Rascasse Audience Intelligence

ESPN Audience Demographics in United States

ESPN has an estimated audience of 58.4M people in United States.

#6among Sport in United States#3among TV channels in United States#20in Sports

The average ESPN fan in United States is 37.4 years old, more male, and lives primarily in California.

By number of fans, ESPN ranks #6 among the 803 objects in Sport in United States — 4.6× the group median.

Its fans are 1.1 years younger than the group average of 38.5.

Women make up 36.7% of the fan base, 5.0 percentage points fewer than the group average.

Compared with the other 802 objects in Sport, ESPN fans stand out for their interest in Michael Jordan, Los Angeles Lakers and NBA playoffs.

Most fans live in California, Florida, Texas.

Top affinities include Michael Jordan, Los Angeles Lakers, NBA playoffs, with strongest over-indexing on Michael Jordan (2.64× the country average).

Demographically, the ESPN audience skews more male with an average age of 37.4, and over-indexes on personality traits such as Early Adopter Mentality.

The typical ESPN fan in United States is more male, around 37.4 years old, with strong Early Adopter Mentality tendencies and a notable affinity for Michael Jordan.

Category: Sports · Type: TV Channel · Subtype: Sport

Data status: Q3/2026 · Source & method

Section 01

At a glance

Audience size
58.4M
in United States
Gender
36.7%♀
63.3% male
Age
37.4
average years
Country rank
#300
among all objects in United States
Fig. 01

Search interest · 12-month trend

+6%
vs. last year
JanMarMayJulSepNov
Monthly searches · Source: Rascasse Solution
Section 02

Audience demographics of ESPN

36.7% are female, 63.3% are male, average age 37.4.

Fig. 02

Gender split

36.7%
Female
63.3%
Male
Demographic split for ESPN audience in United States
MetricValue
Female36.7%
Male63.3%
Average age37.4
Estimated audience size58.4M
Fig. 03

Age distribution

Ø 37.4
average years
Age distribution of the ESPN audience in United States
Age bracketShare%
16-2427%
25-3420%
35-4418%
45-5418%
55+17%
Fig. 04

Worldwide distribution

66.1%

of the worldwide ESPN audience comes from United States.

Worldwide audience distribution share by country for ESPN
CountryShare
United States66.1%
Mexico3.9%
India3.0%
Section 03
Affinity (×) = how much more likely a member of this audience is to live in a region than the United States average. Example: 2.0× means twice as concentrated as the national baseline.

Geography

Fig. 05

Top regions by affinity

ESPN fans by region: top regions in United States
#RegionReachAffinity×
01Ohio~3M1.37×
02Iowa~800K1.37×
03Wisconsin~1.5M1.32×
04South Carolina~1M1.26×
05Nebraska~400K1.20×
06West Virginia~400K1.16×
07North Carolina~2M1.15×
08Alabama~1M1.14×
09Kentucky~900K1.14×
10Michigan~2M1.13×
11Kansas~600K1.13×
12Pennsylvania~2.5M1.12×
13Minnesota~1M1.11×
14Connecticut~700K1.10×
15Nevada~600K1.09×
16Indiana~1.5M1.08×
17South Dakota~200K1.08×
18Georgia~2M1.06×
19Delaware~200K1.06×
20Arizona~1.5M1.05×
21Tennessee~1.5M1.03×
22Virginia~1.5M1.01×
23Montana~200K1.01×
24Maryland~1M1.00×
25Hawaii~200K0.99×
26Oklahoma~700K0.97×
27Idaho~300K0.97×
28Florida~3.5M0.96×
29Massachusetts~1M0.96×
30Oregon~700K0.96×
31Mississippi~500K0.96×
32Maine~200K0.96×
33New Hampshire~200K0.96×
34Rhode Island~200K0.96×
35Colorado~900K0.94×
36Missouri~1M0.93×
37Louisiana~700K0.92×
38New Jersey~1.5M0.90×
39Illinois~2M0.89×
40Vermont~100K0.89×
41North Dakota~100K0.85×
42Washington, District of Columbia~100K0.85×
43Washington~1M0.84×
44Texas~3M0.81×
45Arkansas~400K0.81×
46New Mexico~300K0.81×
47New York~3M0.80×
48Utah~400K0.76×
49California~5M0.72×
50Alaska~90K0.69×
Fig. 06

Affinity by region

Affinity by region — ESPN, United States
0.69×1.00×1.37×
Section 04
Brands and objects ranked by affinity with this audience. Values above 1.0× mean over-representation compared with the country average.

Audience interests & affinities

Fig. 07

Top cross-interests, ranked by affinity

Affinities of the ESPN audience vs. the country average
#·InterestCategoryAffinity×
01Michael JordanSports2.64×
02Los Angeles LakersSports2.40×
03NBA playoffsSports2.35×
04NBA TVSports2.28×
05Super BowlSports2.18×
06TwitchGames2.17×
07Britney SpearsMusic & Radio2.13×
08Anime conventionLiterature1.99×
09Underground hip hopMusic & Radio1.98×
10WWESports1.97×
11NBA FinalsSports1.91×
12WrestlingSports1.91×
13Bad BunnyMusic & Radio1.80×
14PokémonGames1.76×
15Golden State WarriorsSports1.75×
16College basketballSports1.69×
17LeBron JamesSports1.63×
18Harry PotterMovies & TV1.58×
19NFLSports1.55×
20Taylor SwiftMusic & Radio1.53×
Section 05
Strongest and weakest personality traits of this audience (1.0 = country average).

Personality of the ESPN audience

Fig. 08

Deviation from the national baseline

↑ What stands out
The strongest tendencies
Personality traits of the ESPN audience vs. the country average · What stands out
TraitClusterDeviationScore
Early Adopter MentalityPOWER1.18×
Sports ActivityPOWER0.94×
Luxury OrientationPREMIUM0.89×
0×1.00× baseline2×
↓ Rather not
The weakest tendencies
Personality traits of the ESPN audience vs. the country average · Rather not
TraitClusterDeviationScore
SpiritualityBALANCE0.53×
IndulgenceJOY0.57×
Community OrientationOPEN0.58×
0×1.00× baseline2×
Appendix

Explore more audiences

More Sport audiences in United States

Source & method

Source
Rascasse Solution, own modelling
What “fans” means here
Estimated number of people in United States with measurable interest in ESPN over the last 12 months. Modelled, not counted; people interested in several tv channels count for each of them.
Data basis
Anonymised behavioural signals: search demand, social media signals, sponsorship and event data. Not a survey.
Period
10/2025 – 09/2026 · updated quarterly · data status Q3/2026
Confidence
high gender and age data available and an audience of at least 100,000 people

Cite as: “Rascasse Solution, Q3/2026, rascasse.com/explore/us/espn-7587” · Methodology