Since its inception, a total of 62 teams have competed in La Liga.
Nine teams have been crowned champions: Barcelona won the inaugural La Liga and Real Madrid won the title a record 35 times.
Barcelona were the latest winners, winning the 2022-2023 season.
During the 1940s, Valencia, Atlético Madrid and Barcelona became the strongest clubs, winning several titles.
Real Madrid and Barcelona dominated the league in the 1950s, each winning four La Liga titles in the decade.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Real Madrid dominated La Liga, winning fourteen titles, while Atlético Madrid won four.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Real Madrid dominated La Liga, but Basque clubs Athletic Club and Real Sociedad had their share of success, each winning two Spanish league titles.
Since the 1990s, Barcelona have dominated La Liga, winning seventeen titles to date.
Although Atlético Madrid achieved outstanding results, winning ten titles, there were also other champions in La Liga, including Valencia and Deportivo La Coruña.
According to the UEFA league odds rankings, La Liga was Europe's top league in each of the seven years from 2013 to 2019, and topped Europe in 22 of the 60 ranking years through 2019, more than any other country.
It has also produced the continent's highest-ranked club more times than any other league during this period, more than double Serie A's runner-up record, including the top club in 10 of 11 seasons from 2009 to 2019;
La Liga clubs have won the most titles in the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup, and its players have accumulated the most Ballon d'Or awards, FIFA Men's Best Player awards[e] and
UEFA Men's Player of the Year Awards.[f]
La Liga is one of the most popular professional sports leagues in the world, with an average attendance of 26,933 for league matches in the 2018–19 season.
It is the eighth largest among national professional sports leagues in the world and the third largest among all professional association football leagues in the world, behind the other big five leagues - the Bundesliga and the Premier League, and above Serie A and Ligue 1. La Liga
It is also the seventh-largest professional sports league in the world by revenue, behind the NFL, MLB, NBA, Premier League, NHL and Bundesliga.
From 2008 to 2016 it was sponsored by Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria and known as Liga BBVA.
It was then sponsored by Banco Santander from 2016 to 2023 and was known as LaLiga Santander.
Since 2023, it has been sponsored by Electronic Arts and known as LALIGA EA SPORTS.