List of Major League Soccer seasons

Major League Soccer is the premier professional soccer league in the United States and Canada. As of 2023, it consists of 29 teams: 26 in the United States and 3 in Canada. The league has played since 1996. Each year, it plays a league which determines entry into the playoffs. The league is divided into two conferences, the Eastern Conference and Western Conference. In 2000 and 2001, there was also a Central Conference. The team with the overall best regular-season record is awarded the Supporters' Shield, one of three major domestic trophies in North American soccer (the others being the national championships—the U.S. Open Cup or the Canadian Championship—and the primary trophy: the MLS Cup league championship). In 2010 and 2011, the league played as a double round robin, with each team playing each other team one home and away—creating a balanced schedule. With an unsuitable number of teams beginning in 2012, the league has moved to an unbalanced schedule weighted towards a team's respective conference.

The postseason consists of an 18-team, five-round knockout. The top seven teams in each conference enter in the overall round of 16, while the teams in each conference placed eighth and ninth partake in a playoff for a spot in that round. The MLS Cup is a single match final with the winner becoming league champion of the year. Seven times a team has won the league double: winning both the MLS Cup and the Supporters' Shield in the same season. In 2017, Toronto FC became the first team to win a domestic treble. The MLS Golden Boot is awarded each year to the player with the most goals in the regular season, and the best overall player is awarded the Landon Donovan MVP Award.

List of seasons

The following is a list of all MLS seasons. It contains the number of teams, the number of regular-season games played per team, the champion—winner of the MLS Cup, the winners of the regular-season Eastern Conference, the Western Conference, and for 2000 and 2001, the defunct Central Division, the winner of the Most Valuable Player Award (MVP), the top scorer(s), and the regular-season average attendance.

†	Winner of the Supporters' Shield
*	Winner of the league double
‡	Winner of the domestic treble
*	Player set the single season record for goals

Season	Teams	Games	Champion	Eastern	Western	Central	MVP	Top scorer(s) (goals)	Att.	Ref.
1996	10	32	D.C. United	Tampa Bay Mutiny†	Los Angeles Galaxy	—	Carlos Valderrama	Roy Lassiter (27)*	17,406	[1]
1997	10	32	D.C. United*	D.C. United†	Kansas City Wizards	—	Preki	Jaime Moreno (16)	14,619	[2]
1998	12	32	Chicago Fire	D.C. United	Los Angeles Galaxy†	—	Marco Etcheverry	Stern John (26)	14,312	[3]
1999	12	32	D.C. United*	D.C. United†	Los Angeles Galaxy	—	Jason Kreis	Stern John Jason Kreis Roy Lassiter (18)	14,282	[4]
2000	12	32	Kansas City Wizards*	MetroStars	Kansas City Wizards†	Chicago Fire	Tony Meola	Mamadou Diallo (26)	13,756	[5]
2001	12	26–27	San Jose Earthquakes	Miami Fusion†	Los Angeles Galaxy	Chicago Fire	Alex Pineda Chacón	Alex Pineda Chacón (19)	14,961	[6]
2002	10	28	Los Angeles Galaxy*	New England Revolution	Los Angeles Galaxy†	—	Carlos Ruiz	Carlos Ruiz (24)	15,822	[7]
2003	10	30	San Jose Earthquakes	Chicago Fire†	San Jose Earthquakes	—	Preki	Carlos Ruiz Taylor Twellman (15)	14,898	[8]
2004	10	30	D.C. United	Columbus Crew†	Kansas City Wizards	—	Amado Guevara	Brian Ching Eddie Johnson (12)	15,559	[9]
2005	12	32	Los Angeles Galaxy	New England Revolution	San Jose Earthquakes†	—	Taylor Twellman	Taylor Twellman (17)	15,108	[10]
2006	12	32	Houston Dynamo	D.C. United†	FC Dallas	—	Christian Gómez	Jeff Cunningham (16)	15,504	[11]
2007	13	30	Houston Dynamo	D.C. United†	Chivas USA	—	Luciano Emílio	Luciano Emílio (20)	16,770	[12]
2008	14	30	Columbus Crew*	Columbus Crew†	Houston Dynamo	—	Guillermo Barros Schelotto	Landon Donovan (20)	16,460	[13]
2009	15	30	Real Salt Lake	Columbus Crew†	LA Galaxy	—	Landon Donovan	Jeff Cunningham (17)	16,037	[14]
2010	16	30	Colorado Rapids	New York Red Bulls	LA Galaxy†	—	David Ferreira	Chris Wondolowski (18)	16,675	[15]
2011	18	34	LA Galaxy*	Sporting Kansas City	LA Galaxy†	—	Dwayne De Rosario	Dwayne De Rosario Chris Wondolowski (16)	17,872	[16]
2012	19	34	LA Galaxy	Sporting Kansas City	San Jose Earthquakes†	—	Chris Wondolowski	Chris Wondolowski (27)*	18,807	[17]
2013	19	34	Sporting Kansas City	New York Red Bulls†	Portland Timbers	—	Mike Magee	Camilo Sanvezzo (22)	18,608	[18]
2014	19	34	LA Galaxy	D.C. United	Seattle Sounders FC†	—	Robbie Keane[19]	Bradley Wright-Phillips (27)*[20]	19,148	[21]
2015	20	34	Portland Timbers	New York Red Bulls†	FC Dallas	—	Sebastian Giovinco	Sebastian Giovinco Kei Kamara (22)	21,574	[22]
2016	20	34	Seattle Sounders FC	New York Red Bulls	FC Dallas†	—	David Villa	Bradley Wright-Phillips (24)	21,692	[23]
2017	22	34	Toronto FC‡	Toronto FC†	Portland Timbers	—	Diego Valeri	Nemanja Nikolić (24)	22,112	[24]
2018	23	34	Atlanta United FC	New York Red Bulls†	Sporting Kansas City	—	Josef Martínez	Josef Martínez (31)*	21,875	[25]
2019	24	34	Seattle Sounders FC	New York City FC	Los Angeles FC†	—	Carlos Vela	Carlos Vela (34)*	21,265	[26]
2020	26	18–23	Columbus Crew SC	Philadelphia Union†	Sporting Kansas City	—	Alejandro Pozuelo	Diego Rossi (14)	14,913	[27]
2021	27	34	New York City FC	New England Revolution†	Colorado Rapids	—	Carles Gil	Taty Castellanos Ola Kamara (19)	15,350	[28]
2022	28	34	Los Angeles FC*	Philadelphia Union	Los Angeles FC†	—	Hany Mukhtar	Hany Mukhtar (23)	21,033	[29]
2023	29	34	Columbus Crew	FC Cincinnati†	St. Louis City SC	—	Luciano Acosta	Denis Bouanga (20)	22,111
2024	29	34		Inter Miami CF†	Los Angeles FC	—		Christian Benteke (23)	23,371

See also

• List of American and Canadian soccer champions

References

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