ESPN’s 2022-23 fiscal year (October – September) saw the network deliver its best overall viewership in four years (2018-19 fiscal year) and its highest viewership in the key persons 18-49 demo in the same time period. In both overall and persons 18-49, ESPN was up in each of the four quarters as well, maintaining steady success throughout the entire year. The linear success is one arm of the company’s fiscal year success, as ESPN+ and ESPN Digital each saw double digit percentage growth in key categories and ESPN Social saw a remarkable 25% growth in engagements.
ESPN’s total day audience was up 2% for the fiscal year, with each quarter up 1%, 4%, 4%, and 2%, respectively. The network averaged 721,000 viewers throughout the year, with nearly 40% of the audience in persons 18-49 demo. That same key sales demo is up 5% for the year, with each quarter up 4%, 5%, 7% and 3%.
Additional TV Success:ESPN maintained its historical position as the 1 sports network (average audience) and this year No. 3 on cable, trailing two news networks.
ESPN maintained its viewership year-over-year in primetime in both overall viewership and persons 18-49.
Across ESPN networks, the company increased its already industry-leading share of sports viewership, finishing this year at 31.5%. This marks an increase over the previous two fiscal years.
Outside of sports viewership share, ESPN’s success doesn’t take into account ESPN on ABC or its other cable networks.
ESPN+ Earns Best Metrics in Platform’s History...ESPN+ success mimicked ESPN’s linear victories, as the platform drove unique viewers and total minutes up for the fiscal year and individually in each quarter, resulting in the best year for the platform yet.
For the fiscal year, ESPN+ finished up double-digits in both uniques viewers (+11%) and total minutes viewed (+15%). In uniques and minutes, the platform showed tremendous growth each quarter, up 37%, 19%, 11%, and 7% and in total minutes, 13%, 26%, 7%, and 14%, respectively.
ESPN Digital Adds to Trend...ESPN Digital finished with its best usage ever, averaging 111 million unique visitors each month. The industry leading usage represents a 4% growth from fiscal year 2022 and bests the nearest competitor by 49%.
ESPN Social Approaching 9 Billion Engagements...ESPN Social had its best year of social engagement ever with 8.7B social engagements across all accounts and platforms, up 25% year-over-year. ESPN Social has had over 24 straight months of being number 1 for engagement in sports media.
ESPN’s YouTube Adds to Growth, Sees More than 24 Billion Views...ESPN’s YouTube programming generated 24.5 billion views during the fiscal year, up an astonishing 23% from the previous fiscal year.
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