December 4 – Major League Soccer (MLS) is preparing for the dream 2025 MLS Cup final presented by Audi, when Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami squares up against Thomas Müller’s Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday, December 6.
This head-to-head of world stars arrives at the perfect moment, with MLS riding a surge in viewership, with Apple and league executives lifting the paywall on MLS Season Pass for the playoffs and the final. The game will air free worldwide in more than 100 countries on Apple TV, along with FOX, FOX Deportes, TSN, and RDS.
Without the paywall, this postseason has delivered some of the biggest audience jumps MLS has seen. The league reports an average of 711,000 viewers per playoff match, up 23 percent from last year. Regular season viewership across all platforms rose as well, averaging 3.7 million weekly viewers, which is a 29 percent increase year over year.
MLS continues to lean heavily on its partnership with Apple, and that collaboration will be on full display Saturday in a truly unique football activation. The league confirmed that four iPhones will be used as part of its production, an extension of Apple’s “Shot on iPhone” campaign. Apple previously tested the approach on Friday Night Baseball, but MLS Cup will be its biggest stage yet, with more than 30 cameras capturing every angle.
Fans will be able to spot the iPhone shots through a small on-screen “Shot on iPhone” graphic. One of those phones will even serve as a primary high end zone camera. “Anytime you see a shot looking down the field from a high angle behind the goal that’s going to be shot entirely on an iPhone,” said MLS executive Seth Bacon.
Bacon added that this kind of experiment is exactly why the partnership works. “The ability for us to integrate this and maintain that same level of integrity and quality in the pictures is really a testament to the partnership we have with Apple,” he said. “Being partnered with the world’s biggest technology company, you have the ability to innovate and try new things.”
The biggest match, the largest audience, and for the first time, anyone can tune in without a paywall.