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Updated July 2026 · real, multi-region App Store reviews
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The verdict on

ESPN

45
User verdict / 100 High confidence Divided

The ESPN app provides comprehensive sports coverage, live scores, and news, but recent updates have led to significant issues with streaming reliability, frequent app crashes, and a confusing subscription model with excessive ads, frustrating many users who pay for premium content.

4.6★ lifetime (4,098,789) Free + in-app purchases since 2009 by Disney Electronic Content, Inc. updated 0.1 mo ago recent negative 50% 120 reviews across 4 regions
App Performance Streaming & Subscriptions Content & Notifications User Experience
5★345
4★73
3★82
2★95
1★405
recent reviews across 4 regions, vs the 4.6★ lifetime average

The ESPN app is praised for its extensive sports coverage, timely updates, and personalized features, making it a go-to for many sports fans. However, recent user experiences highlight critical problems including persistent app crashes, buffering issues, and a confusing subscription structure that still includes numerous ads, even for paid users.

What users like

  • Comprehensive sports coverage, live scores, and timely news updatesR11R16R21R25
  • Intuitive interface and personalized features for following favorite teams and leaguesR11R35R38R51
  • Good for quick score checks and highlightsR30R31R35

What users complain about

  • Frequent app crashes and freezing, especially when reading articles or watching videosR4R5R33R71
  • Streaming issues, buffering, and content not loading for paid subscribersR1R2R10R19
  • Excessive and disruptive ads, even for paid subscribersR8R19R40R54
  • Confusing and expensive subscription tiers with limited access to contentR2R8R20R48
  • Difficulty finding specific content, especially replays, and poor navigationR6R8R13R20
  • Irrelevant or excessive notifications and content, with poor filtering optionsR7R14R17R57
  • Perceived political bias and controversial commentary in contentR3R22R27R41
  • Slow loading times and general unresponsivenessR10R13R36R82

Latest update · v8.21.0

What the developer says changed (the verdict above weighs this against what reviewers report):

Multiview enables you to stream up to four live, curated events simultaneously on one screen within the ESPN App. Soccer Live Activities are now available! Stay close to the action with key plays and game stats for all the major soccer leagues + the NHL, NBA, and MLB. Verts now has dedicated sports, team, league, and player pages that make it easier to discover all related content.

Recurring themes

App Performance negative
Many users report frequent app crashes, freezing, and slow loading times, making the app unreliable and frustrating to use. This contradicts the developer's notes which imply improvements, as users still experience significant instability.R4R5R10R13
Streaming & Subscriptions negative
Users, including paid subscribers, experience significant issues with streaming quality, buffering, and content not loading. There is widespread frustration with the confusing, expensive, and tiered subscription model (e.g., ESPN+, ESPN Unlimited) which often requires additional payments for content and still includes numerous ads, even for premium users. Finding specific content, especially replays, is also difficult.R1R2R6R8
Content & Notifications mixed
While the app is praised for its comprehensive coverage and timely scores, many users are annoyed by irrelevant or excessive notifications and content, particularly for sports they don't follow. Filtering options are often ineffective or missing. Some users also express strong opinions about perceived political bias and controversial commentary.R3R7R14R17
User Experience negative
Users report a poor overall user experience due to navigation difficulties, an unhelpful interface, and issues with features like fast-forward/rewind. The recent update's 'Verts' feature, while intended to improve content discovery, still shows irrelevant content to some users.R6R12R13R17

Who it's for

This app is for dedicated sports fans who want comprehensive coverage, live scores, and news across many sports R11. It is particularly useful for those who prioritize timely information and personalized team tracking R11R35. It is not for users who expect a seamless, ad-free streaming experience even with a paid subscription R8R40, or those who are easily frustrated by frequent app crashes, slow loading, and irrelevant notifications R4R33R196.

Evidence note: The sample of recent reviews skews significantly negative, which contrasts with the high lifetime rating. Many positive reviews are short and lack detail, while negative reviews provide extensive specifics about app malfunctions and subscription frustrations. The confidence in the negative points is high due to recurrence across many reviews, including international ones.

Frequently asked

Does the ESPN app offer live streaming and replays?
Yes, the ESPN app offers live streaming and replays of sporting events, but many users report issues with buffering, content not loading, and difficulty finding specific replays, even with paid subscriptions R1R8R19R20.
Are there ads in the ESPN app, even with a paid subscription?
Yes, many users report experiencing frequent and disruptive ads within the ESPN app, even when they have paid for subscriptions like ESPN+ or ESPN Unlimited R8R19R40R54.
Does the ESPN app allow users to customize notifications and content?
While the app offers some personalization for favorite teams and leagues, many users report issues with receiving irrelevant or excessive notifications for sports they don't follow, and the filtering options are often ineffective R14R17R57R130.
Does the latest update for the ESPN app improve stability and performance?
Despite developer notes mentioning new features like Multiview and Live Activities, many recent reviews indicate that the app continues to suffer from frequent crashes, slow loading, and general instability, contradicting any implied performance improvements R4R33R71R196.

What reviewers actually said

Built only from these 120 real reviews (foreign ones translated). Superscripts jump to the quote here. Apple has no per-review links, so [ref] opens that app's reviews on the App Store.

  1. [R11] 5/5 · US The greatness of ESPN: Dear ESPN, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The ESPN app delivers an outstanding sports experience with a clean, intuitive interface and exceptionally reliable coverage. Live scores update seamlessly, breaking news is timely and comprehensive, and the personalized features make it effortless to follow my favorite teams and leagues. The streaming quality is consistently excellent, and the app strikes
  2. [R16] 5/5 · US The Best: The information is great
  3. [R21] 5/5 · US ESPN: Been using this app for years. Very useful and reliable information
  4. [R25] 5/5 · US Great: This is great for all your sports needs
  5. [R35] 5/5 · US ESPN: The Worldwide Leader In Sports: It has been an amazing experience using this app. I am able to access the scoreboards, highlights of games, view headlines of different teams, and save my favorite teams and players. I also love to have scoreboards on my phone’s lock screen. In addition, if I follow the scoreboard while the game is live, the app shows a field of a scoring play. For example, in
  6. [R38] 5/5 · US ESPN best app for sports fans: I am a huge fan of the ESPN sports app. I use it all the time to check Sports scores, check schedules and get the latest information for all of my teams. It’s so fast and easy to use. This is one of my most used apps for sure!
  7. [R51] 5/5 · US The Best: There are a lot of apps out there, but no one does it better than ESPN. You can easily follow every score of every sport that you want and you can follow any player you want.
  8. [R30] 5/5 · US Very helpful: It is very helpful to me . I can see scores of games very easy now
  9. [R31] 5/5 · US 5 star app: Live highlights on camera notch equals no missed buckets. Great for on the go. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
  10. [R4] 1/5 · US Broken app: Every time I try and read article, or anything else, I get about five sentences in and the app tries to break itself. It will either send me to the home page, switch to some random article, or gray screen. The app has been completely unusable for the last month. I’ve had the app for multiple years and just uninstalled it.
  11. [R5] 1/5 · US Can’t read stories: Over past few weeks I am not able to read stories details, get a blank screen- my iPhone and iPad.
  12. [R33] 3/5 · US App Crashing: I like the app, and it’s easy to use. The issue with it though is that it will randomly crash while I’m reading an article. Happens too often and I don’t experience this with my other apps. If it weren’t for this I’d give it 5 stars.
  13. [R71] 1/5 · US Worst App Possible: App barely works always crashes and they can never seem to get things right…. Rather use alternative options thanks for nothing.. P.S no wonder the ufc didn’t resign with yall 😂
  14. [R1] 1/5 · US Worst App: I bought the subscription for a month to see Wimbledon. The streaming stopped working so many times. I reset everything and I still have the same problem. I wish I could rated 0 star. Let me mention that the other apps on my Samsung TV work fine.
  15. [R2] 1/5 · US Paid for mlb doesn’t work: Will NEVER buy again
  16. [R10] 1/5 · US Horrible: The laggiest app next to mc Donald’s. Out right horrible.
  17. [R19] 1/5 · US The buffering and ads: The buffering, awful, the load time for the app, awful. The ads will work perfectly though, dumb. This app and in its entirety, AWFUL.
  18. [R8] 1/5 · US Do not waste your money on subscriptions: I subscribed to ESPN specifically to watch the Wimbledon 2026 men’s and women’s singles matches in the US. Because of the time difference, the matches are played while I’m at work, so I expected to watch the replays in the evening. Instead, I paid for a subscription that still includes a lot of advertising, and by the time I get home, many of the matches
  19. [R40] 1/5 · US Commercials: I pay for espn unlimited I should get no commercials. They throw in commercials in the middle of matches when the announcers are explaining something important. Just let me watch without a damn commercial, I’m not gonna buy whatever is on there because I saw a commercial on here.
  20. [R54] 1/5 · US Not Impressed: After paying $30 for Wimbledon priceless I am disappointed in the ON DEMAND level of ads as well as the fact that the app will not open on my TV suddenly (other apps do open I tested them). I mean ESPN please do better or stop charging high prices for tournaments.
  21. [R20] 1/5 · US Horrendous User Experience: I'm an ESPN Unlimited subscriber and your coverage in the app of Wimbledon, especially Men's singles replays is awful. You lump every single match in the On Demand section (who actually cares about wading through Girls and Boys matches in a main feed? Ridiculous) but leave out the matches I actually want to watch. You really should study how HBO handled Roland Garros. T
  22. [R48] 2/5 · US Too many required subscriptions: They have at least 3 different paywalls you have to clear to try to watch all content that is broadcast by ESPN. This new ESPN plus unlimited is bad for customers.
  23. [R6] 1/5 · US The worst: Downloaded this to watch Wimbledon and have found it incredibly frustrating to find the matches I want to see or navigate all the noise. Plus the amount and repetition of ads is crazy making.
  24. [R13] 1/5 · US App sucks: Interface trash doesn’t load always behind.. everything sucks about this app it’s cuts off music n youtube when u open this app everything bad about a sports app to check scores with this app has does
  25. [R7] 3/5 · US No AUSL coverage?: Recent update still doesn’t show professional softball league scores or as an option to add as a favorite. It’s been a league for at least 2 years and you haven’t added it?!
  26. [R14] 1/5 · US Notifications: Every time I turn the notifications off somehow they come back on
  27. [R17] 1/5 · US Lazy: Unlike other apps where you can choose the content direction and stay in the area of sports that you are attracted to this app continually hammers you with content “they” think is best. II have know and will not change my opinion the WNBA and their NBA enablers suck. STOP
  28. [R57] 3/5 · US Just one little tweak: All espn has to do is stop notifying people about the sports they didn’t pick I’m a Christian American why do I care about soccer when the nba and nfl offseason are going on
  29. [R3] 1/5 · US R@cist commentary: When Steven a smith was allowed to say what he did with no backlash I realized espn caters to a double standard. I will be deleting services and my app.
  30. [R22] 3/5 · US Keep Politics Out of Sports: Pretty simple.
  31. [R27] 1/5 · US ESPN: ESPN is garbage. Cant cover anything but NBA and is full of libtards. SVP Ian’s bucci only people worth a pay check.
  32. [R41] 1/5 · US ESPN sucks: ESPN needs to change. Your political views do not match the country or world and the way you approach controlling sports events and pricing is disgusting. You are hated and it is widespread. Start with firing bigots like Stephen Smith.
  33. [R36] 1/5 · US Slowest app ever made: App doesn’t even load half the time and is buggy. Don’t download it or pay for any espn services. You’ll waste your time and money.
  34. [R82] 3/5 · US Slowly loading up: The app is good it just most of the time it loads up very slow
  35. [R12] 4/5 · US Table of contents: Put the table of contents at the beginning.
  36. [R130] 3/5 · US Good: I like the app that it keeps me updated with my favorite teams & sports. And breaking news, But I dislike that I’m getting notifications about sports I don’t even like or players I’m not interested in. If they can fix that bug to be strictly about your preference instead of just giving random notifications I personally don’t care about
  37. [R196] 3/5 · US Crashing all the time: This app would be great if it wasn’t crashing all the time

Synthesized from 120 recent App Store reviews · updated July 2026 · View on the App Store