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AUSTRALIANS have watched the Western Bulldogs' drought-breaking premiership victory in phenomenal numbers.

Channel Seven's Grand Final coverage reached more than 6.5 million combined in-home viewers across the day-long telecast.

The siren-to-siren telecast peaked at 5.160 million viewers, which was the highest metropolitan audience for a Grand Final since 2006.

In Sydney alone the audience peaked at 705,000.

According to OzTam ratings, 91.2 per cent of people who had their televisions on were tuned into the game.

The preliminary figures don't include viewers on Telstra's AFL Live Official App, those watching overseas via Watch AFL and fans in pubs and bars across the nation. 

The fanfare surrounding the Bulldogs emotional victory has prompted Seven to schedule a replay of the game at 3.30pm on Sunday in Melbourne, and an afternoon encore screening of the classic documentary Year of the Dogs.