Nielsen data shows significant post-World Cup soccer bump among young adults

This summer's World Cup smashed all sorts of soccer viewership records in the United States, and it appears as if some viewers are sticking around for the sport's other offerings. According to new research published by the audience measurement firm Nielsen at a Front Office Sports conference on Tuesday, viewership for Major League Soccer, the English Premier League, and Spain's La Liga are up across the board among young Americans.

Some reassuring data here for soccer in the U. Of course, viewership for MLS matches on Apple TV, which is the exclusive rights holder for the league outside of a small simulcast package on Fox Sports, are not measured by Nielsen.

Premier League games have seen similar gains in the same demographic. Post-World Cup Premier League matches on NBC and USA Network are up by 30 percent among adults 18 to 34, a figure that includes Spanish-language broadcasts.

Spain's La Liga has seen an even larger jump on ESPN, which has seen viewership in the young adult demographic explode by 60 percent and overall La Liga viewership increase by 42 percent across all English- and Spanish-language telecasts. The data is broadly encouraging for soccer considering these types of "bumps" are not necessarily guaranteed after a major global event.

Even more encouraging is the fact that much of the growth is concentrated among young people, who can ostensibly be fans of the sport for life. Nielsen also outlines that, beyond television viewership, the number of Americans who identify as fans of soccer increased by 13 percent from July 2025 to July 2026, from 66.8 million to 75.2 million.

And since 2022, the number of Americans who identify as a MLS fan has as risen to 11.7 million, a 28 percent bump.