4.65★ from 4,147,701 ratings · version 8.25.1 · 69 of the last 88 written reviews are one or two stars
Constant buffering, freezing, and blurry video streams
5of the 69 read·7%
App freezes, lags, buffers frequently, and displays blurry images even with good WiFi or cellular connection.
›read 3 of these reviews
“Ehhh! — App is slow and always buffering. Needs a better update.” — ★☆☆☆☆ · English“Connectivity issues AWFUL — I appreciate that espn streams all the tennis courts (ref to the US Open) however the connectivity issues are abhorrent! Full bars of WiFi or cellular data and there’s glitches, lags, screen freezing, blurry images. Ridiculous… For the money we pay, the quality should be top notch.” — ★★☆☆☆ · English“barely usable — This app lags, won’t load the feed half the time, and is consistently blurry. Every time, I think it’s my connection, but I open the same channel on a different app and it runs 10x smoother. Terrible quality” — ★☆☆☆☆ · English
Forced to sign in repeatedly and remember login issues
5of the 69 read·7%
App logs users out after every session or requires signing in to TV provider every single time they want to watch.
›read 3 of these reviews
“espn should be better — can’t change my tv provider so i can watch live sports already pay for the espn + subscription and pay for direct tv but my account want let me change my former tv provider to my new and customer service is no help at all for a company this not and profitable you would think they wouldn’t need to rip paying customers off but they do” — ★☆☆☆☆ · English“So many hoops — Why are there always so many hoops to go through to get in every time I want to see something? They make so much money yet have the worst technology. Takes like 30 minutes to log in each time I want to. Can’t it just remember me? Like wtf” — ★★☆☆☆ · English“Bad — Absolute garbage app. I have to sign into my tv provider every single time. I have an ESPN select account through another company and you can’t watch anything with it. They update the subscriptions almost every year to screw you out of money. Their programs are awful. ESPN was bad, but Disney put them 6 foot deep.” — ★☆☆☆☆ · English
Frequent glitches, crashes, and unreliable app behavior
4of the 69 read·6%
App constantly freezes, crashes, shows wrong articles, and requires multiple attempts to open content or use features.
›read 3 of these reviews
“Unreliable — This app sucks. I’d say 4/10 times I go to use it, there’s some kind of glitch that is incredibly annoying. Like I click on one article to read it but it pulls up another. The video and streaming features are completely unreliable. Don’t like the shorts feature. Feels like such an easy app to make run smoothly and yet it’s not.” — ★★☆☆☆ · English“Most glitchy slow app I have — This app constantly freezes and requires multiple attempts to open an article. Ridiculous for an app from ESPN.” — ★★☆☆☆ · English“Sucks — Glitches and delays suck I’m about to cancel the app and it’s not even be 24 hours yet” — ★☆☆☆☆ · English
Too many ads for paid subscribers and aggressive ad placement
3of the 69 read·4%
Paid subscribers must watch long ads to see short clips, and ads appear even on premium subscriptions with high-contrast ads that distract.
›read 3 of these reviews
“Advertisements for sports — The app itself is decent but every single video clip is gated behind an ad. Watch 1min 30sec of advertising to watch a 30-second clip of Field Yates telling me my RB1 is questionable. Figure it out.” — ★☆☆☆☆ · English“Too many ads, too much spam — As a paid "plus" customer, I get served 30 second ads to watch a 15 second clip... absolutely unacceptable! And lately I've been getting spam notifications about NFL gambling strategies despite having betting odds explicitly turned off... Seriously considering cancelling my entire bundle over this garbage” — ★☆☆☆☆ · English“ESPN Unlimited- Terrible streaming on smart TV — Watching US Open and it freezes every time there is a commercial break.. which begets the question why am I getting commercials when I pay for premium app” — ★★☆☆☆ · English
New AI search feature is worse and harder to use
3of the 69 read·4%
New search requires exact full names and AI processing, making it slower and harder than the previous simple first-name lookup.
›read 3 of these reviews
“Search bar — New ai search bar feature sucks. Before could look up a first name and select the player. Now you have to type in a players full name exactly correct to find him” — ★☆☆☆☆ · English“SearchBETA is unnecessary — SearchBETA is the worst feature added to the ESPN app in years!” — ★☆☆☆☆ · English“Search Function Broken — There is no way to easily search and navigate to individual teams with the new search feature, you have to write out a query and wait for the AI to process it. Makes it impossible to quickly navigate through the app. This feature should be opt-in not opt-out.” — ★☆☆☆☆ · English
Cannot watch live sports despite paying for access
3of the 69 read·4%
App won't let users watch live sports they pay for, TV provider authentication fails, or geo-restrictions block content.
›read 3 of these reviews
“Dumpster fire — I pay for the monthly subscription and have a cable subscription and this POS app still won’t let me watch live sports that are literally on ESPN. Every time I click TV provider it just takes me back to the Home Screen. Loads just fine if I want to click on the explore subs. Dumpster fire just like the rest of espn. Maybe if you fire a few more employees you can afford to pay for an app that actually…” — ★☆☆☆☆ · English“ESPN app sucks — What is the advantage of having this app ? What do I get for it, no games mostly old news that I get from many other sources without an app ? … and again no games, I’m not paying for cable to watch College Football I will find other ways to do so ESPN is the toilet of sports period. Go Ducks MFs” — ★☆☆☆☆ · English“Poor — Doesn’t let me watch my games, if I’m not on my home WiFi, even though i have WiFi at work. Seriously considering canceling my subscription” — ★☆☆☆☆ · English
Navigation is difficult and requires too many taps to find content
3of the 69 read·4%
App redesign makes it harder to find scores and games, requires multiple taps even with favorites, and popups block menu access.
›read 3 of these reviews
“Update bad — New popup/announcement that covers the bottom banner menu is so frustrating. I want to open app and click scores and now I can’t. CBS Sports is getting a lot more clicks now.” — ★★☆☆☆ · English“Not my go-to sports app anymore. — It’s harder to get to the content I want than it used to be. It takes multiple taps to just find the score or game you want even with favorites selected.” — ★★☆☆☆ · English“Fix Favorites Settings — Favoriting teams / leagues does nothing in this app. No matter what team I favorite or what league or sports I say I’m interested in, I get fed news on teams, leagues, and sports I don’t care about or aren’t interested in. I can’t even find game schedules for teams that I have favorited and go to other places before this app to find that information. I’d use this app and would like it a lot…” — ★★☆☆☆ · English
Notifications don't work or send unwanted alerts users cannot disable
3of the 69 read·4%
App sends unwanted notifications that don't show requested content, and settings don't prevent gambling or betting alerts.
›read 3 of these reviews
“Too many ads, too much spam — As a paid "plus" customer, I get served 30 second ads to watch a 15 second clip... absolutely unacceptable! And lately I've been getting spam notifications about NFL gambling strategies despite having betting odds explicitly turned off... Seriously considering cancelling my entire bundle over this garbage” — ★☆☆☆☆ · English“Don’t like it — ESPN gives me a notificati and when I click it, it never shows me that story.” — ★☆☆☆☆ · English“Alerts — App keeps sending alerts I don't want. I have everything correct in the settings, but it doesn't seem to matter.” — ★☆☆☆☆ · English
Apple publishes the most recent written reviews, up to five hundred, and that is what was read — not a search for bad ones. Why so many of them are angry. The complaints above come from the 69 most recent negative ones. Newest review 2 days ago (07.09.2026), last collected today.
Germany
4.66★ from 3,085 ratings · version 8.25.1
We have not read this app's reviews yet. Apple rations that feed to about one page per address every ten minutes and refuses datacentre addresses, so the reading is done by hand — the rating above is live, the complaints are not there yet.
Apple publishes the most recent written reviews, up to five hundred, and that is what was read — not a search for bad ones. Why so many of them are angry. The complaints above come from the 0 most recent negative ones. Newest review never, last collected never.
France
4.71★ from 1,678 ratings · version 8.25.1
We have not read this app's reviews yet. Apple rations that feed to about one page per address every ten minutes and refuses datacentre addresses, so the reading is done by hand — the rating above is live, the complaints are not there yet.
Apple publishes the most recent written reviews, up to five hundred, and that is what was read — not a search for bad ones. Why so many of them are angry. The complaints above come from the 0 most recent negative ones. Newest review never, last collected never.
Britain
4.66★ from 6,464 ratings · version 8.25.1
We have not read this app's reviews yet. Apple rations that feed to about one page per address every ten minutes and refuses datacentre addresses, so the reading is done by hand — the rating above is live, the complaints are not there yet.
Apple publishes the most recent written reviews, up to five hundred, and that is what was read — not a search for bad ones. Why so many of them are angry. The complaints above come from the 0 most recent negative ones. Newest review never, last collected never.