Featured image credit: John Lobos on Unsplash
Major League Soccer has announced that its total attendance across the 2024 regular season and MLS Cup playoffs ranked the competition second in the world among all football leagues.
Ahead of Saturday’s season-closing MLS Cup match between LA Galaxy and the New York Red Bulls, MLS revealed that over 12.1 million fans had attended a match this season.
According to data sourced from Opta, this placed MLS second behind the English Premier League, which attracted a total attendance of more than 14.6 million. The data also ranked MLS above the Bundesliga (12 million), Serie A (11.6 million), LaLiga (10.7 million) Campeonato Brasileiro Série A (10.2 million), and Ligue 1 (8.4 million).
Saturday’s MLS Cup match between LA Galaxy and the Red Bulls attracted an attendance of 26,812 at Dignity Health Sports Park. Galaxy won the match 2-1 to claim a record sixth MLS Cup.
MLS announced in October that it had set a new regular-season attendance record of more than 11 million, with games to spare. The record surpassed last year’s total of 10,900,904.
As the regular season concluded later that month, MLS revealed that 11,454,205 fans attended games, an increase of 5% over 2023 and up 14% in comparison to the 2022 season. Some 21 of the 29 clubs were up in attendance.
Regular-season average attendance was a record 23,234, with 10 clubs setting or tying a record for average attendance. Sellouts were reported for 213 matches, with the figures boosted by the presence of Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi.
Two matches surpassed 70,000 fans in 2024, with the highest single-game attendance (72,610) set on April 13 when Inter Miami took on Sporting Kansas City at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. The second highest attendance was set on July 4, as 70,076 fans watched LA Galaxy vs Los Angeles FC at the Rose Bowl Stadium.
Eight matches had an attendance of 60,000 or higher, including game two of the best-of-three series between Atlanta United and Inter Miami. Ten matches exceeded 50,000 fans, and 31 matches attracted at least 40,000 fans.
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