ESPN saw its second-best monthly audience on record in January, as strong numbers for the CFP and NFL playoffs helped sustain a strong growth story for the cable network on the heels of 2025 being its best year since 2017. ESPN averaged 1.7 million viewers on a total-day basis last month, which is behind only January 1996, when ESPN’s records began. It’s also the best month for the network since January 2015. The average viewership is up 12% from the same period last year, which was ESPN’s third-best month on record. When adding sports on ABC, January was the best month for minutes watched (89.6 billion) since ESPN and ABC Sports merged in 2006, and up 10% from the same period last year.
Across all of sports, almost half (43%) of viewing in January came from ESPN’s Nielsen-rated channels, which covers ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN Deportes. That’s more than the No. 2 and No. 3 companies combined.
