The figure confirms the event as the world?s second largest football tournament behind the World Cup, which was watched by a cumulative audience of 33 billion in 1998.
Research company Sponsorship Research International found that the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy and France accounted for around one billion of the total cumulative audience.
The tournament was aired in 170 countries with the final between Italy and France being shown in all territories.
Total worldwide broadcast time amounted to more than 10,000 hours, an average of 63 hours per broadcast country, and an average of 345 hours per match.
In The Netherlands, half of the Dutch population watched the Holland v Italy semi-final while a quarter of the country then watched the final, despite their team not participating.
In Belgium, the opening match between Belgium and Sweden was viewed by nearly one-third of the Belgian population while the final drew and audience amounting to more than a quarter of the population.
France and Italy each attracted audience levels in excess of 21 million for the final ? representing around 40 percent of the potential audience for each country.
Semi-finalists Portugal saw one-third of the nation tuning into their match against France, whilst in Romania, around a third of people watched each of their team?s four matches.
