Four out of the top 25 most-viewed live soccer games on US television last weekend were shown on NBC Sports, with the number one most-viewed game being Chelsea against Southampton, which netted 948,000 viewers on NBC (Saturday, 12:30-2:30pm ET).
On the heels of Chelsea-Southampton, 866,000 watched Arsenal against Manchester United on NBCSN, which is an impressive number given that the game went head-to-head with CBS’ nationally televised Jets-Dolphin NFL game. The Gunners-United match still was the 8th most-watched Premier League ever on cable.
Across all of the Premier League games shown on NBC Sports-affiliated networks this past weekend, the average viewing audience was 508,666.
Meanwhile, after Univision hit 2 million viewers for the Super Clasico last weekend between America and Chivas, the Spanish-language sports network came back down to earth with an average of 247,200 viewers for Liga MX games.
The Bundesliga finally cracked 100,000 viewers for the first time this season when 106,000 watched Bayern Munich against Dortmund on FOX Sports 2. The program that was stopping FOX from showing Der Klassiker on FOX Sports 1 was a NASCAR pre-race show, which only netted 317,000 viewers.
Out of all of the numbers below, perhaps the most eyeopening one is the 218,000 who tuned in to watch Crystal Palace against West Bromwich Albion game on NBCSN at 4:45am PT/7:45am ET on a Saturday. What that number tell me is that NBCSN has achieved the difficult task of getting soccer fans used to tuning in to watch a broadcast no matter who’s playing. Even a Crystal Palace-WBA game had more viewers than the most-watched MLS game from the weekend (featuring Seattle Sounders and LA Galaxy on a Sunday night).
Here are the soccer-viewing numbers for the weekend of October 2-4, 2015:
Top 25 most-viewed live soccer games on TV
| Pos. | Teams | No. of viewers | TV Network | Game time (ET) | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chelsea vs. Southampton | 948,000 | NBC | 12:30-2:30pm | Sat., Oct 3 |
| 2 | Arsenal vs. Manchester United | 866,000 | NBCSN | 11-1pm | Sun., Oct 4 |
| 3 | Everton vs. Liverpool | 436,000 | NBCSN | 8:30-10:30am | Sun., Oct 4 |
| 4 | Manchester City vs. Newcastle | 396,000 | NBCSN | 10am-Noon | Sat., Oct 3 |
| 5 | Monterrey vs. Leon | 352,000 | UDN | 8-10pm | Sat., Oct 3 |
| 6 | America vs. Chiapas FC | 275,000 | UDN | 6-8pm | Sat., Oct 3 |
| 7 | Pumas vs. Guadalajara | 272,000 | UDN | 1-3pm | Sun., Oct 4 |
| 8 | Crystal Palace vs. WBA | 218,000 | NBCSN | 7:45-9:45am | Sat., Oct 3 |
| 9 | Seattle vs. LA Galaxy | 194,000 | FOX Sports 1 | 9:30-11:30pm | Sun., Oct 4 |
| 10 | Sunderland vs. West Ham | 188,000 | USA | 10am-Noon | Sat., Oct 3 |
| 11 | Querétaro vs. Club Tijuana | 185,000 | UDN | 8:30-10:30pm | Fri., Oct 2. |
| 12 | Atletico Madrid vs. Real Madrid | 168,000 | beIN SPORTS | 2:30-4:30pm | Sun., Oct 4 |
| 13 | Puebla vs. Monarcas | 152,000 | UDN | 6-8pm | Sun., Oct 4 |
| 14 | Sevilla vs. Barcelona | 115,000 | beIN SPORTS | 10am-Noon | Sat., Oct 3 |
| 15 | Bayern Munich vs. Dortmund | 106,000 | FOX Sports 2 | 11:30-1:30pm | Sun., Oct 4 |
| 16 | Colorado vs. Real Salt Lake | 104,000 | FOX Sports 1 | 7-9pm | Sun., Oct 4 |
| 17 | FC Dallas vs. Houston Dynamo | 85,000 | ESPN2 | 5-7pm | Sun., Oct 4 |
| 18 | Schalke vs. Cologne | 58,000 | FOX Sports 1 | 9:30-11:30am | Sun., Oct 4 |
| 19 | Mainz vs. Darmstadt | 37,000 | FOX Sports 1 | 2:30-4:30pm | Fri., Oct 2. |
| 20 | Ajax vs. PSV | 32,000 | UDN | 8:30-10:30am | Sun., Oct 4 |
| 21 | Monchengladbach vs. Wolfsburg | 25,000 | FOX Sports 1 | 9:30-11:30am | Sat., Oct 3 |
| 22 | Carpi vs. Torino | 15,000 | beIN SPORTS | Noon-2pm | Sat., Oct 3 |
| 23 | Juventus vs. Bologna | 13,000 | beIN SPORTS | Noon-2pm | Sun., Oct 4 |
| 24 | Chievo vs. Verona | 10,000 | beIN SPORTS | 2:45-4:45pm | Sat., Oct 3 |
| 25 | Rotherham vs. Burnley | 9,000 | beIN SPORTS | 2:45-4:45pm | Fri., Oct 2. |
Notes:
• Average TV viewing numbers are for English-language broadcasts only unless the broadcasts are only available in Spanish-language.
• Not listed above but is included in the average beIN SPORTS and Serie A numbers below is the 26th most-watched soccer game last weekend (Sampdoria vs. Inter Milan, 5,000 viewers, beIN SPORTS, 9-11am, Sun., Oct 4).
League by league comparison
| Average viewers per league game | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | EPL | 508,666 |
| 2 | Liga MX | 247,200 |
| 3 | La Liga | 141,500 |
| 4 | MLS | 127,666 |
| 5 | Bundesliga | 56,000 |
| 6 | Serie A | 10,750 |
Network by network comparison
| Average viewers per soccer game on network | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | NBC Sports | 508,666 |
| 2 | Univision | 211,333 |
| 3 | FOX Sports | 87,333 |
| 4 | ESPN | 85,000 |
| 5 | beIN SPORTS | 47,857 |
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