James Wilson-Robin Van Persie
James Wilson and Robin van Persie exchange smiles as the former is substituted after scoring two goals on his Manchester United debut. Reuters

Manchester United and Liverpool were the most-watched Premier League clubs in the United States last season - pulling in 250,000 more average viewers than least-watched club Hull City.

The Old Trafford and Anfield clubs averaged 557,000 and 519,000 viewers respectively, proving that despite United's disastrous season fans across the pond were willing to stick with the club, not to mention stay up late, and follow their games.

Surprisingly, the fourth most-viewed team in America was Swansea whose average audience of 485,000 was more than FA Cup finalists Arsenal (477,000) and even champions Manchester City (456,000).

Jose Mourinho's Chelsea, meanwhile, attracted 515,000 viewers on average.

The least-watched sides were: Hull (302,000), West Bromwich Albion (315,000), Fulham (332,000), Stoke (339,000) and Southampton (343,000).

In 2012, NBC paid $250 million (£150m) for broadcast rights to all Premier League games for three years but other companies also show matches, including Fox and ESPN.

The average match broadcast on NBC attracted 440,000 viewers and overall last season NBC tripled audience numbers a total of 30.5 million viewers.

South Wales derby
The south Wales derby between Swansea and Cardiff was the most-watched game in the US last season Getty

South Wales derby - popular in the US

It has also been revealed that Swansea v Cardiff City was the most viewed match across the pond during the 2013/14 season.

Swansea's 3-0 win over Cardiff in February attracted 1.24million viewers - 140,000 more than the number of people who tuned in to watch Swansea vs United in August.

Of the top ten most-watched matches last season, United featured in four while Liverpool and Chelsea competed in three of the most popular matches.

Most watched Premier League matches in the US

Swansea 3-0 Cardiff 1.24m

Man Utd 2-0 Swansea - 1.1m

Crystal Palace 0-2 Man Utd - 1.06m

Chelsea 3-1 Manchester Utd - 1.02m

Arsenal 2-0 Liverpool - 991,000

Liverpool 0-2 Chelsea - 940,000

Everton 1-0 Chelsea - 917,000

Liverpool 2-2 Aston Villa - 900,000

Crystal Palace 3-1 Sunderland - 865,000

Man City 4-1 Man Utd - 852,000