MLS Commissioner Don Garber signs autographs for fans prior to the 2025 MLS All-Star Game at Q2 … More
MLS via Getty Images
While most of the attention surrounding the 2025 MLS All-Star Game centered on the glaring omission of Lionel Messi from the festivities, one unexpected nugget that emerged was a piece of viewership data given by MLS Commissioner Don Garber.
During a wide-ranging press conference on Wednesday, Garber revealed that games on Apple TV’s MLS Season Pass platform are averaging 120,000 unique viewers, an increase of 50% from the previous season, which he suggested owed in part through increased methods of distribution that now includes being able to buy the service directly through some TV providers.
In the very basic sense, 50% growth is always good, even if coming from a low starting point. And if nothing else, it’s validation for the strategy of expanding ways to purchase the service.
If you try to extract any more from those numbers, here’s some advice: Don’t.
The reality is that streaming data is just fundamentally different from how broadcast and cable TV ratings are measured, and the streaming industry is still so novel that there’s really no standard, agreed-upon metric.
Additionally, any comparisons to MLS numbers from its previous deal with Fox, ESPN and Univision that ran from 2015 to 2022 are going to be seriously flawed, because the fundamental shape of the package is so very different.
Variables Lurking Everywhere
For starters, while MLS Season Pass is a globally available service, the majority of its telecasts are replacing broadcasts that were previously dissemenated via regional sports networks for local consumption. Only about 100 regular season games were available anually across the previous three broadcast partners.
There’s also the matter of international viewers, which Apple’s numbers would presumably include since MLS Season Pass is a globally available service, bur old Nielsen Ratings data, which only covers the United States, would omit.
Then there’s uncertainty of what the “unique viewer” metric even means. It could be Garber was referring to an average audience size across the the entirety of broadcasts, which would make it a similar metric to the TV ratings figure most commonly referenced for network and cable telecasts. It could be that Garber was referring to the gross total of viewers, which would make the data far less comparable and impressive.
Maybe most to the point, in streaming package where there are sometimes as many as 15 games played on a single night, the mean unique viewer data is probably less relevant than the median figure would be, since rare standalone games and games involving Messi’s Inter Miami could draw much larger audiences that skew the average uipward.
It would also be helpful to have standalone data from the league’s Sunday Night Soccer package, which is probably the best equivalent to 2015-22 national cable broadcasts.
This isn’t to suggest anything nefarious, though MLS does have some history of sharing statistics in a comically flattering way. It’s just a reminder that there probably won’t be a lot more insightful public data coming in the near future because of the challenges streaming presents. And quite honestly, an alternative where the public is privy to all sorts of granular viewership trends could become an ethical concern in terms of customers’ rights to data privacy when signing up for streaming services.
International Opportunity?
There is still a lot of room for the MLS Season Pass service to grow, and no certainty that those aspirations will be realized. But one of the most intriguing aspects of the new model could be MLS’ ability to reach foreign audiences far more efficiently than in previous relationships with foreign cable networks.
That may be one reason there for an increase in daytime kickoffs outside of the hot summer months this season, and also one reason MLS potentially feels more bullish about eventually adopting a fall-to-spring schedule similar to most European leagues. If MLS can make up for still niche interest domestically with continued growing interest abroad, it can reach a point where it shares in the revenues from subscription fees .
Messi and the rest of Miami’s star-studded roster aside, the average MLS roster still doesn’t have the kind of clout that could draw larger audiences from Europe and/or Latin America just yet. But that could change when the league and the players union’s collective bargaining agreement expires following the 2027 season, with five years left on the 10-year, $2.5 billion Apple TV pact.
