Real Madrid and Juventus led in the ratings this week as over 3 million people tuned in for the UEFA Champions League final on FOX and FOX Deportes. Viewership was up 3% on the FOX broadcast network when compared to 2016 (1.762M vs 1.7M) while FOX Deportes underperformed ESPN Deportes by 4% against the 2016 final (1.241M vs 1.3M).
Mexico’s 3-1 defeat of the Republic of Ireland was watched by 2.052 million people on both Univision and Univision Deportes, making it the most-watched friendly of 2017, beating out the previous high for Mexico-Iceland (1.56M) by nearly half a million viewers.
The United States Men’s National Team also scored their largest viewership for a non-competitive match in 2017 as 1.33 million watched their 1-1 draw with Venezuela. Univision’s Spanish-language broadcast proved the most popular with 63% of viewers electing to watch across their networks.
In the US domestic game, ESPN saw a large drop-off in viewership when compared to last week (346,000 vs 256,000) while FS1 and FOX Deportes’ broadcast of Orlando City-Chicago Fire beat the Texas Derby by 100,000 viewers (275k vs 171k)
Here are the most-watched soccer games on US TV for May 29-June 4, 2017:
Average viewing audiences for soccer leagues on US TV:
| Rank | Date | Competition | Teams | TV1 | TV2 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6/3/17 | UEFA CL Final | Juventus / Real Madrid | FOX; 1762000 | FOXD; 1241000 | 3,003,000 |
| 2 | 6/1/17 | Int’l Friendly | Mexico / Ireland | Univision; 1500000 | UDN; 552000 | 2,052,000 |
| 3 | 6/3/17 | Int’l Friendly | USMNT / Venezuela | FS1; 492000 | Univision; 838000 | 1,330,000 |
| 4 | 6/2/17 | MLS | Timbers / Earthquakes | UniMás; 286000 | —; — | 286,000 |
| 5 | 6/4/17 | MLS | Orlando City / Chicago Fire | FS1; 211000 | FOXD; 64000 | 275,000 |
| 6 | 6/3/17 | MLS | Sporting / Minnesota | ESPN; 256000 | —; — | 256,000 |
| 7 | 6/3/17 | NWSL | Courage / Kansas City | Lifetime; 91000 | —; — | 91,000 |
| 8 | 5/29/17 | Manchester City Cup | América Academy / Xolos Academy | —; — | UDN; 84000 | 84,000 |
| 9 | 5/29/17 | Manchester City Cup | Sounders Academy / Spurs Academy | —; — | UDN; 63000 | 63,000 |
