Most-watched soccer games on US TV for July 18-23, 2017

MLS returned from its summer break with Orlando City SC taking on Atlanta United on ESPN last Friday night. The match drew 338,000 viewers, up 13% from ESPN’s previous Friday night broadcast on June 30 and a strong number for MLS on the network. The next day, however, Minnesota United’s match against the New York Red Bulls broadcast on ESPN was the networks second least-watched match of the season with only 222,000 viewers.

In the same timeslot as the MLS match Saturday, Lifetime saw a 36% decrease in NWSL viewership from last week’s season high with the Chicago Red Stars defeating the Orlando Pride 2-1 before a television audience of 81,000.

The CONCACAF Gold Cup knockout rounds averaged 2.457 million viewers across FS1 and Univision/UniMás through the semi-finals. Mexico unsurprisingly led the pack with pre-final tournament viewership peaking at 3.795 million viewers as El Tri fell to Jamaica. The Mexican National team played five matches at the 2017 Gold Cup, with an average audience of 3.4 million. The United States averaged 2.1 million viewers for their first five matches (not including the Gold Cup final viewing number).

Here are the most-watched soccer games on US TV for July 18-23, 2017:

Average viewing audiences for soccer leagues on US TV:

Rank	Date	Competition	Teams	TV1	TV2	Total
1	7/23/17	Gold Cup	Mexico / Jamaica	FS1; 794000	Univision; 3001000	3,795,000
2	7/20/17	Gold Cup	Mexico / Honduras	FS1; 339000	Univision; 3288000	3,627,000
3	7/19/17	Gold Cup	USMNT / El Salvador	FS1; 1050000	Univision; 1615000	2,665,000
4	7/22/17	Gold Cup	Costa Rica / USMNT	FS1; 1094000	UniMás; 1114000	2,208,000
5	7/20/17	Gold Cup	Jamaica / Canada	FS1; 357000	UniMás; 1563000	1,920,000
6	7/22/17	Liga MX	América / Querétaro	Univision; 510000	UDN; 319000	829,000
7	7/22/17	Liga MX	Tigres / Puebla	Univision; 521000	UDN; 248000	769,000
8	7/22/17	Liga MX	Chivas / Toluca	Univision; 538000	UDN; 229000	767,000
9	7/23/17	Liga MX	Pumas / Pachuca	Univision; 371000	UDN; 167000	538,000
10	7/19/17	Gold Cup	Costa Rica / Panama	FS1; 255000	UniMás; 272000	527,000
11	7/20/17	Int’l Champions Cup	Man Utd / Man City	ESPN; 452000	—; —	452,000
12	7/23/17	Int’l Champions Cup	Man Utd / Real Madrid	ESPN; 443000	—; —	443,000
13	7/22/17	Liga MX	León / Atlas	UniMás; 413000	—; —	413,000
14	7/22/17	Int’l Champions Cup	Barcelona / Juventus	ESPN; 403000	—; —	403,000
15	7/21/17	Liga MX	Tijuana / Cruz Azul	—; —	UDN; 369000	369,000
16	7/21/17	MLS	Orlando City / Atlanta United	ESPN; 338000	—; —	338,000
17	7/17/17	Friendly	Real Salt Lake / Man Utd	ESPN2; 230000	—; —	230,000
18	7/18/17	Friendly	Murciélagos / América	—; —	UDN; 230000	230,000
19	7/21/17	Liga MX	Morelia / Monterrey	—; —	UDN; 223000	223,000
20	7/22/17	MLS	Minnesota United / New York Red Bulls	ESPN; 222000	—; —	222,000
21	7/22/17	Int’l Champions Cup	Spurs / PSG	ESPN2; 207000	—; —	207,000
22	7/17/17	Friendly	Cruz Azul / Porto	—; —	UDN; 202000	202,000
23	7/23/17	MLS	Vancouver Whitecaps / Portland Timers	FS1; 127000	FOXD; 28000	155,000
24	7/22/17	NWSL	Red Stars / Pride	Lifetime; 81000	—; —	81,000
25	7/19/17	Int’l Champions Cup	PSG / Roma	ESPN2; 74000	—; —	74,000
26	7/17/17	UEFA Euro (W)	Germany / Sweden	—; —	UDN; 28000	28,000
27	7/18/17	UEFA Euro (W)	France / Iceland	—; —	UDN; 25000	25,000
28	7/21/17	UEFA Euro (W)	Germany / Italy	—; —	UDN; 23000	23,000
29	7/19/17	UEFA Euro (W)	Spain / Portugal	—; —	UDN; 16000	16,000
30	7/18/17	Int’l Champions Cup	Milan / Dortmund	ESPNU; 14000	—; —	14,000
31	7/20/17	UEFA Euro (W)	Norway / Belgium	—; —	UDN; 14000	14,000

Average MLS viewing audiences on US TV:

League	Overall*	ESPN	ESPN2	FOX	FS1
2017 MLS	250,329 (38)	295,714 (15)	256,750 (4)	428,333 (3)	176,313** (17)
2016 MLS	257,683 (63)	290,179 (28)	201,500 (4)	658,000 (5)	154,346 (26)
2017 NWSL	95,786 (14)
2017 USL	19,000 (2)				*English-Only
					**One game missing