Most-watched soccer games on US TV for August 29-September 4, 2017

In the soccer TV ratings game, the United States kept it close with Mexico this international break as their matches kicked off back to back. The United States played first, drawing nearly 2.4 million viewers total and over 1 million from both the English language ESPN and Spanish language Univision broadcasts. Immediately following the United States’ match, Univision brought Mexico’s World Cup clinching game to an audience of 2.56 million viewers on its own.

The international break saw just one national broadcast of Major League Soccer as FC Dallas hosted the New York Red Bulls. The game was watched by 291,000 viewers, up 30% from UniMás’ previous broadcast featuring FC Dallas against their Texan rivals Houston Dynamo. It is worth noting, however, that the Texas Derby match was played on a Wednesday.

Finally, the National Women’s Soccer League has seen three consecutive weeks of matches with viewership higher than 100,000 for the first time. Lifetime has averaged exactly 110,000 viewers for its previous three broadcasts stretching from August 19th to September 2nd. The league looks to have a great chance to continue its streak with the final three broadcasts of the season featuring multiple teams in the top-half of the table.

Here are the most-watched soccer games on US TV for August 29-September 4, 2017:

Rank	Date	Competition	Teams	TV1	TV2	Total
1	9/1/17	CONCACAF WCQ	Mexico / Panama	FS2; 51000	Univision; 2563000	2,614,000
2	9/1/17	CONCACAF WCQ	USMNT / Costa Rica	ESPN; 1071000	Univision; 1302000	2,373,000
3	9/3/17	UEFA WCQ	Netherlands / Bulgaria	ESPN2; 373000	ESPND; —	373,000
4	9/3/17	UEFA WCQ	France / Luxembourg	—; —	UniMás; 343000	343,000
5	9/2/17	UEFA WCQ	Spain / Italy	—; —	FOXD; 316000	316,000
6	9/2/17	MLS	FC Dallas / New York Red Bulls	UniMás; 221000	UDN; 70000	291,000
7	8/30/17	Copa MX	Cruz Azul / Tigres	—; —	UDN; 283000	283,000
8	8/29/17	Copa MX	Chivas / Santos	—; —	UDN; 269000	269,000
9	8/30/17	Copa MX	Atlas / América	—; —	UDN; 257000	257,000
10	9/1/17	UEFA WCQ	Czech Republic / Germany	—; —	UniMás; 174000	174,000
11	8/31/17	CONMEBOL WCQ	Brazil / Ecuador	beIN; 161000	—; —	161,000
12	9/3/17	UEFA WCQ	Hungary / Portugal	—; —	FOXD; 153000	153,000
13	9/2/17	NWSL	Thorns / Spirit	Lifetime; 108000	—; —	108,000
14	9/4/17	UEFA WCQ	England / Slovakia	—; —	UDN; 70000	70,000
15	8/30/17	Copa MX	Toluca / Ud. Guadalajara	—; —	Gala; 58000	58,000
16	8/31/17	UEFA WCQ	Bulgaria / Sweden	—; —	UDN; 24000	24,000

Average MLS viewing audiences on US TV:

League	Overall*	ESPN	ESPN2	FOX	FS1
2017 MLS	255,279 (52)	294,158 (19)	220,000 (5)	440,750 (4)	189,227** (22)
2016 MLS	257,683 (63)	290,179 (28)	201,500 (4)	658,000 (5)	154,346 (26)
2017 NWSL	96,789 (19)
2017 USL	19,000 (2)				*English-Only
					**One game missing