Major League Soccer finally offered a viewership number for its landmark MLS Season Pass deal, but the metric is more of a puzzle than a clear benchmark, making it nearly impossible to compare to traditional TV ratings.
A number with an asterisk: Commissioner Don Garber announced matches are averaging 120,000 "unique viewers," a figure he touted as a 50% increase over last year. But "unique viewer" isn't the same as the average-minute audience (AMA) that Nielsen provides for TV broadcasts, a standard that saw MLS averaging 343,000 viewers on ESPN in 2022. According to a spokesperson, a "view" is counted the moment someone presses play, with no minimum watch time required.
Reading the fine print: Garber attributed the number to the league's packed Saturday schedule, where numerous games kicking off at once naturally fragment the audience. However, a Sports Business Journal source claims the league’s standalone 'Sunday Night Soccer' fixture—which gets heavy promotion from Apple—is helping inflate the overall average.
The bottom line: While Garber promised more transparency in the future, the league and Apple have kicked off their data disclosures with a number that raises more questions than it answers, leaving the industry to decode its true meaning.
Also on our radar: The streaming numbers aren't the only ones under scrutiny, as linear viewership for the 2024 MLS Cup on Fox also fell significantly. While navigating its domestic streaming partnership, the league has been signing a flurry of traditional broadcast deals internationally, and this recent data release follows a period where Garber had previously blamed Apple for the lack of transparency.
