Fairfax Media has obtained data from Telstra that reveals just how much Australians tune into AFL football while on the run.

The most popular match of the year came in round five, when Carlton beat Fremantle. It was the match when 2015 Brownlow winner Nat Fyfe fractured his leg, an injury that ended his playing season.

A total unique audience of 56,153 tuned in to watch the Blues' first win of the year via Telstra's AFL app. The match had a peak audience of 27,655.

The Blues were the most popular team on the Telstra app this year, posting an average audience of 34,000 per match, just pipping GWS with 33,000 viewers. Surprisingly, the GWS smashed the Swans in terms of mobile audience, with Sydney attracting an average audience of just 30,000 viewers.

Sydney had 56,500 signed-up members in 2016, GWS about 13,500.

The Blues were also part of the match viewers watched for the longest time, when they played Geelong in round 10. That game notched 2.14 million minutes watched, an average of 43.1 mins per unique audience member.

Carlton finished in 14th position on the AFL ladder this year, with seven wins and 15 losses.

Telstra Media's director of product development and innovation Rebecca Haagsma said the company was still learning why some teams and games rated so well on mobile.

She said whether or not the game was broadcast on free-to-air television was probably a factor, as was the timing of the match.

Whether fans were able to attend the game in person or not likely also made a difference, Haagsma said. Telstra Media would be doing a detailed analysis of its data to identify patterns next season.

The most watched game of the year fit several of Haagsma's hypotheses.

It was on Sunday at 4.15pm AEST, so it is likely many football fans were out, rather than at home in front of their televisions as they might be on a Friday night.

The game was played at Domain Stadium in Western Australia, so most Carlton fans would not have been able to make it.

It was not shown on free-to-air television, so for people without pay-TV subscriptions may have missed out on seeing it live if they did not stream it.

All five of the most watched games on the Telstra app were played in the afternoon and four of those matches were not shown on free-to-air television.

Channel Seven showed Collingwood v Geelong in round nine on a 90-minute delay and it was another of the most watched matches online.

AFL

Most watched play of 2016: Hawthorn v St Kilda ANZAC weekend (267K live streams around 4pm)

Australia's most popular team: Carlton (average unique audience of 34k per match)

Fastest growing audience of 2016: GWS Giants, Carlton, Sydney Swans (GWS average unique audience of 33k per match, Carlton average unique audience of 34k per match, Sydney average unique audience of 30k per match)