{"id":900161,"date":"2026-10-30T18:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T18:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/900161\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T18:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T18:02:09","slug":"la-ligas-u-s-viewership-soars-as-el-clasico-sets-all-time-record-on-espn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/900161\/","title":{"rendered":"La Liga\u2019s U.S. viewership soars as El Cl\u00e1sico sets all-time record on ESPN"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>La Liga is seeing significant growth in U.S. viewership this season, fueled by a record-setting audience for Sunday\u2019s El Cl\u00e1sico.<\/p>\n<p>Sunday\u2019s Barcelona-Real Madrid match averaged a whopping 2.4 million viewers across ABC and ESPN Deportes, making it the most-watched El Cl\u00e1sico and La Liga match in U.S. history. The audience more than doubled last season\u2019s first El Cl\u00e1sico audience of 1.1 million viewers.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Sunday\u2019s ELCL\u00c1SICO delivered most-watched LALIGA match on ESPN Nets<\/p>\n<p>\ufffc\u26bd\ufe0f2.4M avg. viewers across ABC and ESPN Deportes<br \/>\ufffc\u26bd\ufe0fSeason audience Up +50% YoY<\/p>\n<p>Details: https:\/\/t.co\/PObYKNPfA2 https:\/\/t.co\/KUc5QvGX8h<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ESPNPR\/status\/2115209926460965373?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">October 27, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Combined English and Spanish viewership is up 50 percent year-over-year through Matchday 10, averaging 142,000 viewers, and the strongest growth has come among children ages 2\u201317 (+84%), adults ages 18\u201334 (+69%) and women ages 2 and older (+56%), an ESPN spokesperson tells Awful Announcing. While exact audience figures for these demographics were not provided, the 84% year-over-year increase among children ages 2\u201317 is particularly notable and speaks to the potential impact of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/sports\/soccer\/premier-league-viewership-up-20-among-young-americans-nielsen-sports-data-shows-2026-10-05\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Reuters<\/a> reported earlier this month, Premier League viewership has also grown significantly among younger audiences, though not to the same extent as La Liga\u2019s current gains. However, La Liga\u2019s season-to-date average still trails the Premier League\u2019s audience on NBC and USA Network, which averages more than three times as many viewers.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, average La Liga viewership on ESPN Deportes is up 12% overall, with children ages 2\u201317 (+50%) and adults ages 18\u201334 (+26%) leading the growth on the Spanish-language side.<\/p>\n<p>ESPN\u2019s La Liga coverage has delivered several record audiences this season, including three of the most-watched English-language La Liga matches ever on ESPN platforms. Alongside Sunday\u2019s El Cl\u00e1sico, those audiences include Elche\u2013Barcelona (1.0 million viewers) and Espanyol\u2013Real Madrid (811,000 viewers) on Matchday 1 in August. ESPN also recorded its most-watched Madrid Derby ever across ESPN2, ESPN Deportes, and ESPN+ in September, averaging 574,000 viewers.<\/p>\n<p>La Liga will look to sustain its U.S. growth, particularly among English-language audiences, with more matches still to come on ABC and ESPN this season.<\/p>\n<p>For more on ESPN\u2019s La Liga coverage, check out our interview with longtime soccer broadcaster <a href=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/soccer\/derek-rae-career-broadcasting-soccer-united-states.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Derek Rae<\/a>, who recently joined the network\u2019s La Liga commentary team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"La Liga is seeing significant growth in U.S. viewership this season, fueled by a record-setting audience for Sunday\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":900162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[275492,88,24371,377141,92],"class_list":["post-900161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-el-clasico","tag-entertainment","tag-la-liga","tag-soccer-on-espn","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=900161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/900162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=900161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=900161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=900161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}