The World Cup qualifiers involving Mexico and the United States unsurprisingly topped the ratings charts for FIFA’s March international window. All four matches involving those nations averaged more than 1.6 million viewers, with each peaking on Friday, March 24. The United States’ 6-0 dismantling of Honduras provided FS1 with its largest soccer audience of 2017 while Mexico’s 2-0 defeat of Costa Rica topped the February 18 Mexican Super Clásico to become the most-watched soccer match so far this year.
In the domestic leagues, the 0-0 draw between the New York Red Bulls and Real Salt Lake drew 146,000 viewers on UniMás Saturday. Just a few hours later, beIN SPORTS kicked off their coverage of the 2017 North American Soccer League Spring season to a disappointing 2,000 viewers for their broadcast featuring Puerto Rico FC and the New York Cosmos. The 2016 NASL Spring season opener on beIN SPORTS last year between the Fort Lauderdale Strikers and Miami FC drew 21,000 viewers.
Here are the most-watched soccer games on US TV for March 23-28, 2017:
| Rank | Date | Competition | Teams | TV1 | TV2 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3/24/17 | CONCACAF WCQ | Mexico / Costa Rica | FS2; 70000 | Univision; 3118000 | 3,188,000 |
| 2 | 3/24/17 | CONCACAF WCQ | USMNT / Honduras | FS1; 579000 | Univision; 1621000 | 2,200,000 |
| 3 | 3/28/17 | CONCACAF WCQ | Trinidad / Mexico | beIN; 86000 | Telemundo; 1750000 | 1,836,000 |
| 4 | 3/28/17 | CONCACAF WCQ | Panama / United States | beIN; 281000 | Telemundo; 1410000 | 1,691,000 |
| 5 | 3/23/17 | CONMEBOL WCQ | Argentina / Chile | —; — | beIE; 597000 | 597,000 |
| 6 | 3/28/17 | CONMEBOL WCQ | Brazil / Paraguay | —; — | beIE; 449000 | 449,000 |
| 7 | 3/26/17 | UEFA WCQ | England / Lithuania | FS2; 146000 | UniMás/UDN; 222000 | 368,000 |
| 8 | 3/28/17 | CONMEBOL WCQ | Chile / Venezuela | —; — | beIE; 270000 | 270,000 |
| 9 | 3/28/17 | CONMEBOL WCQ | Bolivia / Argentina | —; — | beIE; 258000 | 258,000 |
| 10 | 3/23/17 | CONMEBOL WCQ | Colombia / Bolivia | beIN; 37000 | beIE; 206000 | 243,000 |
| 11 | 3/24/17 | CONCACAF WCQ | Trinidad / Panama | beIN; 147000 | Unvso; 53000 | 200,000 |
| 12 | 3/25/17 | UEFA WCQ | Portugal / Hungary | FS2; 77000 | FOXD; 120000 | 197,000 |
| 13 | 3/26/17 | UEFA WCQ | Azerbaijan / Germany | ESPN2; 194000 | —; — | 194,000 |
| 14 | 3/28/17 | CONCACAF WCQ | Honduras / Costa Rica | —; — | Unvso; 175000 | 175,000 |
| 15 | 3/28/17 | Int’l Friendly | France / Spain | ESPN2; 155000 | —; — | 155,000 |
| 16 | 3/25/17 | MLS | New York Red Bulls / Real Salt Lake | UniMás; 146000 | —; — | 146,000 |
| 17 | 3/23/17 | CONMEBOL WCQ | Uruguay / Brazil | beIN; 137000 | —; — | 137,000 |
| 18 | 3/26/17 | Friendly | América / Morelia | —; — | UDN; 133000 | 133,000 |
| 19 | 3/28/17 | CONMEBOL WCQ | Ecuador / Colombia | beIN; 128000 | —; — | 128,000 |
| 20 | 3/25/17 | Friendly | Cruz Azul / Pumas | —; — | UDN; 127000 | 127,000 |
| 21 | 3/25/17 | UEFA WCQ | Sweden / Belarus | FS2; 76000 | FOXD; 47000 | 123,000 |
| 22 | 3/24/17 | UEFA WCQ | Italy / Albania | FS2; 35000 | UDN; 58000 | 93,000 |
| 23 | 3/26/17 | UEFA WCQ | Montenegro / Poland | FS2; 71000 | —; — | 71,000 |
| 24 | 3/25/17 | Friendly | Seattle Sounders / Necaxa | —; — | UDN; 47000 | 47,000 |
| 25 | 3/24/17 | UEFA WCQ | Turkey / Finland | FS2; 26000 | UDN; 18000 | 44,000 |
| 26 | 3/25/17 | UEFA WCQ | Belgium / Greece | —; — | UDN; 39000 | 39,000 |
| 27 | 3/28/17 | Int’l Friendly | Netherlands / Italy | beIN; 22000 | —; — | 22,000 |
| 28 | 3/25/17 | Segunda Division | Real Oviedo / Girona | —; — | beIE; 5000 | 5,000 |
| 29 | 3/25/17 | NASL | Puerto Rico / Cosmos | beIN; 2000 | —; — | 2,000 |
Average viewing audiences for soccer leagues on US TV:
| League | Average |
|---|---|
| Liga MX | 806,923 |
| Premier League | 462,954 |
| UEFA CL | 430,955 |
| MLS | 278,545 |
| La Liga | 153,327 |
| NWSL | 88,500 |
| Bundesliga | 74,491 |
| Primeira Liga | 36,000 |
| Serie A | 25,764 |
| Ligue 1 | 16,636 |
| Championship | 15,425 |
| NASL | 2,000 |
