England’s Premier League has surpassed Mexico’s Liga MX as the most popular soccer league in the United States, according to a recent report. As a result, the ranking of the most popular soccer leagues in the United States has changed dramatically.
The best way to measure the popularity of any sports league is to base it on the number of people who watch the games. So, we’ve aggregated TV and streaming viewership as reported by Nielsen, as well as numbers shared by broadcasters and streaming services to find the winners. After all, Americans get to watch thousands of football games each season, so the competition is pretty fierce.
Most popular soccer leagues in the United States according to their audience
According to data calculated by Nielsen and shared by broadcasters, here are the eight most-watched soccer leagues in the United States. These rankings are based on overall football viewership during the 2023 calendar year:
Premier LeagueLiga MXMajor League SoccerLaLigaNWSLBundesligaSerie ALigue 1
Measuring popular soccer leagues in the United States
The Premier League has recently taken first place from Liga MX. The Premier League’s recent success in television viewership has surpassed two million viewers in many regular season matches between the league’s traditional “big six” clubs. In fact, 2023 has been a record year for Premier League viewership in the United States. The five most-watched Premier League matches in American television history occurred during 2023.
Previously, for decades, Mexico dominated U.S. soccer viewership due to the number of Mexican-American fans in that country, as well as the ease of access to games on Univision. There are still millions of followers of clubs such as Club América, Chivas, Cruz Azul, Pumas and Monterrey.
But in 2023 there was a seismic drop in viewership for Liga MX matches. For example, the audience for Liga MX’s Apertura 2023 decreased by 12% compared to 2022.
Still, there is no doubt that the popularity of both Liga MX and the Premier League in the United States is due to the fact that many of their games are available on free, open television. For example, the Premier League’s total viewership for 9 days over the Christmas period was larger than all MLS television broadcasts in all of 2023. Being on network and cable television is still important when it comes to viewership.
Popularity and transmission
After the Premier League and Liga MX, there is no doubt that Major League Soccer ranks a distant third among the most popular soccer leagues. The arrival of Lionel Messi skyrocketed the league’s streaming service (MLS Season Pass) to over a million subscribers, which is an impressive statistic on its own. Streaming numbers for individual MLS games have not been made available by the league or Apple.
However, Nielsen has reported that 1.75 million viewers tuned in to Univision to watch Messi’s debut match with Inter Miami. Additionally, 815,000 people watched the MLS Cup final on FOX. While broadcast figures are not available, television viewership for the 2023 final was down 58% compared to 2022.
In fourth place among the most popular football leagues is LaLiga. The Spanish top-flight league benefits from several matches per week being televised on ESPN Deportes, which consistently generates approximately 150,000 viewers per match. That consistency, plus all the games broadcast on ESPN+, as well as superclubs Barcelona and Real Madrid, puts LaLiga ahead of the NWSL.
The growth of NWSL
While last year’s Clásico in LaLiga attracted 538,000 viewers on ESPN Deportes (not including ESPN+), the NWSL has seen growth and is making a conscious effort to expand with new teams in the San Francisco Bay area, Boston and Utah. . The final attracted more than 800,000 spectators. Final appearances by Ali Krieger and Megan Rapinoe helped that number. The only thing that keeps it behind LaLiga in this classification is the presence of Real Madrid and Barcelona. Those two clubs have games available on ESPN Deportes, and fans regularly tune in for games that don’t even make the headlines.
Outside of the NWSL Finals on network television, viewership for NWSL matches is growing, but lags far behind the other leagues.
Meanwhile, the Bundesliga and Serie A find most of their matches streaming. ESPN+ and Paramount+ typically don’t make viewership numbers affordable. However, ESPN broadcast a recent Dortmund-Leipzig match on ABC, where just over 400,000 fans tuned in.
Combining the entire football audience on television and streaming in 2023, the Premier League represents… Liga MX is close behind with 23%.
The remaining leagues are around 1% (or less) of the entire audience.
PHOTOS: IMAGO
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