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The MLS Playoff Format Explained

21 Jun, 2025

Major League Soccer is a unique entity within the sporting world. Founded in 1995 as a key part of the USA’s successful bid to host the 1994 World Cup, the top domestic competition for men’s football in the States is structured differently from most other leagues around the globe.

It's not just the fact that there's no promotion or relegation; the MLS also doesn't use the standard league format in which the team that acquires the most points during a season wins the league trophy outright.

In this article, we're going to explain how the MLS season works and why it is structured the way it is, with a particular focus on the role of the end-of-season playoff format. We'll look at recent MLS Cup winners and explain the significance of this prize. But before we dive into that, it's worth spending some time outlining the immense growth that has taken place within US soccer in recent years.

Inside The Rise Of Major League Soccer

A lot has been said about the rapid development of Major League Soccer in the last couple of seasons. Steady franchise expansion has been taking place for many years, but things have seriously kicked on due to several key factors.

The arrival of eight-time Ballon d'Or-winning superstar Lionel Messi at Inter Miami in the summer of 2023, quickly followed by other elite players like Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba, was a massive catalyst for growth.

Excitement about the hosting of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America further increased interest, while the vast number of US owners now operating in English football has reinforced the American hype around soccer, bringing interest to an all-time high.

There are numbers to back that up. According to Statista, 2024 saw the average attendance of MLS games rise to over 23,000, the highest figure in over a decade, and the total of 12.1 million supporters who attended an MLS match last year was beaten globally only by the English Premier League (14.6m).

This latter stat shows the huge potential there is in the States: the huge geographical land mass and total population of the world's fourth-biggest country mean there is a massive pool of potential fans for clubs to draw from, and right now only a fraction of that audience is being reached.

The commercial performance of the league is also better than ever. Forbes recently valued Los Angeles FC (the highest-valued team in Major League Soccer) at a whopping $1.25 billion, while Lionel Messi's highly lucrative move to Inter Miami reportedly saw the Argentina star pen a $12 million-per-campaign deal and a $60m-per year contract with Apple TV for playing in the MLS.

These figures are likely to continue rising as more and more US sports fans realise the appeal of soccer, and franchises across the country continue joining the MLS.

How Is The MLS Season Structured?

Recent expansion means that today there are a total of 30 clubs competing in Major League Soccer, with the new franchise San Diego FC becoming the latest addition to the system in 2025.

While most domestic leagues across the world are organised using a system of promotion and relegation between tiered divisions depending on performance, to compete in the MLS you simply have to submit an application to the league, which then requires approval from two-thirds of the league's current team owners.

If approved, any new franchise must pay a significant expansion fee to officially join the MLS (reportedly $500m for San Diego).

Due to the huge geographical size of the United States of America and Canada (the latter country has three teams competing in MLS), these 30 teams are divided into an Eastern Conference and a Western Conference, depending on their location.

Both Conferences have their own regular league season followed by a postseason tournament. In the regular season, every team plays 34 games, 17 at home and 17 away from home. Just like in a Premier League campaign, every club will play one home match and one away match against every team in their Conference.

However, in the MLS, there are also an additional six matches against clubs from the opposing conference (three at home and three away).

At the end of the regular season, the team that has amassed the biggest points haul across both the Eastern and Western Conferences is awarded the Supporters' Shield, a major trophy that is the American equivalent of the Premier League, Bundesliga, or Serie A title.

However, this is not the end of the domestic season. While the Supporters' Shield is highly prized, and everyone involved with Inter Miami was delighted to win it for the first time in 2024, this cup is not the ultimate prize in Major League Soccer. Once the regular season wraps up, the playoffs to decide who wins the MLS Cup begin.

How Does The MLS Playoff Format Work?

Recent MLS expansion has led to some tweaks in the format of the playoff system that kicks into gear after the regular season closes. Under the new system, a total of 18 clubs compete in the MLS Cup Playoffs, with those teams decided based on league position.

There are seven automatic qualifying spots for the competition, with the top seven teams in each conference grabbing these spots.

There are also two additional qualifying spots for the teams that finish eighth and ninth in each Conference; these clubs reach a single-elimination MLS Cup Playoffs Wild Card match, with each Wild Card game winner progressing to play the best-ranked team in the first round of the Playoffs proper.

The rest of Round One is also structured using a highest versus lowest format, rewarding teams who finish higher by matching them up against worse-performing outfits. 2nd place will play 7th place, 3rd will play 6th, and 4th will play 5th.

The four winners of the First Round then advance to the Conference semi-finals, followed by the Conference finals. Ultimately, the winner of the MLS Cup Playoffs is determined by a one-off final match between the Eastern Conference Playoffs winner and the Western Conference Playoffs winner.

Again, regular season records come into play, with the team that achieves the higher points tally getting the advantage of hosting this final. This measure is in place throughout the tournament, with all single-match elimination games hosted by the higher-seeded team.

Why Is Major League Soccer Split Into Postseason And Regular Season?

According to FC Cincinnati reporter Carter Chapley, the fact that each regular season culminates in a playoff to crown the league champion "is a uniquely American feature of Major League Soccer… for MLS veterans, the jump from the regular season to the playoffs is a familiar and understood challenge.

After 34 games in the regular season, strength for another potentially six matches is needed to lift the final trophy. But for those new to MLS, the extended intensity of the season can be a new challenge."

A system in which a seventh or eighth-placed team could ultimately win the league championship might seem bizarre to some, but for MLS fans it's a huge part of the appeal.

While mid-table sides in the Premier League or La Liga see their season petering out and lacking excitement in the final games, in the States, the prospect of qualifying for an end-of-season tournament which could give you a major trophy means there's a greater incentive for MLS sides to keep plugging away and pushing as high up the table as possible.

In defence of the postseason format, Forbes writer Ian Nicholas Quillen argues that Major League Soccer "needs some sort of postseason if it is ever going to create a regular season with the same urgency as those European leagues, even if MLS also adopted a promotion and relegation system."

This is because of the lack of a financially lucrative continental competition like the UEFA Champions League or the CONMEBOL Copa Libertadores. According to Quillen, "the carrot of qualifying for those competitions does more to promote urgency in league games throughout Europe and South America than does the race for the league title or to avoid relegation.

And in practice it gives leagues a playoff-race feel, even if the playoffs themselves don't exist." It's an interesting point that shows how the MLS postseason system responds to the realities of operating on a continent without deep football infrastructure and a super competitive, globally watched continental tournament.

Who Won The 2024 MLS Playoffs?

The most recent winner of the MLS Cup Playoffs was LA Galaxy, the Western Conference champions for 2024. David Beckham's former club defeated Eastern Conference champions New York Red Bulls in a final played on December 7th last year, winning 2-1 thanks to goals from Joseph Paintsil and Dejan Joveljic. Meanwhile, Uruguyuan midfielder Gaston Brugman was voted MVP for the match.

🏆 FIRST TO SIX 🏆 pic.twitter.com/tAH6gvgNOK
— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) December 7, 2024

This was LA Galaxy's sixth MLS Cup championship, a record tally and two trophies more than D.C. United, the franchise with the second-most MLS Cups to their name (four).

Who Will Play In The 2025 MLS Playoffs?

The 2025 Major League Soccer season is well under way; at the time of writing, Philadelphia Union are pushing ahead of the pack in the Eastern Conference while Canadian outfit Vancouver Whitecaps are starting to open up an impressive gap at the top of the Western Conference.

It would be reasonable to assume both these sides will compete in the MLS Cup Playoffs at the end of the season, along with other impressive teams like Inter Miami, Cincinnati, San Diego and Minnesota. However, the exact makeup of that postseason tournament is still a long way from being decided, with the Cup not due to take place until the autumn.

Want to find out more about the teams pushing their way to the top of Major League Soccer? Check out our in-depth guide to FC Cincinatti's impressive new home ground, the TQL Stadium.