the official video game of the event.
This may sound like an overstatement - it is 'only a video game'. These days, however, video games are making a far bigger splash than those of us brought up on Space Invaders or Pac Man could ever have imagined. And ripples are spreading into HR.
Last November, the video game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, hit the shops, rapidly outselling Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, as well as making $1 billion faster than Avatar, to become the biggest entertainment release ever.
When you think print has been around for six centuries, the gramophone for 135 years and cinema for 120, for any entertainment medium to have achieved this in just four decades is remarkable - all the more so when you look at the stunning imagery of LA Noire or Journey and think back to the pixellated black and white paddles of Pong.
Fundamentally, it is the ability for users to become active participants in digital worlds that has transformed video games from kids' toys into a grown-up medium, where average age of participants is a very grown-up 37.
It is this transformation that is getting employers increasingly excited. Last month, I wrote about how, by imaginatively embracing technology, HR practitioners could enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of people practices for pocket-money prices.
By taking this investment to the next level, and drawing inspiration from techniques used by video game developers, it is possible to achieve astonishing outcomes.
For example, McDonald's in the UK is in the process of implementing a new checkout system. To support this, it has developed a video game where staff process a series of customer orders, scoring points for speed and accuracy. Such is the popularity of this game that it has been posted on the employee website and people from across the company - office staff and restaurant employees - are now competing to achieve the highest scores.
Who would have thought a few years ago, as a result of 'gamification', staff would be volunteering to do training in something as procedural as checkout operations, let alone doing so in their own time and on their own computers at home?
So what can we expect this kind of 'employtainment' to deliver in future? Well, through a video game called FoldIt, we have now had our first glimpse of its true potential.
David Baker, professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington, Seattle, studies how the chains of molecules making up a protein will fold when that protein is synthesised. This is important, because proteins that fold into certain shapes can be used to combat a range of diseases, from cancer to Alzheimer's.
To support his research, Baker created the FoldIt game as a way of enabling anyone who likes solving puzzles to apply their skills to help in the creation of these life-saving proteins. Today, the game has about 250,000 players, whose combined competitive ingenuity last year created a protein that can be used to treat a particularly virulent strain of HIV/Aids. It was a problem that had stumped scientists for over 15 years - but it took FoldIt puzzle-solvers just 10 days to crack it.
The potential is clear. What is equally clear is that, for a significant proportion of our workforce, the preferred mode of engagement with information sharing - from training programme to team briefing - is to sit forward and interact, rather than sit back and absorb. That alone should be enough to make every HR practitioner sit up and take notice.
