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ESPN’s fiscal year ended on September 30 and the network reports it experienced a nearly 20-year high for prime time and a near-decade high in total day consumption from ESPN and ‘ESPN on ABC.’ The network says based on third-party public data, the last time consumption was this high was 2006 (prime time) and 2016 (total day).
The data shows that during the past 12 months, sports fans consumed 533 billion minutes of ESPN and ‘ESPN on ABC’ programming with 202 billion minutes coming in prime time. Total minutes was up 7% and 8% in prime time from the previous twelve-month period across the same programming.
Other fiscal year information the network passed along includes ESPN maintaining its historical position as the No. 1 sports network in terms of average audience and No. 3 on cable overall, following two news networks. Across the ESPN linear platforms, the network had a 31% share of sports viewership.
ESPN Digital averaged nearly 112 million unique visitors per month during the last fiscal year. That average was up 3.2 million visitors or 3% from the previous record-setting year. ESPN Digital has finished No. 1 in the sports category for 30 consecutive months dating back to March 2022.
ESPN Social is currently on a 38-month streak of topping the sports category. This fiscal year saw 8.5 billion social engagements. Additionally, ESPN’s YouTube content averaged 48.5 million unique visitors a month. That increase is up 21% year-over-year.
