Viewership for the MLS Knockout Round was up slightly from 2016 with an average of 301,000 viewers for the four matches across UniMás, UDN, ESPN2 and FS1. Viewership peaked for October 26th’s early match between expansion side Atlanta United and MLS original Columbus Crew, averaging a combined 577,000 on ESPN2 and UniMás and beating out last season’s top match of the knockout round by 114,000 viewers.
Last week also saw play from the first legs of the four MLS Conference Semi-Final matchups. English-language viewership was up nearly 24% from 2016 and 16% from 2015. Again, the match featuring Columbus Crew led in viewership with 424,000 tuning in on ESPN alone Tuesday evening.
Club América and Chivas de Guadalajara again dominated American soccer viewership last week with each club’s matches averaging 1.25 million and 889,000 respectively on Univision and Univision Deportes Network. It is the league’s third week in a row with at least one match averaging greater than 1 million viewers on Univision’s networks.
Last Saturday afternoon’s 1-0 defeat of Bournemouth by Chelsea provided NBC with its largest Premier League audience for the month of October as 710,000 tuned in. The Premier League is averaging 770,556 viewers through NBC’s first 9 broadcasts of the 2017-18 Season, down slightly from 783,111 viewers through the first 9 broadcasts of the 2016-17 Season.
Here are the most-watched soccer games on US TV for October 25-31, 2017:
Rank | Date | Competition | Teams | TV1 | TV2 | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 10/28/17 | Liga MX | Monterrey / América | Univision; 663000 | UDN; 586000 | 1,249,000 |
2 | 10/28/17 | Liga MX | Chivas / Tijuana | Univision; 452000 | UDN; 437000 | 889,000 |
3 | 10/28/17 | Premier League | Bournemouth / Chelsea | NBC; 710000 | Unvso; 28000 | 738,000 |
4 | 10/26/17 | MLS Knockout | Atlanta United / Columbus Crew | ESPN2; 309000 | UniMás; 268000 | 577,000 |
5 | 10/29/17 | Liga MX | Toluca / Morelia | Univision; 508000 | —; — | 508,000 |
6 | 10/31/17 | MLS Conf. SF | Columbus Crew / New York City FC | ESPN; 424000 | —; — | 424,000 |
7 | 10/28/17 | Liga MX | Cruz Azul / Tigres | —; — | UDN; 399000 | 399,000 |
8 | 10/28/17 | Premier League | Man Utd / Spurs | NBCSN; 327000 | Unvso; 45000 | 372,000 |
9 | 10/28/17 | Premier League | West Brom / Man City | NBCSN; 329000 | —; — | 329,000 |
10 | 10/25/17 | MLS Knockout | Chicago Fire / New York Red Bulls | FS1; 89000 | UniMás; 184000 | 273,000 |
11 | 10/29/17 | MLS Conf. SF | Vancouver Whitecaps / Seattle Sounders | ESPN; 250000 | —; — | 250,000 |
12 | 10/26/17 | MLS Knockout | Houston Dynamo / Sporting Kansas City | UniMás; 233000 | —; — | 233,000 |
13 | 10/29/17 | Premier League | Brighton / Southampton | NBCSN; 197000 | —; — | 197,000 |
14 | 10/28/17 | Premier League | Liverpool / Huddersfield | CNBC; 160000 | —; — | 160,000 |
15 | 10/30/17 | MLS Conf. SF | Houston Dynamo / Portland Timbers | FS1; 149000 | —; — | 149,000 |
16 | 10/30/17 | MLS Conf. SF | New York Red Bulls / Toronto FC | FS1; 132000 | —; — | 132,000 |
17 | 10/29/17 | Liga MX | Santos / Pachuca | —; — | UDN; 130000 | 130,000 |
18 | 10/29/17 | Premier League | Leicester City / Everton | —; — | Telemundo; 127000 | 127,000 |
19 | 10/25/17 | MLS Knockout | Vancouver Whitecaps / San Jose Earthquakes | UniMás; 121000 | —; — | 121,000 |
20 | 10/28/17 | Premier League | Cyrstal Palace / West Ham | —; — | Unvso; 26000 | 26,000 |
SEE MORE: Access our archives of US TV ratings for soccer.
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