Major League Soccer (MLS), North America's premier soccer competition, has reported record interest for the 2025 regular season. The league witnessed a significant increase in viewership and attendance, marking a new high in its history.
The MLS regular season, which ran from February 22 to October 18, saw an impressive year-on-year viewership uplift. The total gross viewers per gameweek averaged at 3.7 million across the 510-game regular season. This figure represents a substantial growth of 29% compared to the average of 2.8 million from the previous year's campaign.
Apple TV remained the primary distributor of MLS games as part of their decade-long agreement. However, these figures also include data from other domestic broadcast partners such as US media giant Fox, Canada’s TSN and RDS, international media partners and domestic MLS Season pass carriers like Comcast, DirecTV and Prime Video. Additionally, social media platform TikTok and gaming service EA FC Mobile also contributed to this surge in viewership numbers. According to MLS officials, this comprehensive approach provides a more complete perspective on overall viewership.
High-profile names drive growth
The league attributes its growth primarily to high-profile names associated with its franchises such as Argentine icon Lionel Messi at Inter Miami and South Korean star Son Heung-Min whose addition has led to new broadcast deals in his home market since his arrival.
In terms of physical attendance too, the league made strides with the second-best attended campaign ever recorded drawing an impressive cumulative total of over 11 million fans or approximately 21k per game on average - resulting in record ticket revenue for any single campaign so far.
Since 2022 alone there has been an increase by about twelve percent while social media followers have grown by ten percent year-on-year, boasting 109 million collective followers across various platforms.
Future prospects and partnerships
Earlier in the year, Rich Motzkin, Wasserman managing executive for global soccer, predicted that it was only a matter of time before MLS reaps the benefits of its partnership with AppleTV.
In addition to this promising forecast, US Soccer has announced a new partnership with US-based food brand Chobani. As part of this multi-year agreement, Chobani will sponsor all categories of US Soccer’s national teams and its La Colombe Coffee brand will become the official coffee and cold brew partner. This collaboration is set to extend through the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup which will be co-hosted by the US alongside Canada and Mexico. The partnership also includes grassroots-focused initiatives that Chobani will undertake in collaboration with US Soccer.
In other developments within North American soccer circles, Canadian Soccer Business (CSB) has appointed Michael Beckerman as its new chief commercial officer. Beckerman brings extensive experience from his previous roles at Torstar Corporation as chief client officer and director of advertising for Europe at sportswear giant Nike among others.
