ESPN Unlimited Review: Best for Bundlers and ESPN Lovers

ESPN Unlimited combines a legion of options for watching highly anticipated games and other live sporting events, all under one streaming service. Disney calls the platform its ESPN flagship service, where you can now watch all of ESPN’s programming — no cable subscription or live TV streaming service required.

ESPN Unlimited is the main plan but there’s also ESPN Select, a tier that only provides ESPN Plus content. I’m focusing on Unlimited here, which unlocks the full suite of ESPN content. Between standalone subscriptions and bundles, I did feel overwhelmed by all the ways to sign up for the new service (though I didn’t dock it any points for that).

What are the new ESPN plans, and what do they cost?

Again, there are two plans — Unlimited and Select — but the main attraction is ESPN Unlimited. It offers 12 ESPN networks and services: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, ESPN Deportes, ESPN on ABC, ESPN Plus, ESPN3, SECN Plus and ACCNX. The subscription allows you to stream simultaneously on up to three devices for most content, all accessed in an upgraded ESPN app.

The ESPN Select plan is where ESPN Plus lives on for new and former subscribers. The ESPN Plus streaming service debuted in 2018 and provided extra content not available on ESPN’s main network, but not the NFL or NBA. Existing ESPN Plus subscribers automatically became ESPN Select subscribers with access to the same programming.

ESPN Unlimited costs $30 monthly or $300 a year on its own, and ESPN Select is $12 per month or $120 yearly (the same price as ESPN Plus). An Oct. 21 price increase will affect ESPN Select, raising it to $13 per month or $130 per year, and bundles that include ESPN Select. There’s also a stack of bundle options. You can get either ESPN Unlimited or Select with Disney Plus and Hulu. You can also choose  bundles of ESPN Unlimited and NFL Plus Premium, which includes NFL RedZone, and starting Oct. 2, ESPN Unlimited and the new Fox One service.

What are the ESPN bundles?

Bundling is big with the new ESPN streaming service. That route could appeal to you, as there’s probably more sports and entertainment you want to stream than just what’s available with ESPN Unlimited, and bundles could reduce the cost of having multiple services. Disney hopes to boost engagement and reduce churn (aka people cancelling and resubscribing) with bundle sign-ups, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

ESPN Unlimited or ESPN Select content will be available on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers or people with linked subscriptions. (You can similarly watch Hulu in the Disney Plus app.) I’m all for giving streaming entertainment fans more choice but there might be too many packages going on here.

• The Disney services. You can get a trio of Disney Plus, Hulu and ESPN Unlimited (or ESPN Select instead of Unlimited). The version with ESPN Unlimited and ad-supported Hulu/Disney Plus costs $36 per month normally but there’s currently a promotion that reduces the price to $30 for your first 12 months.
  A package with ESPN Unlimited and the ad-free versions of Disney Plus/Hulu costs $45 per month and $39 with the limited-time offer. If you purchase a Hulu plus Live TV plan, you’ll receive “access to the full ESPN Unlimited experience within the ESPN app.” The version of Hulu plus Live TV that gives you ESPN Select, ad-supported Hulu/Disney Plus costs $83 per month but it’ll rise to $90 per month on Oct. 21. You can stream some ESPN networks in the Hulu app and all other ESPN channels and services in the ESPN app.

• NFL Plus Premium. If you have an ESPN Unlimited subscription or a Disney Trio bundle that includes ESPN Unlimited, you can add an NFL Plus Premium streaming subscription to the mix. Premium NFL Plus provides access to games on NFL Network, NFL RedZone and any local and national games on your phone or tablet. The bundle price for Unlimited with NFL Plus Premium is $40 monthly (NFL Plus Premium usually costs $15 per month or $100 per season). A combo of NFL Plus Premium, ESPN Unlimited, ad-based Hulu and ad-based Disney Plus usually costs $46 per month but a current offer makes it $40 for your first 12 months.

• Fox One (coming soon). Fox’s new streaming service, Fox One, arrived in August, and you’ll be able to bundle it with ESPN Unlimited for $40 per month beginning Oct. 2. Standalone Fox One costs $20 per month or $200 per year.
• A mega option with HBO Max. According to the Disney Plus help site, if you have the bundle with Disney Plus, Hulu and HBO Max, you can pay extra and get an ESPN Unlimited add-on. If you have this bundle with ESPN Unlimited, NFL Plus Premium is available as an additional add-on. You’re not really saving money, but the option is there if you want it.

If you have Hulu plus Live TV, DirecTV (streaming only), Fubo TV, Spectrum TV or Verizon FiOS, you may already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your pay-TV package, according to ESPN.

What live sports can I stream on ESPN Unlimited?

An ESPN Unlimited subscription encompasses a lot of sports — more than 47,000 live events a year, according to ESPN. There’s the NFL and WWE with recent major deals, and ESPN’s rights portfolio also includes the “NBA; NHL; MLB; WNBA; UFC; UFL; SEC; ACC; Big 12; College Football Playoff; 40 NCAA championships including the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship; LaLiga, Bundesliga, NWSL and FA Cup soccer; Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open tennis; The Masters, PGA Championship, PGA TOUR and TGL golf” and more, according to the sports entertainment company.

Still, it’s highly unlikely ESPN will be the only streaming service you’ll need to watch the games you want, and that’s important to keep in mind as you weigh getting the service. For example, right now, while you can stream every NFL Monday Night Football game on the platform, you’ll need additional services to catch Sunday games and games exclusive to Netflix, Prime Video and NFL Network. 

For example, CNET’s Matt Elliot compared streaming services and combinations of services to watch the 2025 NFL season and recommended pairing Fubo Sports and Peacock Premium over ESPN setups, mainly because it involved fewer apps and the price didn’t differ much.

But, I’ll point out that with ESPN Unlimited, you also get access to all of ESPN’s studio programs, documentaries and originals. In other words, you get more than just live sports to stream. 

The enhanced app and streaming experience

I tested the new ESPN streaming service in August and September, catching the US Open and the start of the NFL season. I switched between a TV using a Roku streaming device, a web browser and an iPhone.

The service isn’t the only novel offering. There’s also a revamped ESPN app with new features such as Verts, a TikTok-y vertical video experience, and the AI-powered SportsCenter For You. The latter “is a personalized, daily version of SportsCenter” that incorporates “AI-generated commentary derived from the voices of SportsCenter anchors Hannah Storm, Gary Striewski and Christine Williamson, and ESPN Digital and Social commentator Omar Raja,” according to a Disney statement. 

You can sync the ESPN apps on your phone and TV as part of a new StreamCenter experience, catch up on a game that’s underway by viewing quick-turn highlights and watch up to four games at once with multiview, a pre-existing feature that’s expanding to all major platforms, according to Disney. You can also access live game stats, ESPN Fantasy results, ESPN Bet information and more on your TV while viewing a live game.

I tested out all of these features and liked some more than others. I thought the StreamCenter linking option — which let me view synced Gamecast, fantasy and ESPN Bet info on my phone — nicely complemented livestreaming a football game on my TV. I could even control my TV app from my phone, turning on closed captioning and switching between ESPN and ESPN2. 

I could access a load of information on my TV during the game by launching “Interactive Mode” from the right corner of the screen. This shrunk the game on my TV and displayed tabs for Stats, Key Plays, Bets, Fantasy and Shop on the right side of the screen. I’m not sure how much I’d use this compared to viewing similar information on my phone. I noticed that Interactive Mode differs depending on the program; while viewing a US Open tennis match, I could only see the key plays and shop tabs. Some live games don’t show Interactive Mode at all.

Then there’s Verts and SC For You. Verts looks like TikTok, but you can’t add comments or create videos. You can only watch, like and share content labeled as being from the MLB, NBA, NWSL, WNBA, UFC, etc. My friend, who is a bigger sports fan than I, listened to my daily SC For You, and he said the news and highlights in the video seemed accurate. But neither of us enjoyed listening to the unnatural AI voice narrating it.

With multiview, you’re limited to viewing prebuilt options. I could alternate which game I wanted to hear by using the arrows on my remote. 

Some streaming hiccups

I found the experience of streaming games live with ESPN Unlimited perfectly fine overall. You can’t skip ads but I didn’t feel bombarded by them, either. There’s a countdown during ad breaks so you can see how much time is left. Overall, the streams worked and didn’t regularly freeze or kick me out. 

The app presents multiple rows of content, including Featured, Upcoming and Recommended for You, plus rows for leagues (US Open, NCAA Men’s Soccer, NCAA Women’s Soccer, etc.) and sports (tennis, soccer, volleyball, field hockey, football, etc.). A banner at the top of the homepage displays any appointment viewing for the day or days ahead. 

Programs include the title and network, such as ESPN2, ESPN Plus and SECN. Within a program, you can restart, pause or go live. Below those selections, you can pick “more live” and “multiview” to see other programs and multiviews. The button for Interactive Mode, if it’s there, will be off to the right.

I did encounter instances of the app being laggy, glitchy and displaying typos. For example, once I clicked on a program shortly before a Monday Night Football game started. The stream continued, but the app didn’t seem to register that the program had changed. In order to access Interactive Mode features, I had to exit and re-enter. 

When using the app on my TV, I once saw text at the top of the screen overlapping other text, making it so I couldn’t read what it said. I also spotted a typo in the name of a tennis match, “Men’s Doubles Thrid Round,” during the US Open, and a program that hadn’t been updated to reflect the names of the current tennis players competing. The takeaway: You can expect to see some flaws — at least for now — with this new service.

Should you get ESPN Unlimited?

Sports streaming is a fragmented landscape, and ESPN Unlimited adds to the fray. The $30 per month subscription gives sports fans more choice when it comes to streaming their favorite sports. It’s ideal for Disney bundlers and newcomers to ESPN, but the option to watch ESPN using traditional methods like cable, satellite or a live TV streaming service will remain for those customers. 

While the upgraded app and new features are part of what you’re getting, they aren’t the sole reason to subscribe to ESPN’s new package. ESPN probably won’t be the only service you need to watch all the sports you want, and that could be a determining factor in whether you should get it. There are services or combinations of services out there that might suit you better, such as the ESPN-including YouTube TV or the aforementioned duo of Peacock Premium and Fubo Sports for football. But ESPN Unlimited holds up as a reliable way to stream live games, and big fans of the wide variety of sports on ESPN, or one of the many bundle options, will want to check it out.