US pay-TV sports heavyweight ESPN notched its highest-ever day one viewership figures for tennis’ iconic Wimbledon Grand Slam major, when the 2025 edition of that event began on June 30.
An average of 539,000 viewers tuned in to ESPN’s coverage of the event from across the day, up 37% year-on-year from the 393,000 average in 2024, and making it the most watched Wimbledon opening day in the 22 years that ESPN has held the rights for the competition.
Of particular interest to US viewers was the surprise opening round exit of recently crowned French Open (Roland Garros) winner Coco Gauff, the second-seeded player in the tournament, to unseeded Dayana Yastremska.
American Jessica Pegula, the third seed at the tournament, also suffered a shock exit to World number 116 Elisabetta Cocciaretto, while victories for US men’s competitors Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe, Learner Tien, Jenson Brooksby, Ethan Quinn, as well as women’s players Madison Keys, Ashlyn Krueger, Amanda Anisimova, and Ann Li, rounded out a day of mixed fortunes for the US contingent at the slam.
Despite Gauff and Pegula’s exit, the continued fortunes of those US entrants, as well as top ranked men’s and women’s players such as Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, and Aryna Sabalenka, means that the tournament will still be of interest to many tennis fans.
The 2025 Wimbledon tournament will run through its men’s singles final on July 13.
Courtesy of a 2021 renewal, reportedly valued at $95 million per year, ESPN will continue to hold the Wimbledon rights in the US through 2035.
ESPN offers over 140 hours of Wimbledon coverage each year across the ESPN and ESPN2 channels, sister network ABC, Spanish-language network ESPN Deportes, and the ESPN+ streaming service.
Recently, ESPN announced the launch of a new direct-to-consumer OTT offering, also simply titled ESPN, which will launch later in 2025.
Although that service hasn’t launched in time for Wimbledon this year, it will come into play as another strong broadcast outlet for the tournament in 2026.
The service will start at $29.99 per month (or an annual offer of $299 per year), or can be bundled with the wider Disney+ OTT entertainment service, and will host the major broadcaster’s wide slate of sports rights from across its seven linear channels, plus sports content distributed by ESPN on the ABC network.
In its first year, this will total around 47,000 live events throughout the year, as well as ancillary content and shoulder programming such as panel shows and highlights.
