More than 3 million tune in for D/N Test

Cricket Australia and the Nine Network are celebrating a record-breaking TV audience from the inaugural day-night Test, with the thrilling finale peaking at 3.19 million viewers across the country.

Australia defeated New Zealand by three wickets late on day three to clinch the series 2-0, with 3.10 million people tuning in to see Peter Siddle hit the winning runs.

The match was a prime-time ratings hit for Nine across all three days, with an average audience of 2.313 million fans watching Sunday's night session.

To prove the popularity of prime-time Test cricket, the audience figures each day peaked during the third session.

Day two of the Test peaked at 1.94 million while the opening day saw 1.84 million tune in.

Quick Single: Day one a ratings hit for Nine Network

Nine's head of sport Steve Crawley was thrilled with the numbers, declaring the concept of day-night Test cricket to be here to stay.

"We witnessed something pretty special over the weekend with the birth of day/night Test cricket," Crawley said.

"Not only was it a great contest, but as a spectacle it was an instant hit with viewers. We couldn’t be happier with the results with almost 3.2 million people watching Nine’s broadcast last night.

"And with more than 124,000 packing into the Adelaide Oval over the three days, it’s certain that day/night Test cricket is here to stay.

"A sports loving nation now has something new to cheer about."

WATCH: Australia win thrilling day-night Test against NZ

Sunday's TV numbers made it Nine's highest-rating day of cricket so far this summer. Nine won every quarter-hour block on Sunday - from 1.30pm until 9.30pm.

While falling short of topping the broadcast numbers for the AFL and NRL Grand Finals earlier this year, and the Cricket World Cup final in March, Sunday's peak audience surpassed the viewing figures for this year's Melbourne Cup. 

Speaking before the ratings for Sunday's final day were revealed, Cricket Australia boss James Sutherland was already hailing the historic event as a success.

Sutherland is hopeful of scheduling at least one day-night Test next summer, with Adelaide, Brisbane and Hobart all in the frame to host.

"Intuitively you would assume that it would be a success, but everything seemed to go even better than to plan," he told 3AW. "We're certainly very excited about it now. 

"The TV audiences were fantastic."