Apple and Major League Soccer (MLS) struck a deal starting in 2023 for 10 years of partnership—a huge swing by both parties. Now, two years in, a new report sheds light on how that partnership’s going, including inside looks at viewership numbers and more.
New viewership details for MLS Season Pass
Apple and MLS have historically been very secretive when it comes to the performance of MLS Season Pass. But here’s an inside look at how things are going.
Paul Tenorio writes for The Athletic (Apple News+ link):
Sources…briefed on the numbers told The Athletic that more than one million people watch MLS games on an average Saturday across all games, that around 94 percent of subscribers feel Season Pass is “significantly” better than previous broadcasts and that playoff viewership was up around 50 percent from 2023 to 2024. That number may have been aided by Messi and Miami in the playoffs, as well as a huge push around Miami’s playoff opener, but audiences were still up even removing Miami’s three playoff games.
Unlike other streaming services, such as Netflix, Disney+, and even Apple TV+, it’s hard to find a good benchmark to compare these numbers against.
Is one million Saturday viewers per week a good thing? It’s really hard to say, since we don’t know how much those numbers have grown and it’s tough to compare MLS Season Pass to any other streaming offering.
The 50 percent increase for playoff views, though, points to a positive outlook—as does the recent MLS comment that subscriber numbers have been ‘better than expected.’
Apple’s strong commitment to MLS deal
The full report is well worth a read, including for its variety of details on the inner workings of the Apple-MLS partnership. For example:
One standout from the first two years, according to multiple people involved in production, is Apple’s commitment to the project. Apple has built out a large team to focus on Season Pass and they engage regularly with MLS’ leaders. Apple executive Eddy Cue recently sat in on a league sporting and competition committee meeting, sources said, to engage with owners about what Apple is doing to help push the league forward and to hear what MLS is doing to grow in the coming years.
Apple and MLS each had a lot to gain when they struck their 10-year deal, but a lot they were risking too.
- Apple is investing a ton of money by not just streaming MLS but being an official sponsor of the whole league
- MLS is pushing viewers to streaming, which is risky when many sports viewers hold on to linear viewing habits
Overall, it sounds like the partnership has been very healthy so far—and rewarding for both companies.
Apple’s ambitions for sports are clearly bigger than the MLS, but perhaps its efforts in this area will help it get a foot in the door with more leagues trying to navigate the transition to streaming.
What are your takeaways from the report? Let us know in the comments.
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