In one of the more unique Opening Ceremonies in recent memory, London 2012 is already posting huge numbers and intrigue in the social world.

The Opening Ceremony was the largest event in social history – 98% larger than the 2012 Super Bowl.

The peak social moment was at 115A BST/815P ET.

Overall, Facebook and Twitter dominated Olympic sharing, but Vkontakte, Reddit, and Pinterest were all very active last night.

The size is interesting, but the Olympics is also about rivalries. The Opening Ceremony got the Games started with some great pairings.

The first interesting match-up came between 3 British legends – the Queen herself, James Bond (here Daniel Craig), and, of course, Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson). Our chart below shows that the US East Coast love went to the Queen. But the numbers were different in the UK and on the West Coast of the US – the UK preferred James Bond and the West Coast commented more on Mr. Bean.



The next battle came with during the face-off of children’s literature between Mary Poppins and Voldemort. In using social tallies to determine the victor, the World overall, the UK, and the US East Coast are big fans of Mary Poppins, while the West Coast was pro-Voldemort (really, guys?).



Then, there was the battle of music – the Arctic Monkeys and Paul McCartney. The Arctic Monkeys had a 3000% social mention increase when they performed live in the UK, but we saw that the household name of Paul McCartney had more social mentions in the US than the rest of the world when he performed.



Finally, a tag cloud to put it in perspective. Social mentions are still focused on the schedule and start times.



Don’t miss daily updates on top trending articles/content in the US, UK and around the world or write-ups of the most interesting social insights we find during the Games. All available daily on the Scorecard. Follow us on Twitter, as we live tweet and share activity during the Games, too.