Thursday night’s broadcast of LAFC against LA Galaxy scored a combined viewing audience of 871,000 viewers across the ESPN2, ESPN and ESPN Deportes channels, according to an ESPN spokesperson.

Ending in an exciting 5-3 finish, the LAFC-LA Galaxy game made history by becoming the most-viewed MLS Cup Playoff game on record for the ESPN networks. Previously, the record had been held by the Houston Dynamo vs. LA Galaxy Western Conference Final in 2014 with 822,000 viewers across ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes. On ESPN Deportes, LAFC-Galaxy was the most-watched MLS game ever for the Spanish-language network.

Despite the game originally scheduled to air on ESPN, the broadcast began on ESPN2 due to a conflict with a college football game. Eventually, around the 30 minute mark in the MLS game, the televised game switched from ESPN2 back to ESPN. Meanwhile, the match was televised entirely in Spanish-language on ESPN Deportes.

Through the semifinals, three 2019 MLS Cup Playoffs matches on ESPN/ESPN2 have averaged 376,000 viewers, an increase of 17 percent (vs. 275,000 viewers for five playoff matches on the same networks in 2018).

For the ESPN/ESPN2 broadcast, the match commentators were Jon Champion and Taylor Twellman.

Top-10 markets for LAFC-LA Galaxy viewership:

1. Los Angeles (1.5),
2. Seattle-Tacoma (1.3),
3. Albuquerque (1.0),
4. Birmingham, Ala. (0.8),
5. Atlanta (0.7),
6. Oklahoma City (0.6),
7. St. Louis (0.6),
8. Portland, Ore. (0.6),
9. San Diego (0.6) and
10. Las Vegas (0.5).

ESPN coverage of the MLS Cup Playoffs will continue with the new single-match Western Conference Final – LAFC vs. Seattle Sounders – on Tuesday, Oct. 29 at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN and ESPN Deportes.