Richmond’s burgeoning reputation as the hottest ticket in town was highlighted at the MCG last night.

The Tigers attracted the biggest-ever crowd to a Round 1 match in league football history, with 90,151 watching them unfurl their 2017 premiership flag and go on to defeat Carlton by 26 points in an entertaining contest.

This topped the previous best opening round attendance of 87,119 for Carlton v Collingwood in 1995.

Richmond also broke the all-time league record for consecutive matches of 90,000-plus crowds.

It was the fourth game in-a-row that the Tigers had achieved the 90,000-plus attendance milestone.

They did this on all three occasions throughout their 2017 finals campaign – 95,028 in the qualifying final v Geelong, 94,258 in the preliminary final v GWS and 100,021 in the Grand Final v Adelaide.

And, the attendance of 90,151 at last night’s 2018 season-opener was Richmond’s third biggest for a home-and-away match.

The Tigers’ highest home-and-away crowd is 92,436 in Round 4 of the 1977 season against Collingwood at the MCG. Their second best is 90,564 in Round 3, 1982 v Essendon at the ‘G’.