ESPN Digital Media Remains No. 1, Reaches 75 Million Fans in July

Kevin Ota

August 22, 2014

75 million total unique visitors was second-highest of all-time in sports category; 54 million unique users on mobile; 12 million unique devices streamed WatchESPN; 442 million digital video clips viewed

Driven by coverage of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, NBA free agency, and the MLB regular season and trade deadline, ESPN enjoyed another industry-leading month in the digital sports category during July. ESPN reached 74.8 million unique users across computers, smartphones and tablets, the second-largest total for a single month in category history – trailing only ESPN’s more than 80 million in June – and an increase of 60 percent from a year ago.

ESPN accounted for 32.3 percent of all sports category usage on digital platforms, more than the Nos. 2, 3, and 4 properties combined (Yahoo! Sports-NBC Sports Network had 10.6 percent, Bleacher Report-Turner Sports Network 9.4 percent, MLB 9.3 percent.) Also, sports fans spent 6.4 billion minutes consuming ESPN digital properties, a category record for the month of July and up 49 percent from a year ago.

In addition, 54.3 million unique users accessed ESPN content on mobile devices, the second-highest total ever for mobile reach, marking the third consecutive month that ESPN registered more than 50 million unique mobile users.

More results from the July comScore Multi-Platform report:

July was the 11th consecutive month in which more unique people visited ESPN on smartphones and tablets than on desktop and laptop computers (34.4 million uniques, 2.7 billion minutes of usage.) 73 percent of ESPN’s total users accessed content on mobile devices, generating 3.6 billion minutes of usage.

July was the fourth straight month in which more than half of ESPN’s unique digital users (54 percent, 40.4 million people) exclusively accessed ESPN content on smartphones and tablets. 57 percent of all time spent with ESPN digital content was consumed by mobile device users.

The 84.9 minutes per user spent with ESPN digital properties during July was more than any of the top 125 sports category entities.

In the average minute throughout July, 142,403 people used ESPN digital properties on computers, smartphones and tablets. Among males 18 to 49, ESPN was the eighth most-used digital property in the U.S. during the month.

Additional results from ESPN Research & Analytics:

11.6 million unique devices streamed WatchESPN and ESPN3 content in July, the second-most ever (behind only last June 2014) and up 254 percent from a year ago. Viewers spent 1.7 billion million minutes with WatchESPN and ESPN3 programming across all platforms, up 255 percent from June 2013.¹

Fans watched 441.7 million ESPN digital video clips in July, the second biggest monthly total ever, and up 68 percent from a year ago. 71.7 million video clip starts came from mobile phones, up 111 percent from last year. 68 percent of clips on ESPN platforms were viewed on computers, 25 perent on phones and tablets, and seven percent on connected TVs.¹

ESPN networks and ABC sports television content generated 35.5 million tweets in July, accounting for more than half of all TV-related activity during the month. ESPN itself was the 2^nd most-social TV network (broadcast or cable) in July with 3.7 million unique authors sending 21 million tweets about ESPN programming.² Other key social media metrics:

ESPN’s Twitter accounts were retweeted or favorited 10 million times, up 200 percent year-over-year.³

14.4 million people engaged with the ESPN Facebook page (liked a post, shared a story, left a comment) up 27% from the month prior, and 8.0 million also engaged with the SportsCenter page.⁴