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See the full story · 1 sourcesOct 24, 2025; Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA; MLS Commissioner Don Garber presents the MLS Golden Boot award for the most goals scored during the regular season to Inter Miami CF forward Lionel Messi (10) before the game against Nashville SC at Chase Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
Major League Soccer is hoping to capitalize on growing interest in soccer in the United States while nearly tripling the value of its next media rights deal.
According to ESPN’s Ben Strauss , MLS is targeting annual rights fees between $400 million and $500 million when its exclusive agreement with Apple expires after the 2029 season. The league currently receives $250 million annually from Apple.
The problem for MLS is that it faces significant competition for soccer fans in the United States. According to Strauss, England’s Premier League, Spain’s La Liga, Mexico’s Liga MX and the UEFA Champions League are all strongly targeting American fans. Per Strauss’s reporting, MLS has internal data showing that 68% of American soccer fans root for more than one team. However, findings from Ampere Analysis show that 53% of Premier League fans do not follow MLS or Liga MX.
One of the only benefits that MLS provides is the in-person experience and a local identity. But the Premier League is trying to strengthen its own presence in the United States by expanding watch parties and even staging matches, especially preseason games , in the U.S.
According to The Athletic , the Premier League’s current deal with NBC in the U.S. is already more valuable than MLS’s. The deal is worth roughly $450 million per season. Overall, through global and domestic deals, the Premier League brings in £3.77 billion per year ($5 billion USD), per The Guardian .
As a result, MLS continues to struggle to break through, despite adding stars like Lionel Messi in recent years.
In primetime on Friday between the World Cup semifinals and the third-place game, Atlanta United-Nashville SC averaged 587,000 viewers on Fox, while LAFC-LA Galaxy averaged 504,000 viewers. Those viewership figures do not include viewing from Apple TV.
MLS’s hope for increased media rights comes from increased interest in soccer after the World Cup. A full comparison was unavailable, but during the last week of play prior to the World Cup, Inter Miami-Philadelphia Union on Fox averaged 571,000 viewers, while LAFC-Seattle Sounders averaged 331,000 viewers.
NBC averaged 1.2 million viewers for Premier League matches last year, according to Sports Business Journal . Though that’s not an apples-to-apples comparison, NBC’s viewership numbers include Adobe Analytics-measured Peacock viewership.
MLS is also beginning to face domestic competition, as the USL intends to launch a top-flight league to compete with MLS in 2028. Unlike MLS, that league is expected to feature promotion and relegation. The USL Championship, which is a level below MLS, averaged 453,000 viewers on CBS on the day of the World Cup third-place game. That viewership gives the MLS Friday doubleheader a run for its money, though the USL does not have additional streaming viewership as MLS does with Apple.
It is hard to have a complete picture of MLS because Apple and the league almost never release specific viewership data. The data that has been released, including a 4.6 million-viewer figure for the 2025 MLS Cup, does not include average audience data that could be compared directly with Nielsen viewership.
The World Cup may ultimately give MLS the momentum it believes will justify a richer media rights deal. But based on the limited viewership data available — and with competition for American soccer fans growing both domestically and internationally — the league still has plenty to prove before it can command the $400 million to $500 million annual payday it’s seeking.
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