MORE than five million people across Australia were watching when Nick Malceski helped seal the Sydney Swans’ premiership over Hawthorn at the MCG.

The Seven Network's exclusive live telecast peaked at 5.084 million as the siren neared, with an average national audience of 4.053 million over the course of the game.

Seven said at least six million Australians tuned in for at least some part of the game, that's more than a quarter of the nation's population. 

In Sydney, the grip of NRL Grand Final preparations did nothing to prevent attention turning to the rival code of AFL.

Seven's match broadcast in the New South Wales premier's home town peaked at 795,000.

The game was most watched in Melbourne, with a peak audience of 1.574 million, averaging out at about 1.3 million viewers.

The ratings result sees the AFL Grand Final eclipse rugby league's state of origin as the most watched football game on Australian television so far this year.

Fans inside the ground created records of their own.

Throughout the course of the big match more than 193,000 calls were made on the Telstra Network between midday and 7.00pm, up from 83,000 calls at last year’s Grand Final.

There were also 2.4 million data requests made on the network inside the MCG during the game.

Matt Thompson is a reporter for AFL Media. Follow him on Twitter @MattThompsonAFL