The audience was lower than expected, with bookies expecting the event to pull in as many as 12.8m viewers, but the size of the audience had a downside for the BBC as it saw the Wimbledon women's tennis final attract one of the lowest audiences in years as Venus Williams beat Lindsay Davenport.
The Live 8 concert, dubbed the greatest in history by the tabloids, kicked off at 1pm on BBC Two attracting an average 6.6m viewers or 37.2% of the total TV viewing public.
Among the Hyde Park performers were Madonna, U2, Paul McCartney, REM, Sting, Annie Lennox, Coldplay, Robbie Williams, Elton John, Joss Stone, Dido, Travis and Keane.
The BBC had complaints, however, as viewers complained about some artists' use of foul language during the concert, which was broadcast live and without time delay.
The BBC said it received almost 400 complaints about its Live 8 coverage after Madonna and Snoop Dogg swore prior to the 9pm watershed.
A BBC spokeswoman said: "Millions of people enjoyed our 12 hours of live broadcasting. We are sorry if any offence was caused."
Once Sir Paul McCartney had finished at around midnight, the coverage switched to the US Live 8 concert in Philadelphia until 3.30am.
In total, Live 8 consisted of 10 concerts in London, Philadelphia, Toronto, Berlin, Paris, Rome, Tokyo, Moscow, Cornwall and Johannesburg, as well as one in Edinburgh this Wednesday.
There were more than 260 acts playing with an estimated global audience of 3bn.
The Daily Mirror called the concert "Emotional. Sincere. Stunning" while The Guardian's pop and rock critic Alexis Petridis said: "Things you would expect to seem overblown and mawkish ended up poignant and powerful".
The concert was part of the build-up to the G8 summit in Gleneagles on July 6 where the leaders of the eight wealthiest nations will meet to discuss how to help Africa, among other issues.
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