It’s a massive strategy shift for Apple, signaling an end to the à la carte sports experiment and the beginning of a new war for your streaming subscription.

Here’s the deal for soccer fans, and honestly, for anyone trying to make sense of the streaming world: Starting with the 2026 Major League Soccer (MLS) season, “all MLS matches” will be available to Apple TV subscribers “at no additional cost.“

This is a big shift. Apple and the MLS confirmed the move and it fundamentally changes the value of an Apple TV subscription.

Since Apple kicked off its massive 10-year, $2.5 billion partnership with the league in 2023, streaming MLS games has meant shelling out for an MLS Season Pass. This was a separate subscription, available on its own for $14.99/month (or $99/season) or at a discount for existing Apple TV subscribers ($12.99/month or $79/season).

But in 2026, that all goes away.

Like with Apple’s upcoming F1 streaming for Apple TV subscribers, MLS games will be bundled right into the main Apple TV service.

“Starting next season, fans can watch every regular-season match, the annual Leagues Cup tournament, the MLS All-Star Game, the Campeones Cup, the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs, and more — all included with an Apple TV subscription,” Apple’s press release stated. “The standalone MLS Season Pass subscription on the Apple TV app will conclude at the end of the 2025 season.”

This is a huge win for fans. But it’s even more interesting as a signal of Apple’s grand strategy.

This is a massive price cut for dedicated soccer fans.

Currently, if you’re a die-hard soccer fan who also wants to watch Ted Lasso or Severance, you’re paying for Apple TV (currently $9.99/month) plus the MLS Season Pass (another $79-$99/year).

Starting in 2026, you’ll just pay for your Apple TV subscription and get it all. That’s a savings of nearly $100 a year for fans who were paying for both.

More importantly, it drops the barrier to entry for casual fans to zero. If you’re already subscribed to Apple TV, you’ll suddenly have thousands of live soccer games available to you, friction-free. With the 2026 FIFA World Cup being held in North America, interest in soccer is expected to hit an all-time high. This move positions MLS to capture millions of those curious, “World Cup-curious” viewers without asking them to pull out their credit card again.

The End of an Experiment, The Start of a New Strategy

When Apple launched the MLS Season Pass in 2023, it was a revolutionary experiment. It was the first time a major sports league had all its games on one single service, with no blackouts, globally. It was a beautiful, simple idea, but it was also a test: Will people pay a separate, premium fee for a single sports league?

While Apple famously doesn’t release subscriber numbers, this 2026 pivot suggests the answer was, “Not as many as we’d like.”

Instead of treating sports as a separate, à la carte business (like NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube), Apple is now using its massive sports investments as a powerful new reason to subscribe to Apple TV itself.

The goal is no longer to be the seller of sports passes; the goal is to be the must-have streaming platform.

Apple’s services chief, Eddy Cue, has recently said that the current fragmented sports market—where fans need three or four different services to follow their teams—has “gone backwards” from the old cable days. This new move is Apple’s clear-cut solution: They are becoming the new, simplified bundle.

This isn’t a one-off. As you noted, Apple is doing the exact same thing with Formula 1.

Apple recently secured a massive, five-year, $750 million deal for the exclusive U.S. rights to F1, also set to begin in 2026. And just like this new MLS announcement, all reports indicate the F1 races will also be bundled into the standard Apple TV subscription at no extra cost.

The pattern is crystal clear. Apple is building a sports portfolio to make its core service indispensable.

Think about the value proposition in 2026. Netflix has movies and shows. Disney+ has Marvel and Star Wars. But Apple TV will have its slate of acclaimed original shows and movies… plus all of MLS, all of F1, and Friday Night Baseball.

That’s a much, much harder bundle for competitors to beat. Apple is betting that live, high-demand sports are the ultimate tool to drive subscriber growth and, more importantly, keep them from canceling.

The 2025 MLS season will be the last of its kind. Come 2026, the streaming wars get a whole lot more interesting.