Competitive professional soccer has been played in the United States since 1912. Numerous leagues have existed over the years with some recognized by the United States Soccer Federation and some not. The lists below are the single game attendance records for men's outdoor (60,000+), men's indoor (18,000+), and women's outdoor (16,000+) matches in American club soccer.
Contents
Attendance (MLS)
This list includes matches in which at least one Major League Soccer 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.
Foreign clubs
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.
Attendance (NASL)
This list includes matches in which at least one team from the North American Soccer League (1968–84) has participated.
Indoor soccer
This list refers to indoor soccer matches, not to regulation soccer matches played in indoor stadiums. The top attended indoor soccer matches all occurred during the 1980s during the Major Indoor Soccer League (1978–92) era. The majority of the top attended indoor soccer matches were matches hosted by the St. Louis Steamers during the early 1980s or by the Cleveland Force during the mid 1980s.
Women's soccer
This list includes the top twenty league matches from WUSA (2001–2003), WPS (2009–2011), and the NWSL (2013–present). It does not include any matches where the women's soccer match was held as a doubleheader with a men's match.
Most top records are held by the Washington Freedom of WUSA (all but one over 21,500); the Freedom also hold the WPS attendance record. Portland Thorns FC held the top six NWSL attendance records until the debut home game for the Orlando Pride, which set the new NWSL record; the Thorns remain the only NWSL team to have drawn over 12,000 more than twice, and have never drawn below that attendance.
Doubleheaders
The games listed below were doubleheaders with an MLS team, which is the case for most WUSA high attendances.