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s the 2021 Toyota AFL final series has kicked off, the Seven Network has broken three of the highest football audience records of the year.

Over the weekend, Seven’s finals coverage averaged 1.01 million viewers nationally and 787,000 in the capital cities.

Saturday night’s Melbourne V Brisbane finals week one recorded the highest national audience of the 2021 season, with an average of 1.053 million viewers tuning into Seven networks live and free coverage channels.

The audience views were up 3% compared to Brisbane and Richmond’s 2019 final series opening match.

The match averaged an audience of 822,000 in capital cities, up 7% on 2019 Brisbane v Richmond final series week one game as Seven’s coverage was also up 12% in Melbourne, 22% in Adelaide and a soaring 46% in Sydney.

These statistics are up 5% and 12% from week one of the 2019 finals series, with the opening four finals games audience reaching 4.41 million people.

Melbourne’s average audience was up 14% from 2019, while Adelaide saw a 26% increase and Sydney scoring the highest on the field with a 110% increase.

Friday night’s Geelong v Port Adelaide qualifying finals scored the second-highest national audience on the 2021 season averaging 1.05 million viewers.

The Friday night’s opening final series game scored the highest capital city audience of 2021, which averaged 841,000 fans, up 3% on 2019’s opening Friday night final between Geelong and Collingwood.

Sevens audience in Adelaide and Sydney also spiked by 54% and 28%.

Sunday afternoon’s Western Bulldogs v Essendon elimination final was 2021’s third-biggest match as Seven’s coverage averaged 1.03 million viewers nationally and 789,000 in capital cities.

Saturday afternoon’s GWS Giants v Sydney Swans elimination final averaged a national audience of 895,000 viewers, up 17% on the corresponding 2019 final fixture between the Giants and Western Bulldogs.

Seven’s average capital city audience of 693,000 was up 25% on the 2019 Saturday elimination final, with Sydney’s audience up a whopping 202% and Brisbane up 48%.