Extra time. No golden goal!!
Dang it.
Men’s college basketball regular season games average around 433,000 viewers, while women’s regular season games average about 238,000 viewers. However, viewership spikes drastically during March Madness; the 2026 Men’s NCAA Tournament averaged 10.9 million viewers per game, which was the second-most watched tournament since 1994. [1, 2]
It’s nowhere close.
Bro, regular season college basketball games can have over 3 million viewers.
Playoff games over 10 million.
NO Liga MX or EPL game can get such viewership.
You’re right.
Not close.
College basketball is bigger.
Pro soccer is probably 8th in viewership and perhaps even further back in attendance.
Give it up Bro.
You’ve officially LOST the argument.
Sometimes it’s better to simply stand corrected.
This is very much a binary. Either fandom is determined by who tunes in during the regular season – in which case soccer beats both college basketball and the NHL in the regular season – or it’s determined by who tunes in during the spectacle that happens at regular intervals and draws in fans that otherwise don’t care – in which case the World Cup beats March Madness and the Stanley Cup and Olympic Hockey. It’s not particularly close in either case.
And in terms of regular season viewership, college basketball games can and do exceed 3 million viewers.
Pro soccer league regular season games in the USA….CAN’T….and DON’T.
Even the LigaMX and EPL.
And why not?
Because soccer simply doesn’t have as many fans.
PERIOD.
FULL STOP.
So even by your regular season criteria, you lose.
And no. Contrary to what you may want to believe….
Playoffs matter as well.
ALL viewers count towards ratings and ad revenue.
The gap between soccer and the Big Four plus college football and basketball is real and gets EVEN BIGGER when playoffs are added.
Soccer is smaller.
College basketball mostly only does that with a lead-in from the NFL, which is dramatically more popular. Without that, the overwhelming bulk of National TV games don’t draw anywhere close to a million.
If people who only tune in for the Big Event Everyone Watches (playoffs, March Madness) count, then soccer gets credit for the World Cup, too. It’s nonsensical to count casuals who tune in occasionally in one sport but not the other.
Bro, give it up.
There’s a reason college basketball games dominate the major sports networks in season and pro soccer games don’t.
It’s because college basketball has more fans and the networks know what to broadcast in order to get the most eyeballs.
Stop trying to come up with excuses for being wrong.
Anyway,
Bummed that Norway lost.
I guess @T-Moar would have us believe that these regular season ratings were all lead ins to the NFL or some such.
| 1 | Duke at North Carolina | Mar. 8, 2025 | ESPN | 2.998 million |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Auburn at Alabama | Feb. 15, 2025 | ESPN | 2.760 million |
| 3 | North Carolina at Duke | Feb. 1, 2025 | ESPN | 2.290 million |
| 4 | Kentucky at Alabama | Feb. 22, 2025 | ESPN | 2.171 million |
| 5 | Duke at Clemson | Feb. 8, 2025 | ESPN | 2.102 million |
| 6 | Alabama at Auburn | Mar. 8, 2025 | ESPN | 2.076 million |
| 7 | Kansas at Duke | Nov. 26, 2024 | ESPN | 2.019 million |
| 8 | Alabama at Tennessee | Mar. 1, 2025 | ESPN | 1.966 million |
| 9 | Arkansas at Kentucky | Feb. 1, 2025 | ESPN | 1.936 million |
| 10 | Duke at Kentucky | Nov. 12, 2024 | ESPN | 1.836 million  |
Those are basically all blue bloods and top 10 teams. For every one of those, there’s an Vanderbilt vs Mississippi State or Northwestern vs Minnesota drawing a fraction of that.
Notice also how quickly it drops off when the first handful of matchups are cut off. There were only 7 matchups that drew over two million. That’s the far right side of the bell curve.
Here are the most viewed LigaMX games, by comparison.
| 1 | Cruz Azul vs. América | Apertura 2025 | 1.067 million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | América vs. Pumas UNAM | Apertura 2025 | 1.015 million |
| 3 | Toluca vs. América | Apertura 2025 | 987,000 |
| 4 | América vs. Pachuca | Apertura 2025 | 901,000 |
| 5 | Monterrey vs. Santos Laguna | Apertura 2025 | 86 |
As always, soccer is behind.
Going time Argentina!
Why are you arguing with him? He is also going to contest that the MLS does not have a better season attendance average than the NHL…
Flopping when you’re already on a yellow is so unbelievably stupid. And Landon Donovan trying to excuse it is embarrassing. Glad he got sent off.
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Donovan is ridiculous. Argentina needs to find the back of the net.
Well duh.
They play in larger outdoor venues.
MLS beats the NBA in that regard
Following that flawed /idiotic logic, the MLS would be bigger than the NBA in the USA.
Of course, it isn’t.
Hey listen. The MLS cup drew fewer than 500k viewers.
The Stanley Cup finals can draw up to five MILLION viewers.
The most popular pro soccer team in the USA (LigaMX), could barely draw 1 million viewers on its best night.
College basketball regular season games can draw up to 3 million on their best days. Playoff games can exceed 10 million.
Are you truly going to be the fool that claims that the MLS and other pro soccer is more popular than either the NHL or college basketball in the USA in the face of those numbers to the CONTRARY???
Please Bro. Don’t be THAT fool.
There’s a reason linear TV carriers no longer carry the MLS, and still carry the NHL and college basketball.
It’s because both of those sports are more popular and get more viewers.
Period.
Full stop.
Pro soccer is no bigger than #5 at best, and probably #8 in the USA once college basketball and college football are added in.
Case closed.
Ps:
NHL total attendance. 23 million
MLS total attendance: 11 million.
Right back at you
How many games makes an NHL season? 82
How many games makes an MLS season? 34
Now you know what you can do with calling people bro or your “case closed” comments?
I have two daughters. My youngest uses “bro” from time to time. Yes, she is starting H.S.
Catchy name:
LAWBRO IS ON YOUR SIDE
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Just don’t use the “MLS is somehow more popular than the NHL because of ‘average attendance’” baloney.
Following that logic, MLS would also be more popular than the NBA, which also averages less per game.
Of course, MLS isn’t more popular than the NBA on that basis, nor is it more popular than the NHL. Everybody knows that. I assume you do as well, but you make me wonder when you post stuff like that.
One day when the MLS gets back on regular linear broadacast networks on a regular basis, and then averages TEN TIMES the viewers that it currently gets for its championship series, such that it matches NHL ratings in that regard, THEN you can claim that MLS matches the NHL in popularity.
But ONLY then. Until then, you cannot.
Wake me up when that happens.
I suspect I’ll sleep soundly.
So, should the Argentina v England game be called “Falklands War II?”
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