Major League Soccer’s (MLS) regular season has set multiple records across attendance, sponsorship, retail, social media, and digital media across the 2024 campaign.
The 2024 regular season, which finished on October 19, has set record attendance numbers, putting the MLS behind only England’s Premier League and Germany’s Bundesliga in terms of attendance.
Much of this overall increase in interest and growth can be attributed to the presence of arguably the world's best-ever player, Argentine forward Lionel Messi, at Inter Miami - who have this year finished top of the MLS' Eastern Conference and are now set to enter the post-season playoffs.
A record-breaking 11,454,205 fans attended MLS matches in the regular season, and the MLS expects that number to rise to 12 million by the conclusion of the MLS Cup (the league's post-season and playoffs). This is an increase of 5% over 2023, and up 14% when compared to the 2022 season.
MLS regular season average attendance was 23,234 per match, the highest for an MLS regular season, with 10 clubs having set or tied a record for average attendance.
Season ticket sales have increased by 12% in comparison to the 2023 season, with a record 213 sold-out matches throughout the season, with MLS venues filled at a record 94% capacity.
The sponsorship sector also saw a significant uptick in brand interest. MLS and Soccer United Marketing (SUM), the League’s commercial arm, had record sponsorship and revenue growth in 2024, with a 13% increase in MLS and SUM partnership revenue compared to 2023, and a 13% rise in club sponsorship income across the same period.
In total, 18 new partners have signed on as sponsors of MLS or SUM properties.
In terms of retail, July 16 marked the largest sales day in the history of MLSstore.com, driven by the launch of the adidas x MLS Archive Collection, third kits worn by five clubs during the 2024 season, with Inter Miami’s third kit the fastest selling kit in MLSstore.com’s history, recording the most sales in the first day, week, and month of any newly launched jersey in MLSstore.com history.
The 2024 jersey launch period on MLSStore.com also set records for both units sold and revenue generated.
Across social media, meanwhile, the league claims its social following has grown at a higher rate in 2024 than any other major men’s North American sports leagues on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, with a higher share of international fans on TikTok than any other North American sports league.
Followers have grown 26% this year on TikTok, 21% on YouTube, and 10% on Instagram, with the clubs’ YouTube views up 150%, and Instagram impressions up 33%. Six clubs have more than doubled their Instagram impressions in 2024 when compared to 2023, MLS has said.
Specifically, Inter Miami have become the most-followed North American sports team on TikTok, with 9.4 million followers, and the third most followed on Instagram with 17.2 million followers.
Speaking to Sportcal (GlobalData Sport), executive vice president and chief club performance officer of the MLS, Chris McGowan, has said: “Capitalizing on the momentum of the league because of the star power of certain players [such as Messi and fellow Argentine superstar Luis Suarez at Inter Miami] is sometimes easier said than done.
“Collectively, everyone's done an amazing job taking advantage of this moment, but particularly to see the amount of growth in ticket sales is really encouraging, especially with the belief that this is going to continue.
“I always point to what the most important barometers in our business are, are people going and watching your product, and do partners want to be a part of it? I think just by the statistics, the answer is yes to both of those.”
In relation to the MLS’ 10-year, $2.5 billion-plus global streaming agreement with Apple, McGowan added: “Since it's been announced, all of our metrics are through the roof. When you partner with dynamic companies, you learn a lot of sophisticated things when working with them, and so we're doing a lot of interesting things that other leagues can't do. Our product is global.”
The 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs will begin on October 22 and continue until the MLS Cup on December 7. All matches will be broadcast on the MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.
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