Most-watched live soccer games on US TV for weekend of April 1-3, 2016

Not surprisingly, last weekend’s el Clasico between Barcelona and Real Madrid ruled the roost in terms of the most number of viewers tuning in to watch a soccer match on US television. The impressive number was fewer than last spring’s el Clasico, but that may possibly have something to do with the decision by the executives in Spain to schedule the game immediately after the international break, which is poor timing because it’s harder to build up momentum for club soccer when the previous week is filled with international stories. Plus, more importantly, players often return from international duty looking very tired and jet lagged as Barcelona footballers showed in the second half.

In the Premier League, the matches beamed across the United States this past weekend conjured up some interesting numbers. First, the broadcast of Liverpool against Spurs across NBC and NBC Universo broke the 1 million barrier. But the number of viewers for Leicester-Southampton (454,000) was also impressive for an early-morning Sunday kickoff. Yes, Leicester is running away with the league, but it’s good to see that Leicester and Southampton together are generating solid viewing numbers on their own accord without the games being against teams that draw big TV numbers.

For Major League Soccer, the excellent news was that the number of viewers for FOX Sports 1’s coverage of Orlando against Portland Timbers was 51% greater than FOX’s average for the 2015 regular season. Plus, fans were treated to an exciting match, which could help boost FOX’s future numbers.

Meanwhile, ESPN didn’t televise a MLS game last weekend, while Univision Deportes/UniMas’s viewing number of 185,000 for Friday’s New England against New York City FC game was 24% below Univision’s average for the 2015 regular season. For whatever reason, it seems that there’s less of an interest in New York City FC so far this season so far.

One important change that I’ve made in this week’s report (and moving forward) is that I’ve combined the English-language and Spanish-language numbers into one number. It’ll help make the table cleaner, but also gives a more accurate determination of the total number of TV viewers for a game even if it was simulcast on another network at the same time.

See any interesting observations in the list below? Share them with us in the comments section below or our social media accounts.

Here are the most-watched soccer games on US TV from last weekend:

Note that viewing figures for soccer games shown on the over-the-air Univision network have not been made available.

HT SportsTVRatings.