The National Women’s Soccer League matched its season high viewership on Lifetime last week as 123,000 viewers tuned in watch Washington Spirit against Orlando Pride. Viewership of the NWSL on Lifetime has seen a 9% increase since the beginning of June and the league is now averaging 94,417 viewers on the year.
Last week also marked the start of the CONCACAF Gold Cup. Through the first round, the competition is averaging 1.272 million viewers per match on Univision’s networks. First round viewership peaked on Sunday as FS1 and Univision combined to produce an audience of 3.664 million for Mexico’s opening fixture against El Salvador. The over-the-air FOX network won the majority of viewers for the United States’ opening match against Panama as the network drew 1.212 million viewers to Univision’s 1.049 million. This should not be expected to become a trend however, as the United States will return to FOX’s cable networks for the remainder of the tournament.
Here are the most-watched soccer games on US TV for July 6-9, 2017:
Average viewing audiences for soccer leagues on US TV:
| Rank | Date | Competition | Teams | TV1 | TV2 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7/9/17 | Gold Cup | Mexico / El Salvador | FS1; 403000 | Univision; 3261000 | 3,664,000 |
| 2 | 7/8/17 | Gold Cup | USMNT / Panama | FOX; 1212000 | Univision; 1049000 | 2,261,000 |
| 3 | 7/9/17 | Gold Cup | Curaçao / Jamaica | FS1; 223000 | Univision; 1150000 | 1,373,000 |
| 4 | 7/7/17 | Gold Cup | Honduras / Costa Rica | FS2; 130000 | UniMás; 1066000 | 1,196,000 |
| 5 | 7/8/17 | Gold Cup | Martinique / Nicaragua | —; — | Univision; 870000 | 870,000 |
| 6 | 7/7/17 | Gold Cup | French Guiana / Canada | FS2; 94000 | UDN; 237000 | 331,000 |
| 7 | 7/8/17 | Friendly | Cruz Azul / Toluca | —; — | UDN; 130000 | 130,000 |
| 8 | 7/8/17 | NWSL | Courage / Reign | Lifetime; 123000 | —; — | 123,000 |
| 9 | 7/9/17 | Friendly | Mexico Legends / Germany Legends | —; — | UDN; 90000 | 90,000 |
| 10 | 7/6/17 | USL | Tampa Bay / Cinicinnati | ESPNU; 19000 | —; — | 19,000 |
Average MLS viewing audiences on US TV:
| League | Overall* | ESPN | ESPN2 | FOX | FS1 | Univision | UniMás |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 MLS | 250,484 (34) | 290,800 (11) | 256,750 (4) | 428,333 (3) | 182,571** (15) | ||
| 2016 MLS | 257,683 (63) | 290,179 (28) | 201,500 (4) | 658,000 (5) | 154,346 (26) | ||
| 2017 NWSL | 94,417 (12) | ||||||
| *English-Only | |||||||
| **One game missing |
SEE MORE: Access our archives of US TV ratings for soccer.
The game on Lifetime was the Washington Spirit vs. Orlando Pride (with Marta scoring two goals for her side and Mallory Pugh scoring two goals for hers)
If the US matches bring over 1 million viewers on Fox, why broadcast the rest of the USMNT games on a cable channel with limited availability like FXX? This makes no sense to me.
The USA-Nicaragua game started during the 9th inning of the Red Sox-Yankees game on FS1 and STILL finished before the baseball game did. When the final ratings come out, I bet the USA-NCA on FXX will destroy the baseball game on FS1 in 18-34 and 18-49 #s, if not overall viewership–and that’s not including Spanish-language viewership. Fox must really love the 50-and-older demo to give regular season MLB and senior/women’s golf priority over a US National Team game.
Well, maybe they should run episodes of Matlock right after the end of the baseball broadcast to keep the audience around. 🙂
I don’t understand how the Curaçao-Jamaica and French Guiana-Canada matches get more viewers in Spanish than English, when neither team is from a Spanish-speaking country.
Because UniMas and Univision are both free-to-air, whereas FS1 and FS2 are not.
Free-to-air broadcast networks usually draw more viewers than pay TV networks.
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There is a reason why FOX had resisted airing all CONCACAF Gold Cup matches in the past: 80% of the group stage matches are unwatchable. No one tunes in to watch Curacao, French Guiana, Martinique, or Nicaragua.
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The USL that drew 19,000 viewers is another “Kate Markgraf special”, as she was the co-comm for that match. Video archive at ESPN3.com in case anyone want to nitpick her commentary apart.