Analysis | Soccer’s continuing growth in the U.S.
A sport that has often been cast aside in the country, soccer is continuing to find its footing in American culture. Photo courtesy of Unsplash
The sport of soccer has been deeply embedded in cultures across the world, but especially in Europe, South America and Africa. That is simply not the case when it comes to the U.S. However, the perception of the “beautiful game” has been shifting over the past few decades.
When the U.S. hosted the 1994 World Cup, it had no professional league. Since then, the growth of soccer has skyrocketed.
The following graph shows data from every five years. COVID-19 years were omitted due to restrictions on how many fans were allowed to attend games. Information from Transfermarkt, data graphic by SUKHMAN SAHOTA, Art Director
Major League Soccer (MLS) had its inaugural season in 1996, and in the nearly 30 years since then, the league has created a large audience of dedicated fans. Transfermarkt, a website that tracks a plethora of soccer-related stats, found that the average attendance to games in the inaugural season was 17,397 fans. In 2023, the league-wide average attendance was 22,170.
Not only that, but a league that started with 10 teams in total now has 29, three of which are located in Canada. A 30th in San Diego is on the way and is expected to start playing in the 2025 season. San Diego FC will serve as the fourth team in California and will play in the league’s Western Conference. The game has expanded across the U.S., with every state having at least one semi-pro and/or college team while 17 states have MLS squads.
Viewership of the game is also an area that highlights the growing interest in soccer.
According to Forbes, the 2022 Men’s World Cup final garnered almost 26 million viewers on average as Lionel Messi and Argentina lifted the trophy after beating France. The U.S. men's team’s group stage game against England in that same World Cup peaked at over 15 million viewers, and their game against Iran averaged 12.01 million, according to Sports Watch Media. The average viewership in the Iran match was higher than the average for the 2023 NBA Finals which, according to Forbes, sat at 11.65 million.
While those statistics are enlightening, they don’t paint the entire picture. The 2022 World Cup occurred while school was still going on in the U.S. when the competition is normally held in the summer. Many students posted social media videos of classrooms or even entire schools watching games from the competition. Kids would have matches on their computers while class was going on, and the internet was flooded with content surrounding soccer. It was a major topic on many high schooler’s minds.
A study done by Sports Innovation Lab, a company that measures sports fan data, shows that 55% of U.S. soccer fans are from the ages of 18 to 34. The younger demographic is clearly at the forefront of the fandom, and this could be due to the fact that they grew up playing or watching the game.
If you drive by a soccer park on the weekend, you are likely to see cars filling up every parking spot, with thousands of kids and hundreds of teams from around the country out there on the field competing. The treatment of soccer as a serious sport at the youth level is helping to change the perception of the game within American culture.
Information from Sports Innovation Lab, data graphic by SUKHMAN SAHOTA, Art Director
Whether it is the domestic league or international competition, soccer in the U.S. is a hot commodity
People are watching the game, and that is largely because the quality of play in the MLS has grown significantly. Players from across the world are coming to the league to showcase their talents and compete for trophies. World Cup champion Lionel Messi signed with Inter Miami FC this past summer and has produced a plethora of highlight moments. Messi led Inter Miami to a trophy as they won the Leagues Cup, a month-long competition between every club from MLS and LIGA MX, Mexico’s top division.
MLS has seen legendary players like David Beckham, Zlatan Ibrahimović and Didier Drogba join its ranks in the past 15 years. The league not only has star power, but teams are being smarter about which players they recruit into their rosters.
For example, young players from South America have flocked to the league as a stepping stone for the top leagues in Europe, and this has only made teams more competitive and talented. Argentinian player Thiago Almada exemplifies this, as he has been one of the most prolific players in MLS, and he was signed from Vélez Sarsfield, a club in Argentina. Almada could potentially be transferred to a club in one of Europe’s top divisions this summer due to his outstanding statistics in MLS.
Also, professional teams are investing more in youth academies to train the next generation of U.S. players. Every MLS team has a homegrown system where they have different teams within their youth system of all different ages. These American-born players are getting professional level development from a young age, and in that way, MLS is raising the talent of the player pool domestically.
Another large driving force for soccer’s popularity in America has been the success of the U.S. women’s national team. Since the first Women’s World Cup in 1991, they have won the trophy a record four times. Their victory at the Rose Bowl in 1999 was sold out with 90,185 fans attending to see the action unfold. Additionally, the most recent edition of the competition in the summer of 2023 brought an average of 4.3 U.S. million viewers to the team’s group stage games, even when these took place late at night or early in the morning at local times.
Women, in general, have been key to the recent success of soccer as, according to Sports Innovation Lab, they make up 51% of soccer fans in the U.S. Without that support for the sport, viewership would potentially tank. Because of the success of the women’s national team, more girls and women are involved in soccer which has opened up a demographic that has given the game more popularity.
In 2022, according to Statista, girls made up 46.2% of participants in high school soccer. The story of the changing perception around soccer in the U.S. cannot be told without understanding what women have done for the game.
The popularity of the game is not on par with the rest of the world yet, though, as the Sports Innovation Lab study says that 27% of U.S. sports fans have an interest in soccer, compared to 40% globally.
Clearly, the game still has a long way to grow in the country. Soccer still isn’t as popular in the U.S. as it is in other nations, and domestically, it is yet to surpass basketball, football or even baseball in terms of viewership.
However, the shift has begun. What was once treated as a tertiary option, soccer is finding its way to being a primary sport in the country. In 2022, eight percent of Americans said soccer was their favorite sport, when only two percent said the same in 2004, according to Brandeis University’s student newspaper The Justice.
Meanwhile, a Gallup poll that looked into the preferences of sports fans found that in December 2017, soccer was the fourth most popular answer to the question: “What is your favorite sport to follow?” When that same question was posed in April 1997, it was tied for bottom of the sports listed alongside figure skating. The poll showed that 7% of respondents in 2017 said soccer was their favorite sport to follow, while 9% said baseball and 11% responded basketball.
The younger generation of sports players and fans within the country have been interacting with the game since a young age, and it has become embedded in the modern culture. The introduction of soccer into the youth’s minds has given it a foothold for the future.
Jackson Busby, a junior electrical engineering major who is a defender on Chapman men’s soccer team, said that while it may be hard to replicate the soccer culture in Europe, the sport has certainly gained popularity in the U.S. in recent years.
“The World Cup coming to the U.S. in 2026 will have a tremendous impact on its popularity. There is likely going to be the most American viewers that we have ever seen watching the World Cup, which will leave an impact on lots of new viewers who might actually take a liking to it. I bet there will be people who tune into a soccer match for the first time ever and end up really enjoying the sport the rest of the world loves.”
While the U.S. may not have the same soccer culture as other countries, the data suggests that the sport is becoming more popular than ever in the country. With the 2026 World Cup being hosted in the U.S., Mexico and Canada, there is every chance that the growth of the game continues.