The start of the round of 16 of North America’s top soccer league, Major League Soccer, with Lionel Messi’s move to Inter Miami, was the most-watched sporting event ever presented by Apple, the company said in a statement this week.

The broadcast was made free of charge through the MLS Season Pass on Apple.com and in stores in major cities in Australia, the United States, Brazil, Canada, Korea, Japan and Mexico. Inter Miami defeated Atlanta United 2-1.

In addition, the exclusive broadcast of “Messi Cam” was available live on the TikTok, MLS and Inter Miami accounts, attracting more than 150,000 concurrent viewers. This was TikTok’s first soccer broadcast focused on a single player.

Apple TV, which exclusively broadcasts MLS matches, gained 110,000 subscribers on the day it announced the deal and almost 300,000 in a month when Messi arrived in mid-2022. The platform paid $250 million a year for a 10-year contract until 2033. The total value of $2.5 billion, for example, is practically triple what was previously paid, around $100 million.

The definitive boost to MLS

“He is an athlete capable of attracting the attention of the whole world because of the successful career he has built over the years and what he represents off the pitch as well,” said Ren Salviano, CEO of Heatmap and a sports marketing specialist. “Soccer lovers will continue to consume everything that revolves around him, making it naturally an excellent opportunity to popularize the competition worldwide, not forgetting the possibility of building a legacy in the short and medium term for both him and MLS.”

Lionel Messi’s arrival at Inter Miami in July 2023 finally gave Major League Soccer (MLS), North America’s top soccer league, the boost it needed. An analysis by IEG estimates that soccer revenues will reach $680 million (630 million euros), compared to $750 million (694 million euros) for the NHL, the ice hockey league, in North America. If this growth continues, it will be the first time that another competition will take the spotlight from what is considered one of the major leagues in the United States, along with the National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB) and the National Basketball Association (NBA).

“Signing one of the three best footballers of all time required a great deal of investment and creativity to convince him of the project. Inter Miami was bold, beat the competition and continues to have the opportunity to grow globally, as well as attracting revenue from television, box office, licensing, sponsorship and other businesses,” says Fabio Wolff, founding partner of Wolff Sports, a sports marketing agency.

In early October, MLS broke another record: for the first time, more than 11 million spectators were present at regular season matches, surpassing the 2023 season, with 10.9 million.

Record numbers for MLS

“Clubs, leagues and other North American entities have worked together to strengthen local soccer. Messi’s arrival was clearly strategic and contributed to this movement. His strength not only influenced MLS, but also put the United States in the spotlight on the sporting scene,” says Joaquim Lo Prete, Country Manager of Absolut Sport.

The numbers are directly related to Messi’s presence, which has brought an average of 23,240 to league matches. The record, by the way, was set at an Inter Miami game, when 72,610 paying fans attended Arrowhead Stadium, home of the Kansas City Chiefs football team, to watch the game against Sporting Kansas City.

“The enormous competition to see Messi and the growth of the various incomes shows that the superstar status of the best soccer player in the world is able to attract an audience that goes beyond soccer lovers,” says Ivan Martinho, professor of sports marketing at ESPM.

On social media, figures also grew: TikTok visibility grew by 26%, YouTube by 21% and Instagram by 10%. The consequence was the addition of 18 new sponsors and a 13% increase in revenue from these properties compared to last season.

“Million-dollar figures linked to sponsorship, broadcasting rights, ticket and product sales serve as a reminder that investing in big stars pays off and goes far beyond shirt sales, a recurring critical comment in expensive signings. It is also important to highlight the growth in attendance at home games from last year to this year, which shows that constant work like Inter Miami’s keeps people interested beyond the initial frenzy caused by idols like Messi,” explains Alexandre Mota, creative director of End to End.

Messi celebrated his one-year anniversary with Inter Miami in the middle of this year, and along with it, the club’s market value increased by 72% according to Forbes, from $600 million in 2023 to $1.03 billion in 2024.

Other effects of his trip to the United States were on shirt sales, when in September 2023 Messi was already the athlete with the best-selling shirt in the country. A month later, in October, the New York Times reported that Adidas received almost 500,000 orders from stores and suppliers for Messi’s Inter Miami jersey in the first few days after he announced the transfer. Revenue from these sales, according to local media at the time, reached $100 million.

An increase in MLS visibility

Two months after his arrival at Inter Miami, the number of followers also skyrocketed, jumping from one million to 13 million on Instagram – today, the club has just over 17 million followers, becoming the fourth North American franchise with the most followers on the social network, behind only three NBA teams: Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers.

“Messi’s arrival generated two very interesting effects for the American league. The first, to show Americans, but also the world, that this league could have the most relevant sportsman in the world in the last decade, and the most successful of the century, arriving after winning his most important title, and as the protagonist of the World Cup. It’s no small thing. In addition, all communication about Messi’s next match, which is something of worldwide demand, included mentions not only to Messi’s team, but also to his opponent. Imagine how many hundreds of millions of people follow the player on social networks and various applications. All these people, every week, got to know an MLS franchise. Messi is a Miami team sportsman, but an advertiser for the whole league,” says Thiago Freitas, COO of Roc Nation Sports in Brazil.

Messi’s presence made even TikTok innovate. Something new and innovative is about to happen this Friday in world soccer: “Watch every move of Messi in a special live stream on TikTok on October 25 at 8:45 pm US time on @MLS, as he leads Inter Miami’s historic title quest. Sign up to be notified when the stream goes live,” TikTok announced.

The announcement of the news is directly related to Lionel Messi, who is using an exclusive camera in the broadcasts of Inter Miami’s upcoming matches in Major League Soccer (MLS). According to TikTok, this new broadcast format will be free on the official MLS and Inter Miami accounts on the social network, and the platform’s intention is to make fans experience a match from the perspective of the star on the pitch.

Studies on the behaviour of young audiences, especially Generation Z, show that they tend to consume content that goes beyond the traditional experience and mere spectator. They consume content that takes into account elements such as interaction, protagonism, participation, proximity and the possibility of convergence, i.e. being able to be used in something other than the game. As a football match does not offer interaction with the game itself, this type of content approach offers an alternative to this audience and makes a difference. “It is a way to gain proximity to the sport,” says Rafael Xavier dos Passos, Ava’s head of communications.