New year, new viewership milestones for ESPN: Signature events deliver second-best month in 30 years

· NFL Playoff Games, College Football Playoff fuel standout start to 2026 on ESPN networks across multiple viewership categories

Immediately following a superlative-filled end to 2025, ESPN starts the year with its second most-watched month in three decades adding to a list of viewership milestones, powered by sports fans and the platform's industry-leading rights portfolio, including multiple NFL Playoff games and College Football Playoff matchups that generated historic back-to-back days earlier this month.

ESPN's second most-watched month in 30 years

Jan. was ESPN's second most-watched month in 30 years, dating back to 1996 (360 months) when ESPN's records began. It's also the best month in over a decade (since Jan. 2015). The network's primary linear channel averaged 1.7 million viewers, up 12% from Jan. 2025. Continuing ESPN's landmark viewership success to start the year, Jan. 2025 and 2026 now account for two of the top three most-watched months in the platform's history.

Record-setting month for ESPN & ESPN on ABC

ESPN and ESPN on ABC saw their best overall month since ESPN and ABC Sports combined in 2006, with 89.6 billion minutes watched, an increase of 10% vs. Jan. 2025.

ESPN networks lead sports share

Almost half of all sports viewing in Jan. happened across ESPN's Nielsen-rated networks at 43% (ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN Deportes), more than the second and third-place network groups combined.

Jan. also saw multiple viewership wins across ESPN's marquee lineup of daily studio shows that will be announced soon.

Please note: Jan. 2026 is defined by Nielsen as Dec. 29-Jan. 25. All metrics are based on Nielsen Big Data + Panel. 

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