Editor’s Note: This story has been revised to reflect MLS Season Pass viewership as 1 million per match rather than 1 million total.
This past week at the Soccerex conference in Miami, executives from Apple, MLS, and Inter Miami revealed just how large an impact Lionel Messi had when he arrived in the league and city.
Apple senior vice president of services Eddy Cue said that a million people per match tuned in for Messi and Inter Miami across the MLS regular season and Leagues Cup – a figure Apple confirmed to Front Office Sports.
“We’ve had more than a million viewers to watch the biggest games this season; no one expected that,” Cue said.
Those are strong numbers when considering Apple’s MLS Season Pass is in the first season of a streaming experiment and that MLS games averaged 343,000 viewers in their final season on ESPN networks — bolstered by ABC’s network television presence.
Cue added that Apple saw significant spikes in Season Pass subscriptions in Argentina and Brazil immediately following Messi’s signing, in Mexico before and during the Leagues Cup, and in the United Kingdom, France, and other European countries by season’s end.
“This was our first season and we wanted to make sure we gave MLS fans we had here in the U.S. the best experience in the world,” Cue said. “We thought we wouldn’t grow internationally until later, and obviously, we’ve accelerated that, given Messi.”
MLS commissioner Don Garber alluded to initiatives between the league and Apple planned for next season to help grow the product internationally.
“We’re a league that’s playing in a global sport that has global fans and viewer aspirations, and the only way we can do that in accelerated fashion is with a global partnership, which is easily accessible to fans around the world,” Garber said. “You add to that the most important player in the history of the game. It gives us energy behind this broad global strategy.”
Inter Miami chief business officer Xavi Asensi also spoke to Messi’s immense impact on the club’s future: He told those in attendance that the club is projecting $200 million in 2024 revenue — more than triple what it did before Messi arrived.
The team has reportedly seen a 1,215% spike in season ticket applications for 2024, even with the team raising prices by almost double.
One important thing to keep in mind: Inter Miami did not qualify for the MLS Cup Playoffs, as Messi’s joining midseason was not enough to make up for a terrible start. The results could be much more fruitful when the soccer legend has a full season to work with.
