With a mixture of live game broadcasts, event programming and studio shows, ESPN has reportedly elicited its most-viewed Q1 in the last eight years. The company is said to have averaged 868,000 viewers on the total-day basis through the first three months of the year, which is indicative of a 22% year-over-year proliferation. According to the report filed by Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal, the data is also representative of a 15% rise among adults 18-49 and featured various record-breaking viewership performances across its broadcast properties.
This past January marked the most-watched month in a decade for ESPN with an average minute audience of 1.6 million viewers, according to data from Nielsen Media Research. Consumers also viewed more minutes of ESPN sports broadcasts on ABC than any month since January 2017, finishing with a total of 81.4 billion minutes of sports content viewed across both channels.
Across its Nielsen-rated networks, ESPN was responsible for 42% of sports viewership on the month, with its primary network garnering 29% in the overall category. For the remainder of the quarter, ESPN secured its best total-day audience since 2018 in February and garnered the second-best finish in this category in March.
“We carried strong momentum throughout the quarter, across signature events and our full content offering,” Rosalyn Durant, executive vice president of programming and acquisitions at ESPN, said in a statement provided to Sports Business Journal. “Experiencing multiyear high viewership and consumption growth reinforces, yet again, the strength of the ESPN brand and our content portfolio.”
ESPN averaged 2.3 million viewers in prime time during the first quarter, which spanned programming such as an NFL Divisional Round matchup and the championship game of the 4 Nations Face-Off. The metric was the best figure in the category since 2012 (2.36 million viewers) and up 35% from the first quarter last year.
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