Competitive men's professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

has been played in the United States since 1912 and since 2001 for women's. Numerous leagues have existed over the years with some recognized by the

United States Soccer Federation The United States Soccer Federation (USSF), commonly referred to as U.S. Soccer, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and the official governing body of the sport of soccer in the United States. Headquartered in Chicago, the federation is ...

and some not. The lists below are the single game attendance records for men's outdoor (60,000+), men's

indoor Indoor(s) may refer to: *the interior of a building *Indoor environment, in building science, traditionally includes the study of indoor thermal environment, indoor acoustic environment, indoor light environment, and indoor air quality *Built envi ...

(18,000+), and women's outdoor (18,000+) matches in American club soccer.

Men's soccer

MLS attendance

This list includes matches in which at least one

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

team has participated. This list does not include several matches played in the U.S. between two clubs not based in the United States (e.g. Chelsea vs. A.C. Milan in the 2009 World Football Challenge).

International doubleheaders

The following are MLS league matches that were part of a double-header involving international teams.

NASL attendance

This list includes matches in which at least one team from the

North American Soccer League (1968–84) The North American Soccer League may refer to: *North American Soccer League (1968–1984), a former Division I league *North American Soccer League (2011–2017) The North American Soccer League (NASL) was a professional men's soccer league b ...

has participated. ''*Cosmos dropped "New York" from name in 1977 and 1978 seasons''

Indoor soccer

This list refers to

indoor soccer Indoor soccer or arena soccer (known internationally as indoor football, fast football, or showball) is five-a-side version of minifootball, derived from association football and adapted to be played in walled hardcourt indoor arena. Indoor socc ...

matches, not to regulation soccer matches played in indoor stadiums. Nearly all of the most attended indoor matches occurred during the 1980s in the Major Indoor Soccer League. The majority of these were hosted by the St. Louis Steamers during the early 1980s, or by the Cleveland Force during the mid 1980s.

Women's soccer

WUSA, WPS, NWSL attendance

These lists include the top-attended league matches from WUSA (2001–2003), WPS (2009–2011), and

NWSL The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a professional women's soccer league at the top of the United States league system. It is owned by the teams and, until 2020, was under a management contract with the United States Soccer Federatio ...

(2013–present), split into standalone matches and matches that were doubleheaders with MLS teams.

Standalone matches

The

Washington Freedom Washington Freedom was an American professional soccer club based in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Germantown, Maryland, that participated in Women's Professional Soccer. The Freedom was founded in 2001 as a member of the defunct Women's Uni ...

of WUSA hold the overall attendance record.

Portland Thorns FC The Portland Thorns FC is an American professional women's soccer team based in Portland, Oregon. Established in 2012, the team began play in 2013 in the then-eight-team National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), which receives support from the Uni ...

held the top six NWSL attendance records until the debut home game of the

Orlando Pride The Orlando Pride is a professional women's soccer team based in Orlando, Florida. The team joined the National Women's Soccer League, the top level of women's soccer in the US, for the 2016 season. It became the tenth team to be added to the l ...

in 2016, which set the new NWSL record; that record was eclipsed by the Thorns in 2019 and still later by

San Diego Wave FC San Diego Wave FC is a National Women's Soccer League expansion team that began play in 2022. The team is based in San Diego, San Diego, California. The team is owned by Ron Burkle. The team is the San Diego area's first women's professional soc ...

in its debut at the new

Snapdragon Stadium Snapdragon Stadium, known during its planning and early construction phases as Aztec Stadium, is an outdoor college football stadium on the West Coast of the United States, west coast of the United States, in San Diego, California. It is loc ...

in 2022. The Thorns consistently draw over 14,000 fans and averaged slightly over 20,000 in the 2019 season, the last before

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

effects; until that season they were the only NWSL team to have drawn over 10,000 fans more than thrice – continued strong numbers from

Utah Royals FC Utah Royals FC was an American women's professional soccer club based in the Salt Lake City suburb of Sandy, Utah. Established on November 16, 2017, as an expansion club, the Royals played in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) from 2018 ...

and a club-record post-

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

standalone match from the

Chicago Red Stars The Chicago Red Stars are a professional women's soccer club based in Bridgeview, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. A founding member of the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league, they have played in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) sin ...

pushed both clubs to their fourth 10,000-plus attendances. The 2022 NWSL season, the first season since 2019 that was (relatively) unaffected by COVID-19, not only saw a new league single-game attendance record, but was also marked by very strong attendance for the debuting

Angel City FC Angel City Football Club is a National Women's Soccer League expansion team that began play in 2022. The team is based in Los Angeles, California, and was announced on July 21, 2020. The team has many high-profile owners, including Becky G, Natal ...

, which sold out its stadium four times in its first regular season and drew over 18,000 for two other home matches. Angel City was also Wave FC's opponent for the latter side's record-setting game.

MLS doubleheaders

Doubleheaders make up the majority of attendance records above 12,000 fans when discounting the Portland Thorns and Angel City FC. WUSA attendances: WUSA doubleheader listing:

Foreign clubs attendance

The following table shows record attendances for club soccer matches played in the U.S. where neither team was from a U.S. based league.

References

{{North America in topic, Association football in

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Soccer records and statistics in the United States American soccer clubs records and statistics