As live sports viewing and gaming habits increasingly shift toward streaming, fan habits are rapidly evolving—making SVOD a top destination for game-day and interactive experiences. Get the play-by-play with CTAM’s curated stats, trends, and insights driving the future of sports streaming.
Streaming Live Sports
Despite more live sports moving to streaming platforms, local broadcast networks were the most selected source for viewing live sports across NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL fans surveyed. According to results from S&P Global Market Intelligence Kagan’s US MediaCensus online consumer survey, conducted in September, NFL fans were the most likely to watch games on local broadcast networks at 72%.
- Second to broadcast networks, Amazon’s Prime Video and ESPN were the most used sources to view NFL games, at 38% and 34%, respectively.
- Generally, avid fans were more likely than casual viewers to view live games across several of the available sources.
- Older fans were more likely to view live games on local broadcast networks, while streaming platforms were used more among younger fans.
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Source: US MediaCensus survey, Q3 2025
Copyright 2025 S&P Global
- While sports ranks as #1 in attracting viewers, even loyal fans are growing frustrated by experience complexity (Hub Entertainment Research, Sports Still Reign as the MVP of Content: Evolution of Sports, 2025)
- Fans are likely to subscribe in order to watch a favorite sport (87%). (Hub Entertainment Research, Sports Still Reign as the MVP of Content: Evolution of Sports, 2025)
- Fragmentation is a growing frustration, as two-thirds of viewers (65%) agree it’s a hassle to use more than one service to watch games during a season. (Hub Entertainment Research, Sports Still Reign as the MVP of Content: Evolution of Sports, 2025)
- Sports fans are just as likely to watch live games on streaming platforms (69%) as they are on broadcast (66%) or cable networks (63%). (Hub Entertainment Research, What’s the Score, 2025)
- More importantly, far more sports fans consider streaming their “home base” for live sports compared to one year ago (30% vs. 23% in 2024). (Hub Entertainment Research, What’s the Score, 2025)
- Currently, 30% of fans said a streaming platform is their *first* stop for live sports – a huge gain and essentially tied with cable (31%) and broadcast (29%). (Hub Entertainment Research, What’s the Score, 2025)
- Sports content significantly increased on SVOD services in Q1 2025 with more sports added to four of the five leading services and Disney+ and Netflix seeing the greatest increase with nearly +471% and nearly 100%+, respectively). (Gracenote, 2025)
- The five providers (Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Disney+, Netflix and Paramount+) have collectively increased sports programs by more than 72% in 1Q 2025. (Gracenote, 2025)
- While Apple TV+ did not increase its sports content in 1Q 2025, that will change as the new MLS and MLB seasons get underway and live games air on the service. (Gracenote, 2025)
- With increased sports content on streaming services, there is also an increase in relevant metadata, such as synopses, scores, highlights and imagery to help streamers build world-class user experiences to keep users engaged beyond the live game. (Bill Michels, Chief Product Officer at Gracenote, 2025)
- In 2025, 69% said they watch at least some live games on SVOD platforms — on par with broadcast (66%) and cable networks (63%). (Hub Research: Media Play News, 2025)
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Sports streaming is at a critical time of transformation in the industry as sports streaming and programming plays an impactful role in influencing consumer decisions and behavior. (State of Subscriptions: Sports Streaming, Antenna, 2025)
Super Bowl 2025 Viewing
- Whether watching the Super Bowl on a traditional set-top box service or streaming the game on Internet-connected devices, over five out of six viewers (84%) watched the game at home and over three-quarters (77%) did so on a TV set, showing that the big screen remains the preferred platform for sports events such as this. (CTAM and HarrisX, Super Bowl LIX Viewing Experience Study, 2025)
- While viewers were more likely to watch the Super Bowl at home on Internet-connected streaming services vs. traditional set-top box TVs, the superior experience continues to be watching on a “traditional TV” vs. streaming. (CTAM and HarrisX, Super Bowl LIX Viewing Experience Study, 2025)
- Watching the Super Bowl on “traditional TV” provided a superior experience than streaming the major event, with those streaming significantly more likely to experience a variety of issues. (CTAM and HarrisX, Super Bowl LIX Viewing Experience Study, 2025)
- Those streaming the Super Bowl reported a better experience when doing so on Cable broadband Internet services vs. those with non-cable Internet across the board – citing less issues with buffering, lag/delay, lost connection and lost sound/picture. (CTAM and HarrisX, Super Bowl LIX Viewing Experience Study, 2025)
eSports and Live-Stream Gaming Market
- The live-streaming segment accounts for 63% of the video-streaming market. (Global News Wire, Maximize Market Research)
- 27% of gamers spend 1 to 5 hours streaming video games per week. (Forbes, 2024)
- 82% of consumers prefer to engage with a brand on a live stream rather than through social media posts. (LiveStream)
- Microtransactions in Gaming: Thirty percent of gamers aged 18-41 have recently purchased in-game content for free-to-play games, allowing big profits from small spends (KS&R Inc., Game On: Unleashing New Opportunities in the Gaming World, 2025)
