Major League Soccer is the top men’s soccer league in the United States. It has emerged as the most popular and profitable soccer league in the country’s history, and aims to be one of the leading soccer leagues worldwide.
MLS experienced a surge in popularity around the world from 2023 onwards, helped in no small way by the arrival of Lionel Messi who joined Inter Miami from PSG. From that point on, a steady stream of global stars chose the United States to play their football, and the 2026 World Cup shined an even brighter light on the league.
So for anyone new to MLS, here is how it works in a nutshell.
History of MLS
Major League Soccer (MLS) was founded in 1993 as part of the United States Soccer Federation’s bid to host the 1994 World Cup. Its first season took place in 1996, with ten teams participating across two conferences, East and West, and a television rights deal with ESPN.
However, the league struggled initially due to low attendance rates, financial problems, and unsuccessful attempts to “Americanize” soccer. The shootout era was a good example of this Americanisation – it just didn’t work. The result was two teams being dissolved and a $250 million debt.
It wasn’t until 2002, when the United States Men’s National Team made it to the quarterfinals in the World Cup, that MLS began to see success.
The mid-2000s saw MLS adopt the rules and standards of the International Football Association Board (IFAB), which created the codified set of rules known as the Laws of Game that FIFA recognizes and enforces. In other words, the American game was brought more closely in line with global football.
At around the same time, clubs started constructing new soccer-specific home stadiums for its teams rather than continuing to use NFL stadiums. This made soccer feel more like a sport in its own right, and MLS experienced another boost in popularity when David Beckham famously joined LA Galaxy in 2007.
The league experienced another dip after a period of growth, but expansion teams continued to join, and eventually, MLS was breaking out of its box as a ‘niche’ sport, and became more mainstream. The deal with Apple TV highlighted the growing commercial strength of Major League Soccer, and by 2025 it was 30 teams strong and featured in the Top 10 leagues in the world.
MLS Teams and Competitions
Major League Soccer currently has 30 teams: 15 in the Western Conference and 15 in the Eastern Conference. The league’s newest team is San Diego FC, which made its debut this season as the 30th team in 2025, having won the expansion rights the year before.
The Eastern Conference consists of the following teams:
- Atlanta United FC
- CF Montréal
- Charlotte FC
- Chicago Fire FC
- Columbus Crew
- D.C. United
- FC Cincinnati
- Inter Miami CF
- Nashville SC
- New England Revolution
- New York City FC
- New York Red Bulls
- Orlando City SC
- Philadelphia Union
- Toronto FC
The Western Conference consists of the following teams:
- Austin FC
- Colorado Rapids
- FC Dallas
- Houston Dynamo FC
- LA Galaxy
- Los Angeles FC
- Minnesota United FC
- Portland Timbers
- Real Salt Lake
- San Diego FC
- San Jose Earthquakes
- Seattle Sounders FC
- Sporting Kansas City
- St. Louis City SC
- Vancouver Whitecaps FC
During the regular season, every team plays 34 games. They face each team in their conference twice, once at home and once away. Additionally, they play six teams from the opposite conference once, with three at home and three away. The top seven teams from each conference automatically qualify for Round One of the MLS Cup Playoffs, while the eighth and ninth-placed teams from each conference enter a Wild Card match for the final Round One spot.
At the end of the regular season, the team with the most points from both conferences is awarded the Supporters’ Shield – an accomplishment viewed with high regard in MLS. This is the highest performing team in the entire league. Then there are the playoffs, which end with the championship game of the MLS, known as the MLS Cup. This features the winners from both Eastern and Western Conference playoffs. The MLS Cup is the pinnacle of US soccer.
MLS teams also participate in several domestic and international cup competitions outside of the league. These include the U.S. Open Cup, which features soccer teams from all levels in United States, the Leagues Cup, which is competed between MLS and Liga MX teams, and the CONCACAF Champions Cup which features the very best North American, Central American & Caribbean clubs.
Furthermore, several rivalry cups between MLS teams add excitement the regular-season matches. These aren’t big news, but they have some meaning for the fans of the teams involved.
A few examples include:
- Hudson River Derby – contested between New York Red Bulls and New York City FC.
- Cascadia Cup – contested between Portland Timbers, Seattle Sounders, and Vancouver Whitecaps.
- Texas Derby – contested between FC Dallas and Houston Dynamo.
- Rocky Mountain Cup – contested between Colorado Rapids and Real Salt Lake.
- California Clasico – contested between LA Galaxy and San Jose Earthquakes.
These games have become a vital part of MLS culture over time, at least locally.
Points System
In Major League Soccer, the point system plays a crucial role in determining team rankings during the regular season, and ultimately, finding a winner. This system tracks each team’s performance throughout the season, assigning three points for a win, one for a draw, and none for a loss. It is the same system used all over the world.
The point system is straightforward and uncomplicated, and it works because it is a fair way of ranking teams based on their overall performance across the whole competition. It’s not just about doing well at the right time, teams must be consistent to be ranked highly, and perform to a high standard across a 34 game run.
Since MLS awards a trophy for the best performance during the regular season as well as operating a playoff competition at the end of it, there is even more incentive to rank highly. Top ranking teams face lower ranking teams in the playoffs, so by ranking highly with more points, a team can theoretically give themselves an easier ride in the playoffs. Teams which don’t earn enough points to finish inside the top nine in their conference don’t even get a playoff space.
If two or more teams have equal points by season-end, tiebreaker methods are applied until final rankings are determined accurately and fairly. This is done by using wins first, followed by goal difference, then goals scored. In other words, if the points total is the same, the leagues uses metrics that reward the team which were stronger, either in terms of how those points were won, or on their goal tally.
Of course, teams can be strategic on a game by game basis, for example holding on to a draw against tougher opposition or going all out for a win in the dying moments of a game, but the way points are awarded encourages players to play exciting football by giving more points for a win than for a draw.
MLS Draft System
Unlike most football leagues around the world that rely mainly on transfers, loans or academy pathways to acquire new players, MLS also operates a draft system where clubs can select eligible players, most commonly from the college soccer system.
The MLS draft system sets the league apart from many other football organizations around the world. Instead of relying only on transfers or signings to acquire new players, clubs can add prospects through the SuperDraft, alongside other routes such as academy players, trades, free agency, loans and international signings.
The SuperDraft takes place annually prior to each season, giving teams an opportunity to find young prospects who can make an immediate impact. It is divided into three rounds, with the draft order usually based on the reverse order of the previous season’s standings. In other words, the worst teams get the first picks. This is to try to keep the league competitively balanced and stop one team becoming overly dominant. The first pick is considered the most prestigious and is usually used for one of the most promising players available.
Clubs can trade their picks, and even trade the players they just drafted, if they want to. So just because the selection order is decided ahead of time it doesn’t mean that’s how it will play out on the day.
Although there has been criticism about this system placing too much emphasis on college soccer and not providing enough pathways for young players to reach professional ranks, it also provides them with a chance to showcase their skills and earn a spot on an MLS team.
Designated Player Rule
To attract star players from around the world, MLS introduced the Designated Player Rule allowing clubs to sign up to three players whose wages exceed the league’s salary cap limit without counting against it.
It started as a way to get David Beckham to LA Galaxy, so it is still sometimes referred to as the David Beckham rule, but that is not its official name.
This rule has helped bring some big names into Major League Soccer over the years, including Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Wayne Rooney, Carlos Vela, Josef Martínez, Lionel Messi, Olivier Giroud, Luis Suarez, and Son Heung-min, increasing the league’s profile among soccer fans worldwide.
This rule also raised the bar in terms of the quality of football in the league. Despite most of the big name players joining MLS as designated players being in the last years of their careers, they were still top performers. It forced opposition players to up their game, and gave teammates and youth prospects something to aspire to and learn from.
MLS Expansion and Growth
Since the 2005 season, MLS has been on a consistent expansion spree, with new teams being added almost every year. Currently, the league has welcomed 23 expansion teams on top of the 10 it started with, so 33 teams have competed in MLS over the years. However, 3 of those teams were closed down, which is why we are left with a 30 team total today.
This constant expansion has not only increased soccer’s popularity in America but also provided more opportunities for players both domestically and internationally. It has also led to significant investments in soccer infrastructure such as academies and training facilities, which improves the overall quality of soccer in the country and provides a pipeline for young talent to come through, and hopefully stay in the American game.
MLS has expanded its reach through partnerships and collaborations with other leagues worldwide, too. For instance, it formed partnerships with Liga MX (Mexico’s top professional league) and invited top European clubs to play the MLS All Stars. These collaborations have resulted in joint competitions like the Campeones Cup between champions of MLS and Liga MX, increasing the fan base & competition level.
In addition to collaborations with other leagues, MLS invested heavily in building soccer-specific stadiums for its teams providing better facilities for players & fans alike. It has also changed how it reaches fans through broadcasting. Its long-term partnership with Apple brought MLS Season Pass to a global audience, making every league match available through one streaming service and giving the competition a more consistent international platform.
Despite successes achieved so far by MLS, there are still challenges ahead. Competition from established sports leagues like NFL, NBA & MLB still attract much attention from fans and the media, but soccer is proving difficult to ignore. What’s more, with Major League Soccer moving even more in line with the football schedule of the top European leagues, MLS may become easier to follow for international audiences and better placed to compete in the global transfer market.
If the league keeps expanding the way it has been, promotion and relegation could even be introduced, adding high stakes to the bottom of the league as well as the top. That would mean two leagues, twice as many fans, twice as many games, and twice as many players.
A League With Its Own Identity
MLS is no longer the weird outsider in world football, but it is not trying to be an exact copy of the Premier League, La Liga or anywhere else either. Its mix of playoffs, drafts, salary rules, expansion teams and rivalry matches gives it a character of its own, without making it feel like something ‘other’, like it used to.
That is what makes the league worth understanding. MLS can feel unusual at first, especially to fans used to European football, but once the structure makes sense, so does the appeal. It is a league still growing, still changing, and still working out exactly how big it can become.