It seems that having Lionel Messi as part of your streaming service is a winning strategy.
MLS Season Pass — Major League Soccer’s streaming service, which is exclusive to Apple TV — launched back in February. While the streaming service has seemingly done well up until now, Lionel Messi joining MLS has boosted its popularity even further.
When Messi signed up to play with Inter Miami, the club that superstar David Beckham partly owns, many expected the viewership of MLS to increase — and increase it did. In a statement to The Verge, Apple spokesperson Tom Neumayr said that MLS Season Pass reached peak viewership in the week of July 19th-26th, which happens to be the same week that Messi played his first two matches with Inter Miami.
While Apple did not release specific numbers, in a statement, Apple spokesperson Tom Neumayr explained that the week of July 19th–26th had “the 3 most-watched matches ever on MLS Season Pass, with viewers in almost 100 countries and regions around the world. And the fans for those matches were roughly split between the MLS Season Pass English and Spanish language broadcasts.”
It’s not surprising to see viewership increase after Messi’s debut. The football star has already scored three goals in just two matches. I watched both, and they were incredible, especially the ending of the first match — which you can feast your eyes on below:
I haven’t been into sports for a long time now. I used to watch them all of the time, but ever since getting rid of cable years ago, they faded away. However, it feels like Apple is pulling me back in. First, they gave me Ted Lasso, then Friday Night Baseball, and now MLS Season Pass.
What am I to do when there are all of these exciting games on and — of course — my iPhone is telling me about them? I have a feeling that more baseball and football are in my future.
I’ll certainly be tuning into Messi’s next game. Will you?
