Which MLS records were broken during the 2023 season?
Major League Soccer had a historic year this season with attendance at stadiums, product consumption and growth in social media.
This weekend five teams will seek a direct ticket to the Major League Soccer 2023 playoffs. There are still two tickets up for grabs in the Eastern Conference and three in the Western Conference. After 34 weeks we will find out which 18 teams will be competing for the MLS Cup to culminate an historic year for the league.
The records broken this season have set the bar high for the 2024 MLS season, the 28th since the league was inaugurated in 1996. It will be almost impossible to top the signings which arrived this year, especially the arrival of Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba to Inter Miami last summer.
There is already speculation that more world class players will move to MLS next year to continue raising the level and attracting more fans. Here we review some of the records that were broken during 2023, which was a historic year on many fronts.
Stadium attendance
Expansion franchise St Louis City, was the pleasant surprise in its MLS debut. The team finished top of the Western Conference, securing home field advantage, at CITYPARK stadium, for the playoffs. Major League Soccer set the record for the highest total attendance in a single campaign with a total of 10,432,703 fans turning up to watch games. At the end of week 34, regular season attendance is expected to end at 10.9 million.
The match that had initially been scheduled to be played in the first week of the 2023 season between the Los Angeles Galaxy and LAFC broke all attendance records in MLS. Due to the rains that hit California, El Tráfico was scheduled for United States Independence Day, July 4, and 82,110 fans gathered at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.
It broke the previous attendance record for a single regular season match that Charlotte FC had established on March 4, 2022. That match was played against the Los Angeles Galaxy at Bank of America Stadium and 74,479 fans turned out for the first home game played for the then-Major League Soccer expansion team. Atlanta United became the first team in league history to reach 5 million spectators when playing at home, at their Mercedes-Benz Stadium, in 103 regular season games. The 5-Stripes set the record with 42,684 supporters in the stands for Columbus Crew’s visit on 7 October.
Growth across all social media platforms
Without a doubt, the arrival of the world champion with Argentina, Lionel Messi, and the contract signed with Apple for the next 10 years revolutionized the MLS during 2023. The league reached 5.4 million new followers during 2023, 2 million more on Instagram and 2.2 million more on TikTok. This increased traffic to 55 percent on all league websites. 29 teams and MLS during the campaign.
Product consumption
The sale of shirts also increased during the current season, more so with the signings that Inter Miami made in the summer. The official MLS store had a historic year and Lionel Messi’s jersey became the best-selling jersey of 2023 in the first 45 minutes of its official launch. In addition, it became the best-selling jersey in a three-day span in MLS history. MLS have not released the number of Messi No.10 jerseys sold during his first two months in Miami.