The 2016 Major League Soccer regular season saw 90 games made available on national television. ESPN led the way with 32 games broadcast across their networks, 28 featured on the primary channel. FOX Sports showed the equivalent of 31 matches with 5 on the FOX broadcast network while Univision aired 27 matches on their networks with a special California Clásico shown on the primary network.

Here’s the breakdown of which clubs were shown on which networks in 2016:

Team ESPN FOX Sports Univison Overall
LA Galaxy 7 7 4 18
New York City FC 6 7 4 17
Seattle Sounders 9 7 0 16
New York Red Bulls 5 7 4 16
Orlando City SC 4 6 6 16
Portland Timbers 8 7 0 15
Sporting KC 4 8 2 14
DC United 3 1 6 10
SJ Earthquakes 1 2 7 10
Houston Dynamo 2 0 6 8
Toronto FC 3 3 0 6
Chicago Fire 0 1 5 6
FC Dallas 1 2 2 5
NE Revolution 3 1 1 5
Real Salt Lake 1 1 3 5
Vancouver Whitecaps 1 1 1 3
Montreal Impact 3 0 0 3
Crew SC 1 2 0 3
Colorado Rapids 2 0 1 3
Philadelphia Union 0 1 2 3

Each club had a minimum of three games broadcast nationally in the United States. New York City FC and the Los Angeles Galaxy led the league with 17 national television appearances, while the New York Red Bulls, Orlando City SC and Seattle Sounders were just slightly behind, each making 16 appearances.

Team ESPN Fox Univision Overall
Toronto FC 220,000 553,000 0 386,500
LA Galaxy 294,429 360,429 502,250 366,278
New York Red Bulls 261,200 463,429 224,750 340,563
New York City FC 351,500 330,714 233,500 328,304
Sporting KC 258,000 377,250 137,500 308,929
Portland Timbers 289,625 316,286 0 302,067
Seattle Sounders 327,667 213,857 0 277,875
SJ Earthquakes 180,000 218,000 289,714 264,400
Vancouver Whitecaps 463,000 149,000 165,000 259,000
Houston Dynamo 296,500 0 221,500 240,250
Montreal Impact 234,333 0 0 234,333
Chicago Fire 0 212,000 226,200 223,833
DC United 212,333 223,000 226,833 222,100
Orlando City SC 247,250 174,333 249,333 220,688
Crew SC 362,000 142,500 0 215,667
FC Dallas 363,000 142,000 202,000 210,200
NE Revolution 213,333 113,000 185,000 187,600
Colorado Rapids 178,500 0 188,000 181,667
Philadelphia Union 0 140,000 191,000 174,000
Real Salt Lake 141,000 56,000 186,667 151,400

Upon first glance, the results can appear surprising. Toronto FC are ranked #1 in the overall table, averaging 386,500 viewers over 6 games. This is due in large part to their September 18th matchup against the New York Red Bulls, who ranked #2, shown on the FOX broadcast network with a significant lead-in from FOX’s NFL coverage. When only counting games broadcast on cable networks, Toronto FC averaged only 186,200 viewers. The bump experienced by appearing on the FOX broadcast network accounted for over 57% of Toronto’s total viewership on US TV for the 2016 season.

Team Cable
Houston Dynamo 296,500
Vancouver Whitecaps 296,000
New York City FC 276,545
Seattle Sounders 267,063
Portland Timbers 262,462
Montreal Impact 234,333
LA Galaxy 225,769
Sporting KC 212,700
DC United 209,000
New York Red Bulls 204,667
Crew SC 198,333
FC Dallas 188,333
Toronto FC 186,200
NE Revolution 184,250
Orlando City SC 184,000
Chicago Fire 183,000
Colorado Rapids 178,000
SJ Earthquakes 168,667
Philadelphia Union 118,000
Real Salt Lake 95,500

New York City FC proved to be the most popular club when counting broadcasts available only on cable, with their two Hudson River Derby matchups on FOX accounting for only 27% of the clubs total viewership. Real Salt Lake, Philadelphia Union and Colorado Rapids were by far the least popular teams on American television in 2016. All three teams combined to play 11 games across ESPN, FS1 and UniMás with not even one drawing an audience larger than 199,000 viewers.