THE AFL is primed to persist with an increased amount of Thursday night matches, with the League posting record crowd numbers through the first six weeks of the year.

The newly introduced five consecutive Thursday night games to begin the season have drawn an average television audience of more than one million people.

Meanwhile, two of the five biggest crowds so far this season also involved Thursday night games, with both coming in the opening two weeks of the year.

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It follows a marginal increase in the total number of Thursday night matches to eight in season 2019. The remaining three Thursday night matches fall in the bye weeks between rounds 13 and 15.

That slight increase came despite the AFL toying with the idea of potentially raising the number of Thursday night matches to 11, before settling on an increase of just one from 2018.

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Following more success so far this season, the AFL's general manager of clubs and broadcasting Travis Auld believes that number will remain similar in years to come.

"There's always a balance in terms of the number of Thursday nights," Auld told AFL.com.au.

"There's quite a few factors we look at. One is making sure they come at the right time of the year and where we can around school holidays.

"But it's also about getting a spread across a number of venues, a number of teams, plus they work better in some markets than others.

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"Then you've got the factor of managing breaks for clubs and travel requirements. With the introduction of the five-day break for each club, that allows for a greater number of Thursday nights.

"You also need to be mindful of making the game as accessible as we can, so Thursday nights don't work for everyone particularly from an attendance point of view. We are mindful of making sure we don't overdo them."

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The statistics come after the AFL revealed that a record 2,101,633 people have already attended games through the first six weeks, smashing the previous record set last year.

The six consecutive rounds featuring crowds of more than 300,000 people is also an AFL record, with the previous streak lasting just four rounds in 2012.