1. Major League Baseball(アメリカ・MLBメジャーリーグ/野球) 73,425,568人 2. Minor League Baseball(アメリカ・MiLBマイナーリーグ/野球) 48,082,830人 3. College football(アメリカ・NCAA/大学アメフト) 43,818,854人 4. College basketball(アメリカ・NCAA/大学バスケ) 27,626,165人 5. Nippon Professional Baseball(日本・NPB/野球) 21,570,196人 6. National Hockey League(アメリカ・NHL/アイスホッケー) 21,470,155人 7. National Football League(アメリカ・NFL/アメフト) 17,124,389人 8. National Basketball Association(アメリカ・NBA/バスケ) 17,100,270人
9. Bundesliga(ドイツ・ブンデスリーガ/サッカー) 13,805,514人 10. Premier League(イングランド・プレミアリーグ/サッカー) 13,148,465人 11. La Liga(スペイン・リーガエスパニョーラ/サッカー) 10,793,170人 12. Serie A(イタリア・セリエA/サッカー) 8,547,309人 13. Mexico Primera(メキシコ・プリメーラ/サッカー) 7,905,999人 14. Argentina Primera(アルゼンチン・プリメーラ/サッカー) 7,854,600人 15. Ligue 1(フランス・リーグアン/サッカー) 7,172,105人
16. Australian Football League(オーストラリア・AFL/オージーフットボール) 7,139,854人 17. Korea Professional Baseball(韓国・KPB/野球) 6,809,965人 18. American Hockey League(アメリカ・AHL/アイスホッケー) 6,426,934人 19. Eredivisie(オランダ・エールディヴィジ/サッカー) 5,978,689人 20. Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A(ブラジル・セリエA/サッカー) 5,745,332人
*4.5% 2013年03月02日(土) 13:55-14:55 NHK Jリーグ開幕スペシャル「サンフレッチェ広島×浦和レッズ」前半 *5.0% 2013年03月02日(土) 14:55-14:58 NHK ニュース *4.2% 2013年03月02日(土) 14:58-16:05 NHK Jリーグ開幕スペシャル「サンフレッチェ広島×浦和レッズ」後半
According to Nielsen, the match drew the third-best performance for a (non-American) football match on FOX Soccer ever, along with an even better showing on the Spanish-language FOX Deportes.
Both networks together delivered a respectable 1.102 million viewers with the telecast on FOX Soccer viewed by 520,000 people in the US in English, while on FOX Deportes, Real Madrid's 2-1 victory was viewed by 582,000 viewers.
The game was the most- watched weekday telecast of any kind for the network and the top-rated Champion's League telecast in its history.
Football is slowly gaining ground in the US, in a wave that arguably began with the 2010 FIFA World Cup ―
the first time the tournament was presented in English in that country. The only earlier telecast of note is the 1994 World Cup Final between Brazil vs. Italy, also televised on ABC/Univision, which drew 18.1 million.
But the World Cup Final between Spain and the Netherlands drew a total of 24.3 million US viewers, making it the most watched soccer game in US television history, according to Nielsen.
The figure, which includes viewership on both ABC and Univision during the two-and-a-half-hour game window, surpasses the record of 19.4 million viewers that tuned in to the US vs. Ghana match earlier in the tournament ―
when the US got eliminated by their continental hosts. Recently, English Premier League games shown on ESPN 2 have had some success.
For example, 570,000 people tuned in to ESPN2 to watch Manchester United against Arsenal in December 2010; and 610,000 viewers watched Arsenal vs. Chelsea on ESPN2 in that same month.