New York City FC tied in its debut game Sunday in Orlando, Fla., but if early returns mean anything, NYCFC is off to a winning start off the field, both on television and at the gate.

NYCFC’s 1-1 draw at the sold-out Citrus Bowl drew ratings were solid by most metrics — and eye-popping by MLS standards. The game averaged 539,000 viewers on ESPN2, far more than any MLS game on the network all of last year and more than double the average 2014 rating.

The best regular-season draw last season on ESPN2 was the 426,000 for Portland-Seattle on the same night as the World Cup final. That was the only game that cracked 400,000. The top number has been in the mid-300,000s for the prior few seasons.

NYCFC’s debut also brought in more than twice the 225,000 viewers ESPN2 averaged over 15 regular-season tilts last year. The overnight rating was a solid 0.6 in New York. Many Red Bull games having been stuck near 0.2.

The Red Bulls’ season opener at Sporting KC also did solid numbers on Fox Sports 1 (268,000 viewers), which replaced NBC as the league’s second English-language TV network. That rating was better than 36 of 38 NBCSN broadcasts from last year, and nearly doubled the 142,000 average.

NYCFC also is off to a strong start at the gate. The team announced Tuesday it will open up the 400 level at Yankee Stadium because of high demand for Sunday’s home opener against New England.

The Stadium, as configured for NYCFC games, usually will hold 27,528 fans. They had previously announced opening the 300 level to exceed 33,000 tickets sold — including more than 15,000 season tickets.

“Momentum is growing by the day,” NYCFC president Tom Glick said. “It was only 10 days ago that we announced that the 300 level will be open. Now with more than 30,000 sold, we’ve decided to open even more seats.’’

NYCFC sporting director Claudio Reyna said: “It’s incredible how fast our fan base is growing.”