ESPN’s winning streak continues, with February 2025 marking the network’s best February viewership in seven years. This follows an exceptionally strong January, setting up a powerful start to the year.
Here’s the Lowdown: ESPN averaged 575,000 viewers every minute of February 2025, a 21% increase from February 2024. This is the highest February viewership since 2018. The 4 Nations Face-Off Championship Game contributed significantly, becoming ESPN’s most-watched hockey game ever. Note: Nielsen defines February 2025 as January 27 to February 23.
What This Means Now: These numbers show ESPN’s continued dominance in sports broadcasting. The network is not only attracting more, but it’s also capturing a larger share of the overall sports viewing audience.
The Bigger Picture: When combining ESPN’s programming with sports content on ABC, February 2025 saw more minutes watched by fans than any other February in the past decade. ESPN claimed a 30% share of all sports viewership this February (up from 27% last year). Aside from Fox, which broadcast Super Bowl LIX, no other network achieved a double-digit share. This success builds on January 2025, which was ESPN’s most-watched month overall since 2015.
