Here’s what worked, and where some of that engagement drop came from.
Q1: Winning with Variety
ESPN kicked off 2025 with a diverse mix of sports and viral content. Basketball led the way for the sports publisher with 272 posts, tapping into key moments such as Steph Curry’s long-range magic and Caitlin Clark’s. Football also wasn’t far behind with 165 posts, capturing the buzz around the NFL playoffs and the college championship.
Beyond the two dominant sports, ESPN posted 95 comedic fails, 34 baseball highlights, 31 racing clips, and even animal-related viral moments. This approach meant the publisher could instantly capitalize on trending events—like sports bloopers, pet reactions coinciding with Puppy Bowl trends, or golf highlights timed perfectly with Tiger Woods’ return.
This broad strategy provided a steady stream of timely content, ensuring ESPN maintained high audience engagement throughout the quarter.
Q2: Doubling Down on Basketball
In Q2, basketball was still a major focus for the publisher, notably the NBA playoffs, which dominated with 229 posts. However, Q2 is generally much slower for other sports, and that meant there was less diversity among the posts, with engagement with basketball content potentially suffering too.
@espn Steph really found a problem with the court 👀 #steph #curry #basketball #wild ♬ DIE TRYING - PARTYNEXTDOOR & Drake & Yebba
While basketball dominated, other sports took a noticeable back seat. With the season over, football content significantly dropped to just 66 posts. Baseball and softball posts nearly tripled to 82 as the season began, but their overall impact was felt less compared to the dramatic peaks of basketball moments and Q1’s NFL Playoffs..
ESPN did have slightly more comedic/fail posts this quarter, as well as more golf and motorsport related posts, although those received less attention overall.
Key takeaways from ESPN’s content
- Variety drives consistent engagement: Although basketball content drove engagement in both quarters, consistently tapping into other sports keeps audiences engaged.
- Comedy is evergreen: Audiences will continue to gravitate towards funny moments and fail clips which allows for engagement even during slower sports periods.
- Post frequency matters: ESPN posted more on TikTok than any other publisher in our Social Publishing Index, consistently driving engagement through volume.
For more on how publishers drove success, head over to our report.
