The National Women’s Soccer League matched its season high viewership on Lifetime last week as 123,000 viewers tuned in watch Washington Spirit against Orlando Pride. Viewership of the NWSL on Lifetime has seen a 9% increase since the beginning of June and the league is now averaging 94,417 viewers on the year.
Last week also marked the start of the CONCACAF Gold Cup. Through the first round, the competition is averaging 1.272 million viewers per match on Univision’s networks. First round viewership peaked on Sunday as FS1 and Univision combined to produce an audience of 3.664 million for Mexico’s opening fixture against El Salvador. The over-the-air FOX network won the majority of viewers for the United States’ opening match against Panama as the network drew 1.212 million viewers to Univision’s 1.049 million. This should not be expected to become a trend however, as the United States will return to FOX’s cable networks for the remainder of the tournament.
Here are the most-watched soccer games on US TV for July 6-9, 2017:
Average viewing audiences for soccer leagues on US TV:
| Rank | Date | Competition | Teams | TV1 | TV2 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7/9/17 | Gold Cup | Mexico / El Salvador | FS1; 403000 | Univision; 3261000 | 3,664,000 |
| 2 | 7/8/17 | Gold Cup | USMNT / Panama | FOX; 1212000 | Univision; 1049000 | 2,261,000 |
| 3 | 7/9/17 | Gold Cup | Curaçao / Jamaica | FS1; 223000 | Univision; 1150000 | 1,373,000 |
| 4 | 7/7/17 | Gold Cup | Honduras / Costa Rica | FS2; 130000 | UniMás; 1066000 | 1,196,000 |
| 5 | 7/8/17 | Gold Cup | Martinique / Nicaragua | —; — | Univision; 870000 | 870,000 |
| 6 | 7/7/17 | Gold Cup | French Guiana / Canada | FS2; 94000 | UDN; 237000 | 331,000 |
| 7 | 7/8/17 | Friendly | Cruz Azul / Toluca | —; — | UDN; 130000 | 130,000 |
| 8 | 7/8/17 | NWSL | Courage / Reign | Lifetime; 123000 | —; — | 123,000 |
| 9 | 7/9/17 | Friendly | Mexico Legends / Germany Legends | —; — | UDN; 90000 | 90,000 |
| 10 | 7/6/17 | USL | Tampa Bay / Cinicinnati | ESPNU; 19000 | —; — | 19,000 |
Average MLS viewing audiences on US TV:
| League | Overall* | ESPN | ESPN2 | FOX | FS1 | Univision | UniMás |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 MLS | 250,484 (34) | 290,800 (11) | 256,750 (4) | 428,333 (3) | 182,571** (15) | ||
| 2016 MLS | 257,683 (63) | 290,179 (28) | 201,500 (4) | 658,000 (5) | 154,346 (26) | ||
| 2017 NWSL | 94,417 (12) | ||||||
| *English-Only | |||||||
| **One game missing |
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