The 2017/18 season of the Premier League kicked off on a Friday for the first time as Arsenal hosted Leicester, which drew 375,000 viewers on NBCSN, up 80% from last season’s opener between Hull and Leicester on CNBC. Premier League viewership peaked at 1.028 million viewers on Sunday afternoon for Manchester United’s 4-0 defeat of West Ham United. For the first week, the Premier League averaged 537,000 viewers on NBC’s networks, up 30% from last season’s opening week which saw heavy competition from the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.
Real Madrid and Barcelona met in the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup before an audience of 570,000 on ESPN Sunday afternoon. English language coverage of the match was down 30% from their International Champions Cup meeting two weeks prior on July 29. Spanish language numbers were not available.
Also, last week marked the first time an NWSL broadcast has drawn a larger audience than an MLS match played on the same weekend. Sunday’s match between two of MLS’s biggest franchises managed to draw just 73,000 viewers on ESPN2 while a match between the Washington Spirit and Boston Breakers drew an audience of 80,000 on Lifetime one day earlier. For MLS, the match was the least-watched since the LA Galaxy took on FC Dallas on FS1 in October 2016, and ESPN2’s lowest since the start of the current rights deal.
Here are the most-watched soccer games on US TV for August 8-13, 2017:
Average viewing audiences for soccer leagues on US TV:
| Rank | Date | Competition | Teams | TV1 | TV2 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8/13/17 | Premier League | Man Utd / West Ham | NBCSN; 680000 | Telemundo; 348000 | 1,028,000 |
| 2 | 8/12/17 | Premier League | Brighton / Man City | NBC; 915000 | Unvso; 75000 | 990,000 |
| 3 | 8/12/17 | Liga MX | Monterrey / Chivas | Univision; 484000 | UDN; 345000 | 829,000 |
| 4 | 8/12/17 | Liga MX | Necaxa / Leon | Univision; 409000 | UDN; 184000 | 593,000 |
| 5 | 8/13/17 | Liga MX | Pumas / Lobos | Univision; 393000 | UDN; 186000 | 579,000 |
| 6 | 8/13/17 | Spanish Supercopa | Barcelona / Real Madrid | ESPN; 570000 | —; — | 570,000 |
| 7 | 8/12/17 | Premier League | Chelsea / Burnley | NBCSN; 482000 | Unvso; 48000 | 530,000 |
| 8 | 8/11/17 | Liga MX | Atlas / América | —; — | UDN; 525000 | 525,000 |
| 9 | 8/13/17 | Premier League | Newcastle / Spurs | NBCSN; 408000 | Unvso; 35000 | 443,000 |
| 10 | 8/11/17 | Premier League | Arsenal / Leicester City | NBCSN; 375000 | —; — | 375,000 |
| 11 | 8/12/17 | Premier League | Watford / Liverpool | NBCSN; 364000 | —; — | 364,000 |
| 12 | 8/8/17 | UEFA Super Cup | Real Madrid / Man Utd | FS1; 315000 | —; — | 315,000 |
| 13 | 8/8/17 | Copa MX | América / Potros | —; — | UDN; 276000 | 276,000 |
| 14 | 8/12/17 | Liga MX | Cruz Azul / Toluca | —; — | UDN; 242000 | 242,000 |
| 15 | 8/13/17 | Liga MX | Santos / Veracruz | —; — | UDN; 182000 | 182,000 |
| 16 | 8/13/17 | Ligue 1 | Guingamp / PSG | beIN; 62000 | beIE; 118000 | 180,000 |
| 17 | 8/8/17 | Copa MX | Zacatepec / Tigres | —; — | UDN; 156000 | 156,000 |
| 18 | 8/11/17 | Liga MX | Puebla / Tijuana | —; — | UDN; 156000 | 156,000 |
| 19 | 8/9/17 | Copa MX | Pumas / Monterrey | —; — | UDN; 127000 | 127,000 |
| 20 | 8/12/17 | Liga MX | Pachuca / Tigres | —; — | Gala; 85000 | 85,000 |
| 21 | 8/9/17 | Copa MX | Pachuca / Querétaro | —; — | Gala; 84000 | 84,000 |
| 22 | 8/12/17 | NWSL | Spirit / Breakers | Lifetime; 80000 | —; — | 80,000 |
| 23 | 8/13/17 | MLS | Los Angeles Galaxy / New York City | ESPN2; 73000 | —; — | 73,000 |
| 24 | 8/10/17 | CONCACAF League | Alajuelense / Olimpia | —; — | UDN; 56000 | 56,000 |
| 25 | 8/10/17 | CONCACAF League | Árabe Unido / Central | —; — | UDN; 45000 | 45,000 |
Average MLS viewing audiences on US TV:
| League | Overall* | ESPN | ESPN2 | FOX | FS1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 MLS | 260,620 (46) | 298,941 (17) | 220,000 (5) | 440,750 (4) | 188,000** (18) |
| 2016 MLS | 257,683 (63) | 290,179 (28) | 201,500 (4) | 658,000 (5) | 154,346 (26) |
| 2017 NWSL | 94,313 (16) | ||||
| 2017 USL | 19,000 (2) | *English-Only | |||
| **One game missing |
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