ESPN Digital Media in May: 74 Million U.S. Fans, 30 Percent Category Share

Click to view info graphic.

30 percent share of sports category is more than Nos. 2 and 3 properties combined; ESPN.com reaches 56 million people, up 14 percent in second month of new ESPN.com; ESPN’s last 12 months are top 12 all-time unique visitor totals in sports category; Another record month in uniques for Grantland

ESPN Digital Media reached 74.3 million unique visitors in the U.S. in May, up nine percent from a year ago. Fans spent 6.9 billion minutes with ESPN content across platforms, a sports category record for the month of May, and up 18 percent from a year ago.

ESPN’s last 12 months – June 2014 through May 2015 – now comprise the top 12 monthly unique visitor totals in sports category history.

In the second month since the April 1 launch of the new ESPN.com, the site garnered 56.3 million unique visitors in May, up 16 percent from a year ago. 42.0 million people visited ESPN.com via smartphones and tablets, an increase of 22 percent from May 2014.

Overall, ESPN accounted for 30.1 percent of all sports category usage on digital platforms, more than the Nos. 2 and 3 properties combined (MLB had 13.5 percent, Yahoo! Sports-NBC Sports Network 11.4 percent).

More results from the May comScore Multi-Platform report:

• On mobile devices alone, 59.7 million unique users accessed ESPN web and app content, an increase of 8.5 million over a year ago. ESPN mobile visitors generated 3.9 billion minutes of usage, up 21 percent.
• 66 percent of ESPN’s unique users – 49.3 million people – exclusively accessed content on smartphones and tablets. This is the 14th consecutive month that more than half of ESPN’s digital users came only from mobile devices.
• 57 percent of all time spent with ESPN digital content was consumed by mobile device users, the 13th consecutive month that smartphones and tablets contributed a larger share of usage to ESPN’s digital total than desktop and laptop computers.
• ESPN accounted for two of the top three sports apps on smartphones and tablets in May. The ESPN app topped the category for unique visitors (16.2 million), and WatchESPN was No. 3 (5.1 million).
  • ESPN’s portfolio of apps generated 2.2 billion minutes of usage, accounting for 35 percent of all time spent with apps in the sports category.
• Grantland set an all-time high in monthly unique visitors for the second straight month, with 7.2 million. FiveThirtyEight notched its second-highest total ever, trailing only the election-powered results of November 2014, with 5.2 million.
• In the average day in May, ESPN web and app properties were accessed by 5.7 million millennial males (age 18-34) via smartphones. ESPN ranked sixth among the more than 6,000 mobile entities reported by comScore, ahead of Pandora (5.4 million), Twitter (3.7 million) and Buzzfeed (944,000), among many others.

Additional results from ESPN Research & Analytics:

• 9 million unique devices streamed WatchESPN and ESPN3 content in May (up 44 percent from a year ago), as viewers spent 1.2 billion million minutes with programming across all platforms (up 73 percent).¹
  • Time spent viewing reached an all-time high in May with an average of 202.9 minutes per viewer. The previous high was in June 2014 at 192.2 minutes per viewer.¹
• Fans watched 420.4 million ESPN digital video clips in May across all touch points, up seven percent from a year ago. May marked the ninth time in the past 12 months that ESPN generated more than 400 million video starts.¹
  • 65 percent of all ESPN platform clips (370.2 million) were viewed on computers, 29 percent on phones and tablets, and six percent on connected TVs.¹
• ESPN’s top story in May was a report on the NFL suspending New England Patriots QB Tom Brady, which received 4.65 million views. The second most-read story of the month was Kate Fagan’s espnW profile of former University of Pennsylvania track and field athlete Madison Holleran.¹

• ESPN networks and ABC sports television content generated 16.5 million tweets in May, accounting for 25 percent of all TV-related activity during the month.² Other key social media metrics:
  • 7 million unique authors wrote tweets about ESPN/ABC Sports content, representing more than one-third of those tweeting about TV in May. ²
  • With 2.3 million unique authors and 12 million TV-related tweets, ESPN was the #1 most social network for the month (broadcast or cable) based on total tweets, total unique authors, and daily unique Twitter audience (4.7 million per day).²

¹ Source: Adobe Analytics
² Source: Nielsen SocialGuide

###

Media Contacts:
Kevin Ota, ESPN                      860.766.9581 or kevin.r.ota@espn.com
Kristie Chong Adler, ESPN    646.547.5637 or kristie.chong@espn.com