Formerly known as Liga Mayor (1943–1949) and then as Primera División de México (1949–2012), it has 18 participating clubs, with each season divided into two short tournaments, Apertura from July to December and Clausura from January to May.

[9] Liga MX ranks second in terms of television viewership in the United States, behind the English Premier League.

[12] The Federación Mexicana de Fútbol (FMF) announcement of the nation's first professional league brought interest from many clubs to join.

Consequently, teams from Mexico that placed high in the league standings could not afford to participate in the overarching continental competitions, such as the Copa Libertadores.

The season following the FIFA World Cup, the FMF changed the league format and established a final phase to determine the national champion.

[15] Liga MX uses a single table of 18 teams that play two short tournaments (Apertura and Clausura) resulting in two champions per season.

This format matches other Latin American schedules and corresponds with FIFA's world footballing calendar, which "opens" in July/August and "closes" in April/May of the next year.

The team promoted from Ascenso MX is the winner of a two-leg match between the champions of the Apertura and Clausura tournaments of that division.

[21] On April 16, 2020, the Ascenso MX was folded due to the 2019-20 coronavirus pandemic as well as the lack of financial resources.

Liga MX President Enrique Bonilla later announced during a video meeting with the club owners of the league that promotion and relegation would be suspended for six years.

Televisa, TV Azteca, Imagen Televisión, Claro Sports, Fox Sports, and ESPN have broadcasting rights in México, while ESPN Deportes, Fox Deportes, Univision, and Telemundo have the rights in the United States, with FS1/FS2 airing select matches with English commentary.

This agreement was canceled by Liga MX in 2012 when the promotion of Club León caused a television rights dispute with Televisa.

[43] Currently, Club León matches are broadcast in Mexico by Fox Sports and other online media sites, and in the United States by Univision (Telemundo from 2013–16).

[45][46] Fox Sports is the only network that holds rights to broadcast selected matches in United States and South America.

However, a blackout policy is usually applied in selected markets where affiliates are forced to air alternate programming during the matches, Sunday noon and afternoon games broadcast by Televisa are shown on Canal de las Estrellas.

For the Apertura 2016, and the majority of the Clausura 2017, Guadalajara home matches in Mexico were not shown on over-the-air television or cable and satellite operators.

On February 13, 2017, it was announced Univision Deportes would live stream 46 games in English on Facebook in the United States.

[47] After the Clausura 2017 season, Azteca América sold the rights of the Atlas, Morelia, Tijuana, and Veracruz matches to Univision.

In September 2017, Univision began airing Lobos BUAP's home matches, thus holding the rights to all 18 Liga MX teams through the end of the Clausura 2018 season.

[48] In October 2017, Fox Sports announced that it acquired the long-term exclusive Spanish-language rights to Tijuana and Santos Laguna home matches in the United States, Mexico, and the rest of Latin America starting in the Apertura 2018 and Apertura 2019 respectively, thus ending Univision's monopoly.

[53] On 15 July 2021, OneFootball announced it would broadcast between two and five live matches as part of a deal covering the 2021/22 Liga MX season in selected international markets.

[54] On 16 August 2021, Eleven Sports announced it would broadcast the home Liga MX matches of C.D.

[62] On 18 June 2019, the league was renamed as Liga BBVA MX, adopting the new identity of the sponsor.