ESPN scores 1.7 million viewers for el Clásico Miami

ESPN’s live coverage of the first el Clásico to be played on US soil between Barcelona and Real Madrid delivered 1.7 million viewers last Saturday.

The match, billed as el Clásico Miami and part of the 2017 International Champions Cup, was shown live across ESPN in English and ESPN 2/ESPN Deportes in Spanish. With an audience of 836,000, the Real Madrid–FC Barcelona match is the most watched non-U.S. international friendly match ever on ESPN – topping the previous high, an international match between Mexico and Argentina on September 8, 2015, seen by 724,000 viewers.

It’s also the most-watched soccer match telecast on ESPN networks since last summer’s UEFA EURO 2016 in France.

The Spanish-language telecast on ESPN Deportes and ESPN2 averaged 692,000 Hispanic viewers.

With more than 1.7 million viewers, the Barcelona-Real Madrid match was the most-watched English-language soccer broadcast of the weekend. More than 600,000 tuned in to ESPN2 to watch the US Women’s National Team against Brazil, while 478,000 watched the Atlanta-Orlando draw on the over-the-air FOX network.

In addition to the viewing number for the game, an average of 198,000 tuned in to watch Friday night’s live broadcast on ESPN of the training sessions for Barcelona and Real Madrid. The wall-to-wall coverage was part of ESPN’s ‘Sportscenter on the Road’ broadcasts that entertained viewers all week from Miami.

Live match coverage of El Clásico Miami had a remarkable average minute streaming audience of 73,000, and 364,000 unique viewers – record-setting audiences on the platform for an international club friendly match and is the most-streamed soccer match on the ESPN digital properties since the final match of UEFA EURO 2016. Across all networks streaming provided a 4.5% lift on top of the TV audience.

ESPN’s coverage of el Clásico Miami was beamed live from Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. On the English-language broadcast, the commentators were Jon Champion and Taylor Twellman.

The top 10 markets in the United States for the highest TV ratings were:

1. Miami-Ft. Lauderdale (2.9),
2. West Palm Beach-Ft. Pierce (1.8),
3. Baltimore (1.5),
4. Ft. Myers-Naples (1.4),
5. Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News (1.3),
6. Providence-New Bedford (1.3),
7. Austin, TX (1.3),
8. Cincinnati (1.3),
9. Knoxville (1.1) and
10. Las Vegas (1.1).