Houston Dynamo’s 4-0 defeat of Atlanta United kicked off the 2018 Major League Soccer season on American television with 469,000 viewers tuning into Univision’s coverage of the match. Viewership saw an 8% decrease from 509,000 for Los Angeles Galaxy vs FC Dallas last year.
FOX Sports 1 saw an even bigger drop with their two matches averaging only 174,000 viewers, down over 40% from their first two broadcasts of 2017.
ESPN was the only network to see an increase in viewership for their opening MLS broadcast of the year with 456,000 people tuning in to see Los Angeles FC defeat Seattle Sounders 1-0 in their inaugural MLS match.
El Súper Clásico drew 2.485 million viewers to Univision and Univision Deportes on Saturday night, making it the most-watched soccer match of 2018 thus far and the most-watched Liga MX regular season match in the past three years.
The United States Women’s National Team’s opening matches of the SheBelieves Cup averaged 375,500 viewers on ESPN2, down nearly 30% from an average of 519,000 for the opening matches of the 2017 tournament. The 2017 tournament, however, saw one match air on the FOX broadcast network.
Here are the most-watched soccer games on US TV for March 1-4, 2018:
| Rank | Date | Competition | Teams | TV1 | TV2 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3/3/18 | Liga MX | Chivas / América | Univision; 2485000 | —; — | 2,485,000 |
| 2 | 3/3/18 | Liga MX | León / Pumas | Univision; 1284000 | —; — | 1,284,000 |
| 3 | 3/4/18 | Premier League | Man City / Chelsea | NBCSN; 567000 | Telemundo; 218000 | 785,000 |
| 4 | 3/4/18 | La Liga | Barcelona / Atletico Madrid | beIN; 185000 | beIE; 567000 | 752,000 |
| 5 | 3/3/18 | Liga MX | Cruz Azul / Querétaro | UniMás; 745000 | —; — | 745,000 |
| 6 | 3/3/18 | Premier League | Spurs / Huddersfield | NBCSN; 474000 | Unvso; 58000 | 532,000 |
| 7 | 3/4/18 | Liga MX | Toluca / Pachuca | Univision; 483000 | —; — | 483,000 |
| 8 | 3/3/18 | Premier League | Liverpool / Newcastle | NBCSN; 476000 | —; — | 476,000 |
| 9 | 3/3/18 | MLS | Houston Dynamo / Atlanta United | Univision; 368000 | UDN; 101000 | 469,000 |
| 10 | 3/4/18 | MLS | Seattle Sounders / LAFC | ESPN; 456000 | —; — | 456,000 |
| 11 | 3/4/18 | SheBelieves Cup | USWNT / France | ESPN2; 397000 | —; — | 397,000 |
| 12 | 3/1/18 | SheBelieves Cup | USWNT / Germany | ESPN2; 354000 | —; — | 354,000 |
| 13 | 3/4/18 | Premier League | Brighton / Arsenal | NBCSN; 339000 | —; — | 339,000 |
| 14 | 3/4/18 | Liga MX | Veracruz / Tigres | —; — | UDN; 317000 | 317,000 |
| 15 | 3/2/18 | Liga MX | Morelia / Atlas | —; — | UDN; 287000 | 287,000 |
| 16 | 3/1/18 | Premier League | Arsenal / Man City | NBCSN; 178000 | Unvso; 38000 | 216,000 |
| 17 | 3/3/18 | Premier League | Burnley / Everton | NBCSN; 204000 | —; — | 204,000 |
| 18 | 3/1/18 | CONCACAF CL | Seattle Sounders / Santa Tecla | —; — | UDN; 187000 | 187,000 |
| 19 | 3/4/18 | MLS | Sporting Kansas City / New York City FC | FS1; 180000 | —; — | 180,000 |
| 20 | 3/4/18 | MLS | LA Galaxy / Portland Timbers | FS1; 168000 | —; — | 168,000 |
| 21 | 3/4/18 | Bundesliga | Freiburg / Bayern | —; — | UDN; 82000 | 82,000 |
| 22 | 3/2/18 | Bundesliga | Mönchengladbach / Bremen | —; — | UDN; 46000 | 46,000 |
| 23 | 3/3/18 | Bundesliga | Schalke / Hertha | —; — | UDN; 21000 | 21,000 |
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