MLS Reports 93% Surge in Weekly Viewership as League Enjoys Record Growth

Major League Soccer says its live match audience nearly doubled this year. The league reports an average of 7.2 million gross viewers per week across streaming and TV, up 93 percent on the previous season.

That number covers Apple TV, US and Canadian TV partners, and international platforms. One standout game was Nashville SC against Atlanta United on July 17, which pulled in 587,000 viewers on FOX. It was the network’s most-watched MLS regular-season match since the opening weekend of 2020.

Crowds were strong too. More than 11.2 million fans came through the gates in the regular season, the second-highest total in league history, at an average of 22,063 per game. 

Six clubs set single-match attendance records, and three of the 10 biggest standalone crowds in MLS history came this year.

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The World Cup seems to have helped. Since the tournament break, regular-season games on FOX and FS1 have seen a 45 percent rise among men aged 18 to 34, and an 18 percent rise among all adults in that age group, compared with games played before the tournament. 

Commissioner Don Garber had said he hoped the World Cup would spark more interest in the domestic game. MLS also says its fans have an average age of 39.6, the youngest of any major US men’s pro sports league.

Online, the league and its clubs racked up 19.1 billion social media impressions in the regular season, up 18 percent on 2025. Engagements hit a record 838 million, a 13 percent rise. The league’s own channels alone drew 5.9 billion impressions, up 44 percent, and 225 million engagements, up 47 percent.

There was growth elsewhere as well. Video views reached 5.8 billion, up 11 percent, and MLSsoccer.com had 65 million page views, up 28 percent. League and club accounts now have a combined 123.5 million followers, with 14.8 million new ones added this year.

MLS expects the trend to carry on. If playoff crowds are as big as it hopes, the league says it will rank among the top three first-division leagues in the world for total attendance in 2026.

This report is based on information first published by Goal.