Top 20 largest football attendances in the US in 2022

Perhaps the largest metric used to measure the growing popularity of football in the United States is attendance. Bigger crowds means more money and more eyeballs. This in turn leads to greater crowds. And so on, until football becomes a behemoth. In examining the data for 2022, we’ve compiled a list of the 20 largest football attendances in the US.

So without further ado, here are the top 20 football attendances in the US for 2022:

Attendance figures for 2022

Date	Event	Match up	Stadium	Presence
July 30	Friendly	Real Madrid v Juventus	Rose bowl	93,702
July 23	Friendly	Manchester City-Bayern Munich	Lambeau field	78,128
March 5th	MLS	Charlotte–LA Galaxy	Bank of America Stadium	74,479
3 August	leagues cup	LA Galaxy – Chivas & LAFC – Club America	SoFi stadium	71,189
4th of May	Champions League	Seattle Sounders – Cougars	Lumen field	68,741
August 6	MLS	Atlanta–Seattle	Mercedes-Benz stadium	68,586
February 27	MLS	Atlanta-Sporting Kansas City	Mercedes-Benz stadium	67,523
July 9	MLS	Atlanta-Austin	Mercedes-Benz stadium	67,516
September 27	Friendly	Mexico-Colombia	Levi’s Stadium	67.311
September 23	Friendly	Argentina – Honduras	Hard Rock Stadium	64,420
July 23	Friendly	Arsenal-Chelsea	Camping World stadium	63,811
September 24	Friendly	Mexico-Peru	Rose bowl	62,729
July 23	Friendly	Barcelona vs Real Madrid	Allegiant Stadium	61,299
July 20	Friendly	Manchester City – Club America	NRG Stadium	61,223
5 June	Friendly	Mexico Ecuador	Soldier field	61.104
July 26	Friendly	Barcelona-Juventus	Cotton bowl	58,127
June 2nd	Friendly	Mexico-Uruguay	State Farm stadium	57,735
the 28th of May	Friendly	Mexico Nigeria	AT&T stadium	56,872
July 20	Friendly	Charlotte Chelsea	Bank of America Stadium	52,673
August 31th	Friendly	Mexico–Paraguay	Mercedes-Benz stadium	51,387

Of the 20 most attended matches, only four are Major League Soccer matches. And three of those four are Atlanta United games. That means only 20% of the top 20 most visited games contain MLS games.

The competition certainly has a long way to go to attract more visitors. From this summer leagues cup could go a long way in increasing the audience by leveraging the support of Liga MX fans.

Largest U.S. Football Attendance for 2022

All told, there were 38 games played in the US in 2022, drawing more than 40,000 people. That number is higher than last year’s 28 such games. And it’s also much higher than in 2020, when there were three such games before COVID shut down the world. The crowds can be broken down as follows:

• 18 mobs in the 40’s
• 5 mobs in the 50,000s
• 11 crowds in the 60’s
• 5 crowds in the 1970s
• 1 mob in the 90’s

European clubs

It has long been the case that European club teams tend to draw huge crowds for preseason games in the US. This year was no different. Five of the matches on this list were between two European clubs. Another four games on this list featured one European club.

Plus, it’s no surprise that some of the biggest crowds were on hand to see the biggest clubs from across Europe. Teams from England included Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal. There were the two Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona. And of course the leagues of Germany and Italy were both represented with Bayern Munich and Juventus.

Mexican national team

The least surprising American football news is that Mexico draws some of the largest football crowds in the United States. Six of the seven games El Tri played in the United States in 2022 attracted large crowds. All six of those games have cracked the 50,000 mark. That’s a particularly impressive number when you consider that they were all friendlies rather than Gold Cup or Nations League matches.

Lack of US national team

The year 2022 marks the first time since 2006 that the list of largest soccer audiences in the US does not include the USMNT nor the USWNT. As frustrating as that is for American fans, it’s no surprise given US Soccer’s conscious and short-sighted decision to only play in the same few stadiums. Hopefully, with the USMNT coming off a Round of 16 appearance in Qatar, and the USWNT preparing for the Women’s World Cup, they’ll draw large crowds again.

MLS teams

For years, the Seattle Sounders were the beacon of what American football support could be. Then that mantle passed to Atlanta United. Both clubs are present on this list. The Sounders made it to the CONCACAF Champions League final against Pumas. And it featured the Cascadia Cup rivalry with the Portland Timbers. Nearly every Atlanta United game also had a sizeable crowd.

But not only Atlanta and Seattle are doing well. Charlotte FC, the MLS’ newest expansion team, generated several big attendances. Their first ever home game had the third largest crowd in the world on the weekend it was played. They had a huge crowd when they entered the race to the playoffs at the end of the season. And just for the record, they had a solid turnout for an exhibition game against Chelsea.

Stadium Size

Finally, when watching these games, pay attention to the actual stadiums in use. Almost all stadiums have a primary tenant who is an NFL team. Admittedly, Atlanta built its new stadium with the intention of enticing Major League Soccer to give Atlanta an expansion team. That was a success and Atlanta United has by far the largest stadium in Major League Soccer when it comes to reduced capacity. At full capacity, Bank of America, home of Charlotte FC, and Lumen Field for the Sounders can rival Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Still, those three stadiums are more known for their NFL teams. The Falcons, Panthers and Seahawks play at maximum capacity. Charlotte FC played at a capacity of 38,000 for much of the season. Seattle Sounders hovered just below. Therefore, it’s not too surprising to see some of the expanded capabilities in those locations. Still, it may be a testament to the popularity of those teams in those respective areas to have max capacity games that jump over 50,000 on special occasions.

PHOTO: IMAGO/Icon Sportswire