Essendon’s Round 7 blockbuster against Geelong at Etihad Stadium on Friday night was the most-watched Friday night game since the current ratings system began in 2001 with a total audience of 1.545 million viewers on free to air and subscription television.

The match between the two undefeated teams in the competition now sits at fifth on the most-watched AFL home and away match ever only behind the ANZAC Day matches of 2006, 2007, 2012 and 2013.

The previous best television audience for a Friday night match came in Round 3, 2012 when 1.522 million viewers tuned in for Carlton v Collingwood at the MCG.

In a positive sign for the competition every Friday night match of the 2013 season has exceeded 1.1 million viewers.

The average audience for last Friday night’s blockbuster was broken down into 924,505 metropolitan free to air viewers, 312,158 regional free to air viewers and 308,755 subscription viewers.