The attendance during the Qualifying Final between Fremantle and Hawthorn at Optus Stadium, September 3, 2026. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
The 2026 Toyota AFL Finals Series has continued to dominate the sporting landscape over the weekend with\u00a0packed stadiums\u00a0and record\u00a0viewing\u00a0audiences\u00a0witnessing\u00a0four massive finals matches.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A total of\u00a0244,757\u00a0fans attended the four Qualifying and Elimination Finals across Thursday,\u00a0Friday\u00a0and Saturday,\u00a0marking the\u00a0highest ever attended\u00a0Qualifying and Elimination Final\u00a0round\u00a0in which each match was played in a different state and different venue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Across the four matches, the Seven and Foxtel broadcasts reached\u00a0over\u00a015 million\u00a0Australians\u00a0with an average total audience of\u00a0over 6.3 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thursday night\u2019s Fremantle vs Hawthorn attracted a\u00a0sell-out\u00a0crowd of\u00a059,446, with Fremantle recording their\u00a0highest home finals crowd\u00a0ever and\u00a0the fourth highest AFL crowd at Optus Stadium of all-time.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Friday night saw\u00a096,680\u00a0at the MCG to\u00a0witness\u00a0Geelong beat Carlton\u00a0with the game attracting the\u00a0second highest attended Elimination Final in VFL\/AFL history.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For 24 hours, Thursday night\u2019s match held the record for the\u00a0biggest audience\u00a0of the year with an\u00a0average audience over\u00a01.7 million\u00a0and\u00a0reach of\u00a03.87 million\u00a0Australians, before Friday night\u2019s blockbuster surpassed it with a\u00a0record reach of\u00a04.2. million.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Friday night\u00a0match\u00a0is the\u00a0most viewed premiership fixture of any code\u00a0across 2026 to date, surpassing last weekend\u2019s record Wildcard Finals viewership.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On Saturday afternoon Sydney and Brisbane\u00a0matched up in for the first time in a final at the SCG with\u00a037,261\u00a0through the gates, before\u00a051,370\u00a0turned out\u00a0to watch Adelaide Crows\u00a0win over the\u00a0Western Bulldogs\u00a0at Adelaide Oval for the fifth highest attended AFL Final at the venue on record.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Across Thursday, Friday and Saturday,\u00a0the AFL Finals were the\u00a0#1 program\u00a0in total TV across all people,\u00a0also holding the position of\u00a0the #1 and #2 program on Saturday for the two finals.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a0244,757\u00a0attendance is the\u00a0fifth\u00a0highest attended\u00a0Qualifying\u00a0and\u00a0Elimination\u00a0Finals on record, with the other four higher occasions\u00a0including at least two matches at the MCG.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The success follows a\u00a0standout\u00a0Wildcard Finals weekend with\u00a0172,769\u00a0fans in attendance\u00a0and a\u00a0total of 7.4m viewers across the two nights.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The weekend takes the total Toyota AFL Finals series attendance to date to\u00a0417,526\u00a0for an average crowd of\u00a069,587\u00a0across the six matches. Including four of the six matches being sell-out crowds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The strong start to the 2026 Toyota AFL Finals Series follows the highest home-and-away attendance in VFL\/AFL history, with 7,772,015 fans attending matches during the 2026 Toyota AFL Premiership Season.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
AFL CEO Andrew Dillon\u00a0said:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Elimination and Qualifying Finals delivered another epic weekend of football with\u00a0blockbuster\u00a0crowds across the country turning out in full force to cheer on their sides\u00a0and watch some unbelievable football.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWith millions tuning\u00a0in nationally, it\u2019s been a bumper two weeks of Finals and we can\u2019t wait to\u00a0see\u00a0another massive weekend of\u00a0matches\u00a0in Perth and Brisbane.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Semi Finals Information\u00a0<\/p>\n
All Semi Finals will be broadcast live nationally across the Seven Network and Foxtel and streamed via 7plus, Kayo and Binge.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fremantle vs Geelong Cats\u00a0
Friday, 11 September\u00a0
8:10pm\u202fAEST \/\u202f6:10pm AWST\u00a0
Optus Stadium\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brisbane Lions vs Adelaide Crows\u00a0
Saturday, 12 September\u00a0
7:35pm\u202fAEST\u00a0
The Gabba\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ticketing Information\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both games will go\u00a0onsale\u00a0on Monday, September 7 via Ticketmaster, venue local time.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fremantle vs Geelong Cats\u00a0<\/p>\n
Club Members:\u202f10am \u2013 2pm AWST\u00a0<\/p>\n
General Public: 3pm AWST\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brisbane Lions vs Adelaide Crows\u00a0<\/p>\n
Club Members: 10am \u2013 2pm AEST\u00a0<\/p>\n
General Public: 3pm AEST\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The attendance during the Qualifying Final between Fremantle and Hawthorn at Optus Stadium, September 3, 2026. Picture: AFL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":881875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-881874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=881874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/881875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}