Sports fans know ESPN delivers the best collection of games and analysis on TV. Whether you follow the NFL, NBA, NHL, NBA, or any almost other sport, ESPN’s mission is “To Serve Sports Fans. Anytime. Anywhere”. If you want to watch ESPN without cable, you don’t have to dig too far (or go down any dark paths) as there are plenty of legal ways to stream ESPN for free. We’ll walk you through all the options!

Watch ESPN for free with a trial of a live TV streaming service

In 2025, most live TV streaming services carry ESPN: DIRECTV STREAM, Fubo, Hulu Live TV, Sling TV, and YouTube TV and you can start watching with a free trial on many of them. No contract is required, and you can cancel at any time. You can access these services on a smart TV, a streaming device like a Roku or Amazon Fire Stick, or on your phone, tablet, or computer. As long as you have an internet connection, you can watch ESPN.

ESPN options at a glance

ESPN live streaming options

Our top choice for ESPN fans is DIRECTV STREAM. Get started with a 5-day FREE trial and you’ll find an unbeatable channel lineup with 35 of the top 35 cable channels, a top-notch user interface, an unlimited DVR and 20 concurrent streams at home.

With the best lineup of regional sports networks available and many tempting add-on channels and packages, DIRECTV STREAM is our favorite live TV streaming service for sports – including ESPN – though it’s not the least expensive.

We also recommend Hulu Live TV for streaming ESPN. You can try it free for 3 days, which is enough time to catch a few live events and decide if you want to keep it longer. In addition to 33 of the top 35 cable channels, you’ll also get the great on-demand libraries of Hulu, Disney+, and the live sports of ESPN+. That’s a fantastic value for 3 free days.

With a great channel lineup that includes ESPN, this is the best overall entertainment value available right now. You can also easily bundle Hulu with Disney+ and ESPN+ for even more savings – often offset by other services like your cell phone provider, as is the case with Verizon Wireless.

If you want to save money over the long haul, we recommend Sling TV. This ultra-flexible live streamer offers many different channel packages, but you can get ESPN on the Sling Orange package or the Orange+Blue combo. While there is no free trial, Sling frequently offers great deals on your first month. No other live-streaming service offers more ways to save money.

Another strong choice is Fubo. Subscribers get 19 of the top 35 cable channels and immediate access to the hard-to-find Bally Sports networks. We generally don’t recommend Fubo because of its high price, but it does offer some channels that are hard to find.

Does ESPN+ have ESPN?

No. While it seems like a no-brainer that ESPN and ESPN+ should go hand-in-hand, ESPN is a linear-only channel, while ESPN+ offers different live sports and some on-demand programming. ESPN+ is a nice complement to ESPN, but they do, in fact, have different programming. Remember, if you try Hulu Live TV, you get ESPN+ for free alongside ESPN.

Can you watch ESPN on Peacock, Max, or Prime Video?

While Amazon Prime Video, Max, and Peacock have important sports rights, they do not offer any way to watch ESPN. You can watch specific games (namely NFL broadcasts) but you won’t have access to ESPN at all.

Can you watch ESPN without a live TV streamer or cable package?

There is no standalone ESPN option right now, but the company has had one planned for quite some time. Disney was planning to bundle ESPN with several other sports providers with a service called Venu Sports, but a lawsuit from Fubo stopped the service prevented it from launching.