With the Premier League season heating up as well as the increasing interest in the ever popular US Women’s National Team, TV ratings for soccer in the United States were better than usual last weekend.

Specifically, some very interesting numbers included more people watching Sunderland versus Leicester than West Ham United against Arsenal. Who would have thought last year that Sunderland-Leicester would attract more viewers than an Arsenal match?

While the most-watched Major League Soccer game each week is roughly the tenth most-viewed game on US TV, this week’s viewing number for Houston Dynamo against Seattle was far better than previous weeks. The 386,000 number was impressive given the fact that ESPN’s numbers so far this season have been underwhelming to say the least. Compared to ESPN’s regular season average from last year, the Houston-Seattle number was 57% greater than the average.

Also an impressive statistic was the number of people who tuned in to watch Cologne against Bayer Leverkusen. The Chicharito effect helped draw 225,000 across FOX Deportes and FOX Sports 2 combined. For the Bundesliga, that’s a positive step forward.

At the bottom of the ratings, a lot of discussion has been given to the 7,000 who watched Indy Eleven against Ottawa Fury. While it’s not an impressive number to say the least, it’s still better than viewing figures for more popular teams such as Napoli, Leeds United and Borussia Monchengladbach. Plus, Ottawa is hardly a TV market that is going to attract a lot of viewers (Indianapolis, on the other hand, is the 25th top TV market in the US).

See any interesting observations in the list below? Share them with us in the comments section below or our social media accounts.

Here are the most-watched soccer games on US TV from last weekend:

Pos. Teams No. of viewers TV Network Game time (ET) Date
           
1 Manchester City vs. WBA 850,000 NBC & NBC Universo 12:30-2:30pm Sat., April 9
2 Spurs vs. Man United 663,000 NBCSN 11:30am-1:30pm Sun., April 10
3 Puebla vs. Chivas 646,000 Univision Deportes 5:50-7:50pm Sun., April 10
4 USWNT vs. Colombia 622,000 ESPN 2-4pm Sun., April 10
5 UNAM vs. Leon 549,000 Univision Deportes 7:50-9:30pm Sun., April 10
6 Real Sociedad vs. Barcelona 537,000 beIN SPORTS en Español 2:30-4:30pm Sat., April 9
7 Sunderland vs. Leicester 451,000 NBCSN & NBC Universo 8:30-10:30am Sun., April 10
8 West Ham vs. Arsenal 419,000 NBCSN & NBC Universo 7:45-9:45am Sat., April 9
9 Monterrey vs. Chiapas 394,000 Univision Deportes 8-10pm Sat., April 9
10 Wolfsburg vs. Leverkusen 391,000 FOX & FOX Deportes 12:30-2:30pm Sat., April 9
11 Houston vs. Seattle 386,000 ESPN 4-6pm Sun., April 10
12 Club America vs. Tijuana 385,000 Univision Deportes 6-8pm Sat., April 9
13 LA Galaxy vs. Portland 337,000 FOX Sports 1 & FOX Deportes 9:30-11:30pm Sun., April 10
14 Real Madrid vs. Eibar 331,000 beIN SPORTS & beIN SPORTS en Español 10am-Noon Sat., April 9
15 Crystal Palace vs. Norwich 325,000 NBCSN 10am-Noon Sat., April 9
16 Espayol vs. Atletico Madrid 226,000 beIN SPORTS en Español 12:15-2:15pm Sat., April 9
17 Cologne vs. Leverkusen 225,000 FOX Deportes & FOX Sports 2 11:30am-1:30pm Sun., April 10
18 Queretaro vs. Toluca 217,000 Univision Deportes 8-10pm Fri., April 8
19 NYCFC vs. Chicago 212,000 FOX Sports 1 & FOX Deportes 7-9pm Sun., April 10
20 Southampton vs. Newcastle 205,000 USA 10am-Noon Sat., April 9
21 Pachuca vs. Tigres 154,000 NBC Universo 9-11pm Sat., April 9
22 Milan vs. Juventus 82,000 beIN SPORTS 2:45-4:45pm Sat., April 9
23 Stuttgart vs. Bayern 76,000 FOX Sports 1 9:30-11:30am Sat., April 9
24 Schalke vs. Dortmund 70,000 FOX Sports 1 9:30-11:30am Sun., April 10
25 Valencia vs. Sevilla 54,000 beIN SPORTS en Español 10am-Noon Sun., April 10
26 Frankfurt vs. Hoffenheim 51,000 FOX Deportes 9:30-11:30am Sat., April 9
27 Swansea vs. Chelsea 40,000 NBC Universo 10am-Noon Sat., April 9
28 PSV vs. Willem II 25,000 Univision Deportes 2:30-4:30pm Sat., April 9
29 Granada vs. Malaga 15,000 beIN SPORTS en Español 2:30-4:30pm Fri., April 8
30 Hertha Berlin vs. Hannover 10,000 FOX Sports 2 2:30-4:30pm Fri., April 8
31 Indy Eleven vs. Ottawa 7,000 beIN SPORTS 7:30-9:30pm Sat., April 9
32 Napoli vs. Hellas Verona 5,000 beIN SPORTS 9-11am Sun., April 10
33 Burnley vs. Leeds 4,000 beIN SPORTS 7:30-9:30am Sat., April 9
34 Ingolstadt vs. Monchengladbach 4,000 FOX Sports 2 9:30-11:30am Sat., April 9

Note that viewing figures for soccer games shown on the over-the-air Univision network have not been made available.

HT SportsTVRatings.