Over the last decade, soccer has witnessed an unprecedented growth in popularity in the United States. According to a recent survey from The Economist, the sport has overtaken baseball to become the country’s third-most popular sport with as much as 10% of Americans identifying it as their favourite sport, trailing only American football (with 37%) and basketball (17%). This is a shift change from the period when soccer was barely spoken about.
The rise in soccer’s popularity somewhat accelerated post pandemic. Greater accessibility of European football in the US broadcast market, a rising number of Americans playing for top-tier European clubs and on the reverse side, increasing number of star footballers from Europe found calling in the MLS. Of course, entry of Lionel Messi in Inter Miami added to the addition global eyeballs. Important to mention here that a slew of US-based private capital investments flowing in European football, especially post-pandemic, also added to the increasing lure of soccer back in America. Maggie Schmerin, United Airlines’ chief advertising officer once told in an interview to Marketing Brew, “Wrexham is one of the most popular European football teams in the US”.
Another factor which could have possibly played its role is US winning the rights to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup along with Mexico and Canada.This blog takes a deeper look into the rise of soccer’s popularity in the US.
Soccer Consumption in Domestic Market
There are multiple reports alluding to the growth of soccer’s fandom and subsequent consumption. To quote one report from marketing, media, and experiences company For Soccer, “the number of people who have been soccer fans for 5 years or fewer is up 57% compared to last year, and the number of first-time fans is up 400% year-over-year.” Similarly, another report by Harris Poll found that number Americans interested in soccer has increased by 17% since 2020.
Nielsen’s latest report ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup gives insights in consumption statistics:
- U.S. viewers spent 79.8 billion minutes watching soccer in 2025.
- In 2024 the average Copa América audience more than doubled compared to 2021.
- 33% of the general U.S. population expects their interest in soccer to increase over the next 18 months, rising to 64% among current U.S. soccer fans.
- 56% of current fans say their interest will increase specifically because of the upcoming World Cup.
- 79.5% of U.S. soccer fans use social media for sports news and content, compared to 61.9% of the general population.
To understand soccer in US better, we look at the growth curve of the highest-level league of men’s professional soccer in the United States, the Major League Soccer (MLS) and Premier League, the most popular European league in the country.
Major League Soccer (MLS)
MLS, in its 31st year of operation in 2026, has grown from 10 teams when it started in 1996 to 30 teams presently with the addition of San Diego FC in 2025. Over its course of operations, MLS has grown to not only become a strong commercial property with a highly engaged fanbase but also as a viable player transfer destination from European leagues. Particularly over the last few years, high-profile players such as Son Heung-min (LAFC), Rodrigo De Paul (Inter Miami CF), and Thomas Müller (Vancouver Whitecaps FC) joined MLS. This is also one of the reasons why MLS was forced to change its league operating window. Beginning in the summer of 2027, MLS will adopt a summer-to-spring season format, aligning MLS with the world’s top leagues where the 2027-28 MLS regular season will kick off in July 2027 and conclude in May 2028, essentially optimizing with the global transfer window.
Why is this important? It simply reiterates the growth in MLS’ stature and further ambitions.
An important factor aiding in increasing popularity of MLS is its consistent growth in viewership. In 2025, MLS experienced a 29% increase in viewership numbers across linear and streaming platforms over the 2024 season averaging 3.7mn live viewers per match week across its various channels, including Apple TV, FOX Sports, and others.
That increased drastically to an average 7.9mn live match viewers per week across streaming and linear platforms through the first three months of the 2026 season. Comparing in the same period, the increase was 62% year-on-year.
Behind the increasing viewership and consistently 20,000+ average attendances experienced year-on-year are the highly engaged MLS fans. For Soccer, the marketing and media company, in its report on MLS fans states:
- MLS fanbases are incredibly loyal to their teams’ commercial partners. 72% MLS fans enjoy seeing their favorite team land cool sponsors. Compare that to NFL fans (52%) or MLB fans (54%).
- 62% of MLS fans would actually buy from companies that sponsor their team, versus just 40% of NFL fans and 43% of MLB fans.
- MLS fans skew notably younger: 32% are 34 or younger and more diverse, with 20% identifying as Hispanic.
All the above factors and more added to the increasing valuation of an MLS franchise which is very important. Football, after all, is a business. In the released recently Forbes list of top 30 most valuable soccer teams 2026, MLS has 7 teams, next only to the Premier League with 11 teams. In the Sportico list of valuations, average valuation of MLS team in 2025 has increased by 32% over that in 2022.
Premier League in the USA
Premier League is not only America’s biggest import from European football but also a substantial American capital export destination. Sports research firm Two Circles’ data states the US has about 45.6mn Premier League fans which leads to its growing viewership. NBC Networks and Versant’s USA Network, the league’s local broadcast partners reports that:
- The 25/26 season saw an average of 535,000 viewers per Premier League TV match window, second-best U.S. Premier League season viewership on record, and up 5% percent from last season (510,000).
- NBC Network delivered 18 Matches with 1+ million viewers in 25/26, that’s up 50% from previous season.
Premier League has a consistently growing TV rights deal with the current 2025-28 cycle U.S. valued at $2.7 billion over six years, which comes out to roughly $450 million per year, almost double the MLS annual media rights value and almost 2.6X LaLiga rights value. Reports regarding discussions around the rights allotment in the new cycle beginning 2029 suggest Netflix becoming a prime contender and values could increase substantially.
Conversely, investors from the US have tightened its circle around European football, especially Premier League with as many as 12 clubs in the upcoming 26/27 season have connections with US based investors. That’s not to mention the increasing sponsorship investments.
Impact of FIFA World Cup
Keeping political discussions aside, the 2026 FIFA World Cup is set to have an enormous impact on soccer in the USA. At the time of awarding the hosting rights in 2018, FIFA’s decision seems to have been based on considering the future growth and potential of soccer in domestic market. It has been proved right in many ways.
Nielsen’s Fan Insights report released in Oct 2025 states “37% of the general population expecting their interest in the sport to increase over the next 18 months”. In terms of business of soccer, the base and infrastructure is already existing through MLS and United Soccer League ecosystem, it is ready to build further in increased participation, commercial interests and at the same time become an integral part of the American culture.
In Conclusion
United States is demonstrating its ability to absorb and grow the game of soccer in multiple ways. Domestically, seeds of next level of accelerated growth has already been sown in two different ways. One, through global investment firm KKR’s investment in the MLS Next Pro which alludes to a commercially strong closed-loop model and the other, through USL’s model of organic growth involving promotion and relegation. All data seems to suggest that the US market has become mature enough to handle and grow in both types of models.
In either way, it’s the game of soccer which wins.
