Airing immediately after the World Cup Final, Major League Soccer delivered its second-biggest regular season audience.
Sunday’s Atlanta-Seattle MLS match earned a 0.9 rating and 1.56 million viewers on FOX, the second-largest regular season audience in league history. A 2004 D.C.-San Jose match holds the top spot with 1.97 million on ABC.
It was also the largest MLS audience on a single network — including playoffs and exhibitions — since that 2004 match. The previous highs were 1.48 million for last year’s All-Star Game on Univision, 1.47 million for a 2007 Galaxy-Chelsea friendly that marked David Beckham‘s MLS debut, and 1.41 million for the 2016 MLS Cup on FOX.
The 1-1 draw aired following the FIFA World Cup Final, which had 12.5 million. It was the fourth MLS telecast to air after Fox Sports’ FIFA World Cup coverage. Each of the four topped the one million viewer mark, with three ranking among the 20 most-watched MLS regular season windows ever.
Overall, FOX has aired five of the top 20, including a pair of NFL-adjacent matches in 2016 (1.3M) and 2017 (1.35M).
For the weekend, the MLS match topped all non-World Cup sporting events in adults 18-49 (0.6).
Largest MLS Regular Season Audiences, All-Time
