Top 25 Largest Soccer Crowds in the United States in 2024

Soccer has made tremendous strides in the United States. The number of teams playing in various leagues, the stadiums that have been and are being built, and of course the number of big crowds, all point to an upward trajectory for the beautiful game in this country.

But just how big are the crowds, and how many of them are there? Do fans in certain cities seem to turn out more than fans in other cities and are people more likely to turn up for a national team game or a club game? Considering that many would consider a crowd of 40,000 to be a “good” crowd for a soccer game in the United States, 2024 was a smashing soccer success.

Here is a list of the 25 largest soccer crowds in the United States in 2024.

There are a number of takeaways here. The biggest takeaway is that having a tournament as prestigious as Copa America is a huge deal. 2024 was not the first time that Copa America has been played in the US, but the Centenario edition back in 2016 did not get the hype it needed due to many high-level figures in international soccer being under a cloud of investigations from the United States Department of Justice. This year’s Copa America was one of the best attended editions of the tournament, as nearly half of the games on this list were part of the tournament.

Another takeaway is that, despite diminishing returns on the field, support for Mexico is still very strong in the US. El Tri was eliminated from the group stage of the 2022 World Cup, failed to win both the 2023 and 2024 editions of the Nations League, and bowed out of Copa America at the group stage. Despite the poor results, Mexico is well represented on this list, including posting the largest crowd of the whole year against Brazil. This particular game was special because it was played at one of America’s largest college football stadiums: Kyle Field in College Station, Texas home to the Aggies of Texas A&M University.

But that wasn’t the only soccer game played in a college football stadium this year to draw a large crowd. Several big-time European club friendlies played games in American college football stadiums. Liverpool and Manchester United clashed at the home of the University of South Carolina Gamecocks football team and Chelsea faced Manchester City at “The Shoe”, home to the Ohio State Buckeyes. This has led to suggestions online that US Soccer take a closer look at playing some of their biggest games at American college football stadiums as a way to build excitement for the 2026 World Cup.

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Messi mania is also still going strong. Argentina winning Copa America certainly helped push it ever further, but it is in Major League Soccer where Messi’s impact is being felt the most. Despite MLS boasting of breaking attendance records every year, only six MLS games made this list. And of those six games, four of them featured Lionel Messi and Inter Miami.

One possible reason for concern is that none of these 25 games featured the USMNT. In fact, the highest attended game featuring the USMNT this year was the 30th most attended game in the US in 2024, as they drew 60,016 against Brazil at Camping World Stadium in Orlando. This is somewhat surprising considering that the USMNT posted their best attendance since 2015 this year. It’s also worth noting that seven of their twelve home games cracked the aforementioned 40,000 mark.

In fact, 2024 saw more soccer crowds of over 40,000 people in the US than any other year dating back to at least 2007. There were 74 soccer games in the United States this year that drew over 40,000 people. Since the COVID pandemic, the number of crowds drawing 40,000 or more people has gone up every single year.

The gold standard for the most 40,000+ crowds is certainly Atlanta. With the opening of Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the city of Atlanta is now the standard bearer for soccer support in the US. Atlanta United is at the top of MLS attendance and the venue is a frequent stop for Mexico’s national team. The venue was a host for Copa America this year and will be home to games at both next year’s Club World Cup and 2026’s World Cup. And to top it off, the USMNT and USWNT both made an appearance there this year.

The flip side to that coin is the city that used to be the gold standard for American soccer support. Seattle used to regularly draw crowds in excess of 40,000 people but that has not happened for some time. In fact, Seattle hasn’t had 40,000 people show up for a soccer game since June 3, 2023 and since the start of 2021 has only had a total of three crowds larger than 40,000 people (one of which was a CONCACAF Champions League Final).

Regardless of which city used to be the gold standard, and which city is the new standard, the fact is that 2024 was a massive year for soccer in the United States. 74 games here in the US drew over 40,000 people of 25 of those 74 drew over 62,000 people. And given how many soccer tournaments are set to be hosted in the US in the coming years, it would take a fool to bet against more and more big crowds. With so much high level soccer being played in the United States between 2023 and 2028, the sky could be the limit for the growth of the sport in this country. The Gold Cup was here in 2023, Copa America was here in 2024, the Gold Cup and the Club World Cup are here in 2025, the World Cup is here in 2026, the Gold Cup figures to be here in 2027, and Olympic soccer is here in 2028. If soccer can’t “make it” now, will it ever?

Photo Credit: Houston Chronicle