Adelaide's match against Hawthorn last Friday night pulled one of the biggest television audiences of recent times.

Nearly 1.3 million people tuned into the coverage with that figure 17 percent up on last year's Friday night average.

Last year only one game in that time slot, when Collingwood met Hawthorn in Round 14, pulled more viewers.

In Adelaide, the audience peaked at 244,000 and averaged 201,000 viewers.