MLS
Major League Soccer will debut a new Sunday night primetime matchup in 2025 as part of the league’s push to expand its coverage.
This year will mark the 30th anniversary of the league’s launch and there’s no broadcast strategy that’s more bold than one that goes head-to-head with the National Football League.
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MLS will introduce Sunday Night Soccer this season, a featured game of the week on Sunday evenings with “enhanced production and dedicated studio programming,” according to a league press release. The most compelling matchups, per the release, will air throughout the regular season.
The first Sunday Night Soccer game of the 2025 regular season will pit expansion club San Diego FC against defending MLS Cup champions LA Galaxy on February 23 at 7 p.m. ET.
Sunday Night Soccer will include pre-and postgame shows and what MLS has called “enhanced production and studio programming” in English and Spanish. Every Sunday Night Soccer match will be available for free for Apple TV+ subscribers.
For context, in 2024, NBC’s Sunday Night Football was the TV season’s No. 1 primetime show for the 13th consecutive year, according to NBCUniversal.
Sunday Night Football averaged a total audience delivery of 21.4 million viewers in the 2023 season, while setting a streaming record with full-season average minute audience topping 1.5 million viewers for the first time.
Ratings for MLS matches have always been low. Apple does not release their broadcast numbers, so there is little proof that more eyes have watched MLS since the league partnered with Apple in 2023.
Apple and MLS agreed to a 10-year partnership worth a reported $2.5 billion. When Lionel Messi joined Inter Miami in the summer of 2023, he immediately became the face of the league and of Apple’s MLS content strategy. After Messi’s playoff debut against Atlanta United on October 25, Apple, without offering concrete data, announced that the match, a 2-1 win for Miami, had been the most widely viewed sporting event that Apple had ever presented.
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MLS took a risk with the timing of its Apple TV partnership. Did they get it right?
Without a doubt, the Apple deal has allowed MLS to reach a more global audience, but the sustainability and success of the partnership remains unpredictable. Since the deal with Apple began, a majority of MLS matches have been played on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET. It led to a cluttered broadcast schedule with few options for fans to watch multiple games, if they so desired. Messi’s matches with Inter Miami were likely lost in the shuffle.
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A primetime Sunday slot is an expected move. It should allow the league’s stars and best teams their own moment to shine.
MLS Season Pass broadcasters Jake Zivin and Taylor Twellman will be joined by Andrew Wiebe for English broadcasts with Sammy Sadovnik and Diego Valeri spearheading the Spanish broadcast.
(Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
Felipe Cardenas is a senior writer for The Athletic who covers soccer in South America, North America and more. Follow Felipe on Twitter @FelipeCar

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