The men's artistic gymnastics individual all-around competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics was held at the North Greenwich Arena on 28 July and 1 August 2012.

(At that point, Japan was second to the Soviet Union, whose gymnasts won the event six times; Uchimura would win again in 2016, bringing the two nations even.)

[2] Two of the top 10 gymnasts from the 2008 Games returned in 2012: Uchimura and seventh-place finisher Fabian Hambüchen of Germany.

At the Games, the top 24 competitors in the qualification phase (with a limit of two per country), based on combined scores on all six apparatuses, advanced to the individual all-around final.

The following gymnasts finished in the top 24 in the qualifying round but did not advance because of the two-per-country rule:[4] Kazuhito Tanaka (22nd place) was initially excluded by the two-per-country rule as well, but advanced to the final after his teammate Koji Yamamuro was injured on vault during the men's team competition.