ESPN: Live Sports & Scores Reviews

This app is not as great as its rating shows. The app forces you to watch ads before and after a 30 second clip or any clip of any length. I pay for ESPN+ and signed into a cable subscription. I slightly understand having an ad play before a clip but it is absolutely ridiculous that as soon as the highlight clip ends, a 60 second ad directly starts after. The worst part is that I cannot close the video or access any other part of the app while the ad is playing. It is as if the ad blocks the entire app. What if I wanted to rewatch the clip? What if there is a live game and I am trying to watch a highlight but also want to keep up with the score? The only work around is to close the app completely and relaunch the app to the clip, because I am not going to sit through a 60 second ad that blocks the app when I can close it and relaunch the clip in under the length of the ad that followed the clip. I am tired of closing the app every time I get lured into clicking a video. Also this app is constantly not updating to show real time data. It took the developers months to add game schedules of CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers for 2022. Games were being played in real time and ESPN had an active tracker of the game but no updated table nor schedule of the previous and following games. This was not updated until days before the March window.

If you love ads and miss regular cable commercials this is the app for you. ESPN is the world wide leader in sports no question so i find myself using the app out of habit but not by choice. I would delete but i pay ESPN+ for soccer matches. Most apps start free, then they up sell you by telling you hey pay and we get rid of or minimize ads. Not ESPN. You got ads, commercials, and content trying to run at the same time causing the app to, in simple terms, not work. Sad to say but i think the only thing that really works flawlessly in this app is the running of the ads however they can only seem to figure out how to run THE SAME ad over and over again. At least cable tv switches up the commercials and u might run into something you might actually want. Espn runs the same ad before anything and everything you click there is no escaping it. I’d go as far as to say the ads work better than most of the videos they post of the actual content you are looking for. Tap in for a highlight you will get a flawlessly run ad followed by a barely functional video of the content you want. And if u miss that video and try to replay guess what, ANOTHER AD, the same ad, the same exact one u just watched. Insanity. I doubt anyone at ESPN cares they are suffering from success at the highest level. However when a formidable opponent comes along they will be in big trouble.

I would say once you actually get the ESPN+ app installed it works pretty well on Roku and is easy to navigate with the remote......the big problem is it literally takes a PhD and engineering degree to get the app installed on a non QLED TV which many do not have esp if you’ve purchased a tv prior to 2017.....ESPN also failed to offer a heads up on this so if you have an older tv be prepared for a long set up process.....after about 8 hours and a trip to the store to purchase said Roku device we hunkered down to watch Connor v cowboy....sad to say 40 secs was a huge letdown but it looks like the UFC lineup In coming months looks promising....One other note....the sound was on a 10-15 sec delay which was annoying and unacceptable...I’m wondering if anyone else had this issue....I did appreciate the discounted price for the fight so overall some good and some bad points...work on that streaming being in sync and we’ll be back with another review after the next fight....GO NINERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Up until a couple of months ago I used this app daily on my iPhone. I loved being able to watch my favorite shows live or on replay at the office. I also enjoyed being able to watch live sporting events when traveling for work. Then one day I couldn’t watch anything on my iPhone anymore. Either I get an error message saying “something went wrong, please try again later” or just a spinning wheel that goes for awhile before timing out. The app for my Roku still works fine but by I have very little free time on weekdays it’s almost pointless. The whole reason I got the app was so I could catch Get Up and a few other shows away from home, so I could “watch from anywhere” like their commercials always say. I had hoped that their recent update would fix the problem but no such luck. Oh, and one last thing, I’ve tried chatting with support twice. The first time nobody ever contacted me like they said they would and the second time they asked a few questions and then just stopped, never to be heard from again. I tried all of the things they asked (power cycling my iPhone, uninstalling the app and then downloading it again, etc. Nothing worked and I am beyond disgusted at this point. I still watch ESPN at home and still love the shows I like, it’s just too bad I don’t get to watch nearly as often as I used too.... It used to be a 5 star rating, now not so much.

Unfortunately ESPN has hijacked the NHL. Navigating through games is a chore, especially if you are trying to watch a replay of an older game you may have missed. There’s no date, no rhyme or reason to how they log the replays, you have to know exactly the matchup you’re looking for if you plan on finding it. Using the app on Xbox one is an even bigger nightmare. If you miss the start of a game you have to scroll through the time line , sometimes causing spoilers - to find the beginning, you’d think just taking the timeline back to the start would bring you there but there’s an hour to an hour and a half of “you event will start soon”. Sometimes the rewind and fast forward feature aren’t even there and you have to exit out of the app and go back in hoping it works. Also the play and pause button don’t work while rewinding or fast forwarding. If you want to stop your times roll you have to slow down/speed up the search speed until the arrow is not moving anymore, that causes it to pause, but there’s still no play/resume in option so you have to let the Xbox idle until the search screen goes away, then bring the search screen back up and then you can play/resume from the paused screen. If it sounds like a twisted mess, it is. You shouldn’t have to go through this just to watch a freaking hockey game. ESPN is awful.

This is genuinely one of the worst apps I have on my phone. The streaming feature almost never works for what I want to watch, for some reason it just does the loading circle and then just goes back to nothing? This isn’t a result of my service because it does the same thing on high speed wifi as well. The design of the app itself is also horrendous, it self promotes its own ESPN+ viewing options making it almost impossible to use to find what you actually want to watch if it’s on ACC network, SECN, B10N etc. I pay for ESPN on cable, as well as all of these networks and have to individually search each sports team’s name I want to watch to possibly find a stream that I am promised through my ESPN subscription, only to find that the stream is absolutely awful or blacked out. Only reason I’m not giving this godforsaken app 1 star is because I can sometimes watch sports on it and I like sports so much that somehow this awful app gets a pass. It somehow pisses me off more than the hbo max app which is the actual worst app on the market. These apps are the blueprint for pirates, if you want your content to get pirated, create the worst possible app/platform ever that’s literally impossible to use even if you’re a subscriber to the service.

I am completely in shock this application has any 5 star reviews at all, there are so many inherent bugs and problems with this app. The application takes millions of years to load up every time, even though most of the data that is being loaded is simple numbers and pictures. The interface of the application is not conducive to finding something you need, the NBA G League and then the NHL is the first sports that shows up in my ‘scores’ section however I have NEVER touched these tabs, I frequently use the NFL NBA and MLB tabs and they are always the hardest to find why would you make it that way. More than 75% of the time when you want to read an article or watch a video from your notifications outside of the application it will load the background of the ESPN app and you could leave it open for a year you’re never getting your article or video to open up or play. And then, once you’ve opened that notification and it’s gone you will never be able to find that article or video because the videos and articles section is IMPOSSIBLE to find what you need either. Overall this app infuriates me every other day with the ridiculous bugs and glitches that seem like it’s been there for years, easy ad payment cash grab for money hungry ESPN. Fix your app

The app does provide a lot of good info. The issue is the sheer amount and time of advertisements. Im okay with being advertised to, you want to be compensated for the content you create and I’m willing to view some ads for that. But your ad system is horrifically burdensome and ultimately loses you money. Here is why - when you advertise to me for 15 seconds, with the same ad over and over, for EVERY SINGLE VIDEO CLIP no matter the length, I stop watching content and you don’t capture any revenue. Most of what I watch is highlight plays whose clips run for about 25 seconds. Then you show me another ad for 15 seconds, usually the exact same ad, to watch another 25 second replay clip. After 2 of those I get tired of it and just stop watching videos. If you showed me a 15 second clip every 4 videos or so I’d end up watching videos for an hour and you’d advertise to me way way more than you would have showing me ads every 15 seconds. Imagine watching cable and seeing 15 minutes of ads for every 25 minutes of the show you are watching. You’d stop watching cable. As is the case with your ridiculous ad system in your app. Guarantee yo change your ad length and occurrence and you’ll see revenue jump.

If you ask me what the worst app I own is, I could tell you without hesitation it’s the ESPN+ app. The ESPN corporate guys know it’s terrible, too - I live near the ESPN headquarters, and when I meet a guy that works there, I often tell them I have the app on my phone and they immediately flinch and start to tell you unsolicited that they can’t help with the app and their department has nothing to do with it. I have do delete it and reinstall it about once a month to get it to work. And, I need to log in through the website to successfully launch the app. After that, it will work correctly for typically a month before going haywire again. I’ve never had an app behave like this in the 5 years I’ve been on apple. It is not up to the standards of a major apple app. The content is also extremely disorganized. I’ve kept this app for 2 years because I truly enjoy the ESPN content. But, after two years, I still never know which fights it will and won’t let me see. There are some labels that are clear on what is pay-per-view - and some that aren’t (?). Great content, but it’s the only app I’ve ever owned that makes me want to toss the phone across the room - about once a month

I’ve been using the ESPN App on my IPhone since 2018. It gives you most of the information you can find on the ESPN website, with the exception of certain specific sections of different sports homepages (for example, you cant access the college football conference standings from the college football page). I also don’t like the only the last names of players are shown in boxscores and stat columns. The website shows you their full names. Beyond that, the main complaint I have is that the app is glitchy in spots. For example, say I’m looking at the boxscore of a football game, and say I minimize the app briefly without actually closing it. When I go back to the ESPN app, it will take me to the game recap and force me to click on the boxscore again. I don’t get why thats necessary. If you’re a sports fan who is used to perusing the ESPN website, and if you’re familiar with the firsr names of the athletes, the app is a useful way to do deep dives and read columns without having to use the website through a desktop or laptop. Recommended, but its frustrating in places.

I honestly have no idea how a company with as much money as this has such an awful app. It’s slow, bordering on unresponsive sometimes. My phone is flaming hot after a few minutes of use on the app, although that could just be my phone and not the app. I get a lot of alerts on from ESPN, but when I click on them, it’s about a 50/50 shot of whether or not I get to see what I clicked. Ads freeze all the time, keeping me from getting to a video I click on. Videos also typically start at about 4 pixels on the screen and get marginally better as the video goes on, no matter if I’m connected to my very good WiFi or my cellular data. The amount of content is also a little subpar. When you look at an app like Bleacher Report that produces an insane amount of well-done and free content on an app that actually works, the paywall of ESPN+ is just silly. Streaming from the app is also nearly impossible for me. But the website is just as bad. The content that I actually get to see is usually pretty good stuff, making it a two star rating instead of a one star. Considering the money ESPN and Disney have, they should be embarrassed about the quality of their app and their website.

I honestly have difficulty deciding which is worse, the ESPN app or the website, as far as being able to view live games. Typically, I have to log in and out 5-10 times and independently log in to my cable provider 5-10 times each time I want to stream live games or replays. It’s quite amazing how many times you can be told that your cable subscription does not cover the live stream only to find out, on the 10th attempt, that it does. Considering it’s listed as one of the supported cable subscriptions, I’m guessing the 10th time is accurate. I have considered the possibility that it’s related to my cable provider, but since I experience the same issues with my ESPN+ subscription without going through my cable provider, I’m guessing it’s not. Of note, ESPN+ won’t be renewed. I remember watching ESPN when I was young and have continued to do so as I approach middle age, but the difficulty in accessing programming with more modern technology is quite frustrating and makes me want to find another avenue to watch my football, baseball, etc. Disney, if you’re reading this, you could really help improve the quality by fixing some of these issues before a mass exodus of subscribers who watch on mobile devices or their computers.

I use a lot of sports apps and they all work pretty similarly. This one has everything the others do all in one. Once you learn how, the app is very easy to navigate. The favorite teams AND SPORTS is helpful to narrow down the news that shows up. The stories is my favorite part especially with the interactive voting. The one request I have for it is this: if there were more stories that I could just scroll through they would be a GREAT time killer. When I'm bored I like to open them up for a minute but there are only five per day if I'm correct. If I was able to scroll through those just a little bit more I would enjoy killing time watching Joe Burrow talk about his real diamonds and watching people dunk on mini basketball hoops. Other than that the articles are well written and my notifications are personalized to where I'm not getting random sports I've never heard of like for other apps. Thanks for reading, I hope it helped

I am going to be pausing my ESPN viewership even though I’ve been a fan for many many years- I just cannot take the political stance that most of your commentators have. Sports used to be an escape where everybody can come together and just enjoy and forget about what’s going on in the world but now all we hear are opinions and most of them are left leaning from your staff. Hypocrisy is rampant at your company! So quick to judge people that do not wanna have government telling them to inject themselves with an untested improven vaccine. So quick to judge people that refuse to wear a mask when everybody knows they do not work. Your company has come to be everything that is wrong with America right now. Your company has taken a stand that if we don’t agree with you we should be cancelled. Freedom of speech is no longer acceptable in the eyes of the left and since your company has taken that position I can no longer subscribe to your channels. If in the future you go back to just broadcasting sports without all the left leaning political commentary I will go back and start watching again. When your viewership starts to tank you’ll understand that the silent majority has spoken!!

I use the app for updates on scores mainly. The content in terms of writing, is often old, and without substance that would differentiate from merely the score. Redundancy seems to be the theme with ESPN. Let’s just write and speak the same things over and over regardless of the audience be it on an app or television. I miss Peter Gammons and his writing, but I will compliment Buster Olney for his piece on the Red Sox. ESPN needs more of that, and less of the redundancy. Return to the daily writing of yesteryear! Do some actually research and writing! There’re stories out there, and one of them is the return of “heat, cheese, hard-ball” through a proliferation of hard throwing relievers and starting pitching that has brought baseball back full circle. Spinning is still statistically important, but good old country hardball has returned! Here it is, hit it if you can is what every fan wants to see! Nathan Eavoldi showed the world that, of the many players in today’s game who have had Tommy John Surgery, a return to, and in some cases, new found power pitching is possible. So, country hardball, and Hope should be the theme to talk about in much more depth. Seek out minor leaguers, follow them as well, and shed light on what’s the biggest development in baseball today.

This is one of the worse apps I have ever had. The buffer times are ridiculous and half of the time You can’t even watch what you want to because it won’t load off of the app on the iPhone and it’s not because of a slow connection or Wi-Fi issue because everything else works you would think that the top leader in sports would have an application that works. This was during the UFC espn+ main card 2nd fight on the main card and happened during the prelims as well. My app and iPhone are both up to date. I tried it on my droid and my computer and it did the same thing, buffer for 10sec then just go back to the page or freeze the app. I hope you address this issue. Dana White this only happened during the UFC fights all other streams worked. I was optimistic about UFC going over to ESPN for this reason.

So far, this app has been great, but there are a few things that make me rate less than a 5 or 4. I primarily use this app for baseball, as football season hasn't started. I just installed this app it to see if it was better that other baseball viewing apps I own. So far, the interface is great and well designed, but the app is SLOW! It takes a long time to start up, and it has a hard time with simple actions in general such as clicking on the details or score of a game. So far, I have had no problem with the live TV viewing aspect of it, but it should be noted that I haven't used it much as I am at home with my TV. The main thing that annoys me the most is that when I click on a player up at bat in the app, it brings me to a glitched version of the app’s website. You are unable to scroll, and have to use a drop down menu to continue on to the stats. Then when you finally get the stats, there is barely anything! In other apps, I can click on the player an instantly get an in-app page of TONS of stats, just like it should be! ESPN, fix this please!

I read the top review that is two years old and it echos my feelings for the most part. The app is slow, unreliable, and the interface doesn’t seem like it’s changed since I first downloaded it to my phone 8 years ago. I love when I get a notification that I actually have some interest in and tapping it to be take to the app to stare at a black screen for eternity because it NEVER loads. Then when you reopen the app to try and find the article it’s like it never existed. Good luck trying to find any specific article or video you’re looking for. You only get to see what ESPN wants you to see. I don’t watch UFC or MMA so why do they keep sending me notifications for it? The best part is when you watch a video and the 45 second ad plays perfectly then the actual video doesn’t load and you have to reload the app and watch the ad again. Then the video ends and it goes straight into another ad before you can rewind it to watch the 5 second highlight again. Soooo bad and they don’t have to improve because there is no real competition. Super sad they are complacent

Update: Still horrid. Now the App does popup advertising while you are in the middle of watching a live game. It isn’t just because the writing & coverage is way better that people subscribe to other Sports content providers like The Athletic over ESPN. But also because they allow you to filter out the Sports & content you don’t want. ESPN allows you to select the sports and teams you want to follow but they generally ignore these settings and totally overwhelm with content you don’t want. You don’t follow follow MMA or WWE? Too bad ESPN will inundate you with ads and PPV offers before you get to the sport you want. You paid for ESPN? Sucker that doesn’t mean extra value. Too bad we need to make money! Geez you want to filter for the sports you want? Please navigate to the bottom of the screen every friggin time because we ignore & forgot the Sports you like. Oh want to watch 2 games ar once? Oops we forgot the filter setting you set and will show 43 college basketball games you have to sort before getting the 2nd game you wanted. I wish I could get my content elsewhere cause ESPN Is horrid. Can’t believe you clowns give this a 4.6 rating.

App functionality is good. I haven’t experienced any crashes or problems and it’s laid out well and intuitive. That all said, they really have to figure out a way to have no blackouts for teams you follow and care. They ask for a TV provider even I subscribe to ESPN+ (paying monthly fee). The reason I subscribe to ESPN+ is to watch live sports without the cable subscription (or the Live TV streaming service) with 50 other channels I really don’t care about. This might not be ESPN’s fault but the whole segregated licensing deals with sports has become ridiculous, a company as big as Disney should start doing something about it. Apple stood up to wireless cell companies and did not let them load the iPhones with bunch of crap advertisement software back in 2007. I am looking forward to a streaming service that lets you select your team(s) and provides you with all the games. I know it’d be (much) more expensive than $6.99 (what ESPN+ costs) but it could be worth it - if they do it right.