ESPN Digital Media in March: 81 Million U.S. Fans

Kevin Ota

April 28, 2015

34 percent share of sports category is more than Nos. 2, 3 and 4 properties combined;
47.5 million fans accessed ESPN content exclusively on smartphones and tablets;
ESPN’s last 10 monthly unique visitor totals are the 10 biggest months in sports category history.

ESPN Digital Media reached 80.5 million unique visitors in the U.S. in March, up 18 percent from a year ago and the eighth largest monthly total in sports category history. Fans spent 7.9 billion minutes with ESPN content across platforms, a sports category record for the month of March. Time spent with ESPN’s digital properties was up 33 percent from a year ago and ranked as the sixth highest total in ESPN history.

ESPN’s June 2014 through March 2015 now comprise the top 10 monthly unique visitor totals in sports category history.

Overall, ESPN accounted for 33.8 percent of all sports category usage on digital platforms, more than the Nos. 2, 3 and 4 properties combined (Bleacher Report-Turner Sports Network had 12.6 percent, Yahoo! Sports-NBC Sports Network 11.6 percent, and Fox Sports Digital-Sporting News Media 7.2 percent).

On mobile devices alone, 61.2 million unique users accessed ESPN web and app content, an increase of 12.2 million over a year ago. ESPN mobile visitors generated 4.4 billion minutes of usage, more than the next four mobile sports properties combined.

59 percent of ESPN’s unique users – 47.5 million people – exclusively accessed content on smartphones and tablets. This is the 12th consecutive month that more than half of ESPN’s digital users came only from mobile devices.

More results from the March comScore Multi-Platform report:

56 percent of all time spent with ESPN digital content was consumed by mobile device users, the 11th consecutive month that smartphones and tablets contributed a larger share of usage to ESPN’s digital total than desktop and laptop computers.

62.2 million people used ESPN.com across devices, up 20 percent from a year ago, with 43.5 million people visiting ESPN.com via smartphones and tablets.

ESPN had the Nos. 1 and 2 apps in the sports category (ESPN – 12.9 million unique visitors, WatchESPN – 6.9 million), while ESPN Tournament Challenge was No. 6 with 2.7 million unique users in March.

ESPN’s portfolio of apps generated 2.7 billion minutes of usage, more than the next three sports properties combined, and accounted for 42 percent of all time spent with apps in the Sports Category.

Additional results from ESPN Research & Analytics:

5.4 million unique devices streamed WatchESPN and ESPN3 content in March (up 19 percent from a year ago), as viewers spent 997 million minutes with programming across all platforms (up 41 percent).¹
ESPN3 was the second most-streamed network on the WatchESPN platform (trailing only ESPN), racking up 267 million minutes of viewing.¹

Fans watched 421.5 million ESPN digital video clips in March across all touch points, up 35 percent from a year ago.¹
71 percent of all ESPN platform clips (382.2 million) were viewed on computers, 23 percent on phones and tablets, and 5 percent on connected TVs.¹

ESPN networks and ABC sports television content generated 8.8 million tweets in March, accounting for 13 percent of all TV-related activity during the month.²

Other key social media metrics:

2.0 million unique authors wrote tweets about ESPN/ABC Sports content, representing 25 percent of those tweeting about TV in March.²

ESPN’s top Twitter accounts were retweeted or favorited 12.5 million times, up 25 percent from a year ago. ESPN’s Twitter accounts have 49 million unique followers.³