Best streaming services for watching live sports in 2025

If you don’t want to splurge on a full live TV cable replacement service, ESPN’s newly revamped streaming service offers a ton of bang for your buck. Whether you want to tune into NFL Monday Night Football, college football, NBA, WNBA, college basketball, NHL, tennis, or pretty much any other niche sport, ESPN Unlimited likely has the goods for you. As someone who’s subscribed to ESPN+ for years, I’m thrilled that the new offering finally unlocks live streams of ESPN channels.

ESPN has dominated sports coverage since 1979, offering 24/7 coverage of professional sports in the United States. In August 2025, the network’s new and improved direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming service arrived and opened up a world of sports streaming potential. The relaunched service offers the full suite of ESPN networks and services, including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS, ESPN Deportes, SEC Network, ACC Network — in addition to ESPN on ABC, ESPN+, ESPN3, SECN+, and ACCNX. The all-encompassing tier is now dubbed ESPN Unlimited, while the old ESPN+ has been rebranded as ESPN Select.

With the Unlimited plan, which will run you $29.99 per month or $299.99 per year, you’ll be able to watch NFL Monday Night Football, as well as tons of college football, NBA, WNBA, college basketball, and NHL games live without cable. Add to that programs like 30 for 30 and SportsCenter and ESPN+ originals, and you’ve got a well-rounded sports offering right there. The ESPN Select tier costs $11.99 per month and is essentially just ESPN+ renamed. It includes access to PGAT Live, LALIGA, tennis, select NHL, and select college sports live. For a glimpse at everything you’ll be able to watch, check out the full ESPN schedule.

For a limited time, you also have the option to bundle ESPN Unlimited with Disney+ and Hulu for the same price as ESPN on its own. Talk about the most bang for your buck.

As a newly launched service, it does have some glitches and quirks it needs to work out, which is to be expected. The website, TV app, and mobile app are not fully in sync yet. For instance, when trying to watch a live game on ESPN2 on the mobile app, I was prompted to sign in to my cable provider instead of being prompted to sign up for the Unlimited plan. We have high hopes that ESPN will work out the kinks in the coming weeks, though, making it the sports streaming service to beat.