If you’ve been searching for “ESPN Plus,” you need to know one thing upfront: ESPN Plus no longer exists under that name. Disney rebranded it in August 2025. The content is still there — the sports you loved watching on ESPN+ haven’t vanished — but the pricing, the plan names, and what you’re choosing between have all changed.
These are the questions people searching for ESPN Plus are actually asking. Straight answers, no marketing language.
ESPN Plus was retired as a brand on August 21, 2025, when Disney launched its new standalone ESPN streaming service. The content ESPN+ carried didn’t disappear — it moved into a renamed lower tier called ESPN Select. Every subscriber who had ESPN+ was automatically transferred to ESPN Select without having to do anything. The app looks similar, the sports library is the same, and your login credentials still work. What changed: the name on the plan, and the price went up. ESPN Select now costs $13.99 per month (as of September 17, 2026), while ESPN+ had been $10.99 before the rebrand.
ESPN Select is the direct continuation of ESPN Plus — same international soccer (LALIGA, Bundesliga, FA Cup), same PGA Tour golf coverage, same out-of-market college sports, same 30 for 30 documentaries and ESPN Originals, same MLB.TV add-on availability. It carries roughly 32,000 live events annually. The current price is $13.99 per month or $139.99 per year, effective September 17, 2026. (Before that date, it was $12.99/month.) The annual plan saves about $28 compared to paying monthly. What ESPN Select does not include: the live ESPN and ESPN2 cable channels, Monday Night Football on the linear network, NFL Network, or WWE premium live events. Those require ESPN Unlimited.
ESPN Unlimited is the new premium tier launched in August 2025 — the thing that did not exist when ESPN+ was around. It includes everything in ESPN Select plus the live linear ESPN cable networks: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SEC Network, ACC Network, ESPNNEWS, ESPN Deportes, NFL Network, and CW Sports. It’s the cable-replacement option for cord-cutters who want Monday Night Football, live NBA on ESPN, College Football Playoff games, and WWE premium live events without a traditional TV subscription. ESPN Unlimited costs $31.99 per month or $319.99 per year as of September 17, 2026. It’s more than twice the price of ESPN Select — the right choice only if you specifically need those live cable channels.
Two separate price increases have happened since the rebrand. First, when ESPN+ became ESPN Select in August 2025, the price went from $10.99/month to $12.99/month — a $2 increase that wasn’t widely communicated. Then in September 2026, ESPN raised prices again: Select went from $12.99 to $13.99 and Unlimited went from $29.99 to $31.99. Disney cited expanded content — including the addition of NFL Network and MLB.TV integration — as justification. The net result: what cost you $10.99/month as ESPN+ now costs $13.99/month as ESPN Select, a 27% increase over roughly 13 months. The content library itself has grown somewhat, but the price growth has outpaced what most existing subscribers feel they received in return.
There is no free trial offered directly through ESPN for either plan. You pay from the first day of your subscription. Two workarounds exist for testing ESPN Unlimited specifically: Fubo TV offers a 7-day free trial that includes ESPN Unlimited access as part of its channel lineup — you need to cancel before the week ends to avoid being charged Fubo’s full monthly rate. DirecTV Stream has also offered limited trial periods that include ESPN Unlimited. For ESPN Select specifically, there is currently no free trial path through any provider. If you’re on the fence about whether the content justifies the cost, the cheapest test is a single month of ESPN Select at $13.99 — the service lets you cancel at any time, and your access continues until the end of the period you’ve paid for.
The core content that made ESPN+ worth subscribing to is still there in ESPN Select: LALIGA, Bundesliga, FA Cup, and other international soccer leagues; PGA Tour golf; NHL out-of-market games (with some blackout rules); select MLB games daily (blackout rules apply); college sports from non-flagship conferences; NWSL, PLL, and MLS games where ESPN holds rights; tennis and combat sports outside of UFC numbered events; plus ESPN Originals, 30 for 30 films, and the E60 documentary series. What is no longer in ESPN Select that was previously on ESPN+: UFC numbered events and Fight Nights moved to Paramount+ in early 2026. This was a meaningful loss for UFC fans specifically — if UFC was your primary reason for having ESPN+, the service that replaced it doesn’t cover what you were watching.
Existing Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ bundle subscribers were transitioned automatically to the equivalent new bundle — Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN Select — and kept their pricing until the next billing adjustment. As of September 17, 2026, the Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN Select bundle (with ads on both Hulu and Disney+) costs $21.99 per month. There is also an ad-free premium version at $32.99 per month. A “Legacy” Disney+ bundle (Disney+ without ads, Hulu with ads, ESPN Select) exists at $27.99 per month and is only available to existing subscribers who were already on that specific plan before the rebrand — it cannot be newly subscribed to. If you want the bundle that includes the live ESPN cable channels, that’s the Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN Unlimited bundle at $35.99 per month.
Yes — the ESPN app is the same app, available on the same platforms: iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablets, Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TVs, LG Smart TVs, Xbox, PlayStation, and browsers at ESPN.com. Your existing login credentials (your Disney or ESPN account) still work. The interface has been updated and expanded since the August 2025 relaunch — it now includes features like a personalized “SportsCenter For You” feed, the Verts vertical video format, and a StreamCenter feature for synchronized two-screen viewing on Unlimited — but the core navigation will feel familiar if you used ESPN+ regularly. One thing to check if you subscribed through Apple, Google, or Roku: manage your subscription through that platform’s settings, not through ESPN.com, or you may think you’ve canceled when you haven’t.
The rebrand wasn’t just a name change. Understanding the full timeline helps you figure out whether you’re getting more or less than you were paying for before.
ESPN+ launched in April 2018 as a streaming-only add-on to ESPN’s cable presence — an affordable $4.99/month library of out-of-market games, ESPN Originals, documentary content, and live events from sports the main cable network couldn’t always carry: international soccer, some MMA, college sports overflow, and PGA Tour. It was positioned explicitly as a supplement to cable, not a replacement for it. It was never intended to give you live ESPN or ESPN2 — that required a cable subscription. Over the next six years, the price rose several times: to $5.99, then $6.99, then $9.99, and finally $10.99/month before the rebrand.
On August 21, 2025, Disney launched its standalone ESPN streaming service. The flagship product was called ESPN Unlimited — a new $29.99/month premium tier giving subscribers the live cable ESPN networks for the first time without a pay-TV provider. To fit this new structure, ESPN+ was folded into the new service and renamed ESPN Select, becoming the lower-cost entry tier. All existing ESPN+ subscribers were automatically moved to ESPN Select. The content remained essentially the same. The price immediately went up from $10.99 to $12.99 per month. ESPN+ as a subscription brand was retired, though the “ESPN+” name continued to appear within the app as a content label for legacy programming reasons — which caused significant confusion for subscribers who saw “ESPN+” branding inside an app that no longer offered an “ESPN+” subscription.
Exactly one year after the rebrand, Disney raised prices again — the first price increase for the new service structure. ESPN Select increased from $12.99 to $13.99 per month (annual: $129.99 to $139.99). ESPN Unlimited increased from $29.99 to $31.99 per month (annual: $299.99 to $319.99). Bundles with Disney+ and Hulu using ESPN Select also increased. The one exception: the Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN Unlimited bundle stayed at $35.99 per month, unchanged. Subscribers who signed up before August 20, 2026, retained their prior price until the first billing date after September 17, 2026, at which point the new rates applied automatically. In total, what cost $10.99/month as ESPN+ in July 2025 costs $13.99/month as ESPN Select in late 2026 — a 27% increase over about 14 months.
ESPN+ was the exclusive home of UFC in the U.S. for years — numbered events, Fight Nights, and the pay-per-view purchase portal all ran through the platform. That relationship ended in early 2026 when UFC moved to Paramount+. ESPN Select carries no UFC events. If your primary reason for having ESPN+ was UFC, the service that replaced it simply does not offer what you were watching. UFC is now on Paramount+, which starts at $7.99/month (with ads) or $12.99/month (without ads) as of September 2026.
All prices below reflect the rates effective September 17, 2026. Verify current pricing at espn.com before subscribing, as Disney adjusts prices periodically.
ESPN Select is the plan most people searching for “ESPN Plus” are actually looking for. It carries the same library — international soccer leagues, out-of-market college sports, PGA Tour golf, NHL and MLB out-of-market games (with blackout rules), NWSL, PLL, MLS, tennis, ESPN Originals, 30 for 30 films, and daily replays kept for at least 30 days. It supports up to three simultaneous streams and runs on the same ESPN app across all major devices. Ads run during live sports programming. What it does not include: the live ESPN cable network, ESPN2, Monday Night Football on the linear feed, NFL Network, WWE premium events, or the college conference networks (SEC Network, ACC Network). Those are all Unlimited. If you primarily watch soccer, golf, or college overflow sports and don’t care about live primetime NFL or NBA games on ESPN, Select covers your needs at less than half the Unlimited price.
ESPN Unlimited adds the live linear cable networks that ESPN Select excludes: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNNEWS, ESPN Deportes, SEC Network, SECN+, ACC Network, ACCNX, NFL Network, and CW Sports — all streaming through the ESPN app with no pay-TV login needed. It’s the option for someone who cut the cord and wants the channel experience without a cable bill. Monday Night Football, live NBA on ESPN, College Football Playoff games, SEC and ACC college sports, and WWE premium live events (exclusive to ESPN Unlimited since August 2025) all live here. The app supports up to three simultaneous streams. Annual billing at $319.99 saves roughly $64 versus paying $31.99 monthly for twelve months — the right choice for year-round sports fans; monthly billing is smarter for seasonal viewers.
| Plan | Monthly | Annual | Live ESPN Channel | MNF Live | WWE Events | Soccer Library | NFL Network |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ESPN Select (was ESPN+) | $13.99 | $139.99 | ✗ No | ✗ No | ✗ No | ✓ Yes | ✗ No |
| ESPN Unlimited | $31.99 | $319.99 | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| D+ · Hulu · ESPN Select Bundle | $21.99 (ads) | N/A | ✗ No | ✗ No | ✗ No | ✓ Yes | ✗ No |
| D+ · Hulu · ESPN Select Premium | $32.99 (no ads) | N/A | ✗ No | ✗ No | ✗ No | ✓ Yes | ✗ No |
| D+ · Hulu · ESPN Unlimited Bundle | $35.99 (ads) | N/A | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| D+ · Hulu · ESPN Unlimited Premium | $44.99 (no ads) | N/A | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| ESPN Unlimited + FOX One Bundle | $39.99 | N/A | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes + FS1 · FS2 |
If you had ESPN+ and you’re now on ESPN Select, here’s the honest accounting of what carried over, what improved, and what is gone.
Soccer remains the backbone of what ESPN Select offers to sports fans. LALIGA (Spain’s top division), the Bundesliga (Germany’s top division), FA Cup (England’s knockout tournament), NWSL (National Women’s Soccer League), and select MLS matches where ESPN holds rights are all in the Select library. This content was the primary reason many people subscribed to ESPN+ in the first place, and it transferred intact to Select. Streaming quality runs at 1080p HD with selected matches available in 4K. Blackout rules do not typically affect out-of-market international soccer, making it one of the cleanest streaming experiences in the service. What is not in ESPN Select for soccer: Premier League games, which are on Peacock and USA Network in the U.S.
PGA Tour coverage in ESPN Select gives you live tournament rounds for dozens of events annually — not a replacement for Golf Channel or CBS Sports, but meaningful coverage for golf fans who want more than what broadcast TV delivers. NHL out-of-market games are available when ESPN holds the rights and the game falls outside your local market — local team games in your home market remain blacked out, as is standard across all streaming platforms by league policy. MLB.TV is available as a paid add-on through ESPN Select, providing access to out-of-market games. A select number of daily MLB games are included in the base Select subscription without needing MLB.TV. If a specific team or game is the primary driver, search the ESPN schedule before subscribing to confirm that team’s games appear on ESPN-family networks and without blackout indicators for your location.
The on-demand documentary library that made ESPN+ valuable for sports fans who love storytelling is fully in ESPN Select: the entire 30 for 30 catalog, E60 investigative sports journalism episodes, ESPN Originals, and O.J.: Made in America. Replays of live events are kept for a minimum of 30 days after broadcast, which is useful for subscribers who missed a live event or want to re-watch. The personalized “SportsCenter For You” feed — which curates highlights, updates, and clips based on your team and league preferences — is also part of the Select experience. This documentary and replay library is unchanged from what ESPN+ offered and remains one of the strongest on-demand sports archives available on any streaming service.
Bundles look attractive in the marketing. Whether they save you money depends entirely on whether you actually want all three services — or just ESPN.
At $13.99/month for ESPN Select alone, the Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN Select bundle at $21.99/month means you’re effectively getting Disney+ and Hulu for $8 per month extra. Disney+ alone costs $9.99/month with ads, so the math works out — if you want Disney+ and Hulu. If you don’t want those services, the standalone plan is simpler and cheaper. Similarly, ESPN Unlimited at $31.99/month bundled with Disney+ and Hulu for $35.99/month means Disney+ and Hulu cost you $4 extra — a genuine deal, and one that wasn’t affected by the September 2026 price increase. The bundle is the right choice for households that actually use all three services. It’s the wrong choice for sports-only subscribers who will pay for Disney and Hulu content they never touch.
The ad-supported version at $21.99/month gives you Disney+, Hulu, and the full ESPN Select library — the same content that was in your old ESPN+ bundle, repriced. You see ads on both Hulu and ESPN live sports. The ad-free premium version at $32.99/month removes ads from Disney+ and Hulu content (ESPN Select still runs ads during live sports — this cannot be removed at any price point). A third option — the Legacy bundle at $27.99/month — exists only for subscribers who were on a specific pre-rebrand bundle configuration; it is not available to new subscribers. None of these bundles include live ESPN cable channels — for live ESPN, Monday Night Football, or WWE, you need the Unlimited version of the bundle.
This bundle packages the full ESPN Unlimited experience — live cable channels, MNF, WWE, college conference networks — with Disney+ and Hulu. At $35.99/month for the ad-supported version, you’re paying $4 more than standalone ESPN Unlimited alone for both Disney+ and Hulu. For households that use all three services, this is one of the better streaming values currently available. It covers a lot of ground. Notably, this bundle was not raised in the September 2026 price increase — it held at $35.99 while the standalone ESPN Unlimited went from $29.99 to $31.99. The premium no-ads version (for Disney+ and Hulu; ESPN live sports always carry ads) runs $44.99/month, saving 34% versus subscribing to all three services at full retail.
The price has gone up twice in about 14 months. Here’s how to manage it without giving up the sports you actually watch.
Before paying for any ESPN subscription separately, open the ESPN app and look for a “TV Provider” or “Activate” option in your account settings. Subscribers of Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, DirecTV Stream, Fubo TV, Comcast Xfinity, Spectrum, Verizon FiOS, Cox, and several other providers can activate the full ESPN Unlimited experience in the app at no additional charge — it’s included in their provider package. Many subscribers are unaware this activation option exists and pay $13.99–$31.99 per month for content they’re already entitled to through their TV service. This takes about two minutes and is the single most common way people save money on ESPN immediately.
If you watch ESPN Select or Unlimited year-round — through every sport in every season — the annual plan pays for itself within months. ESPN Select at $139.99/year versus $13.99/month works out to $167.88 if you paid monthly all year, saving you about $28. ESPN Unlimited at $319.99/year versus $31.99/month saves you roughly $64 over twelve months. The content is identical between monthly and annual billing — you’re simply prepaying at a discount. The annual plan is the wrong choice for seasonal viewers: if you subscribe only for football season (August through February), three months of monthly billing at $13.99 costs $41.97 for Select — well below the $139.99 annual plan for seven fewer months of content.
ESPN Select and Unlimited allow cancellation at any time, with access continuing through the end of your paid period. If your primary sport runs a defined season — college football (August through January), the NFL on ESPN (September through February), or the Champions League knockout rounds — you can subscribe monthly at the start of the season and cancel immediately after. Access continues through the paid month. Three months of ESPN Select at $13.99 costs $41.97; four months of ESPN Unlimited at $31.99 costs $127.96. For many sports fans, a five-month seasonal subscription costs less than half the annual plan and covers every game that matters to them. Set a calendar reminder to cancel within the last week of your final paid month.
New MLB.TV subscribers who purchase an MLB.TV plan receive one month of ESPN Unlimited at no additional charge — valid through December 31, 2026. After the free month, ESPN Unlimited auto-renews at the current monthly rate unless you cancel. You do not need to keep ESPN Unlimited to maintain MLB.TV — the two subscriptions are independent. Canceling ESPN Unlimited after the trial month has no impact on your baseball access. For a baseball fan who also wants to test what ESPN Unlimited offers beyond baseball, this is the cleanest path to a risk-free month of the premium tier. Mark your calendar for three weeks into the trial to decide whether the non-baseball content justifies $31.99/month going forward.
You’re not imagining it. ESPN+ at $10.99/month became ESPN Select at $12.99/month overnight in August 2025, then rose again to $13.99/month in September 2026 — a 27% increase in about 14 months. What you can do: First, compare what you actually watch against what ESPN Select includes. If you primarily used ESPN+ for international soccer, golf, or college sports overflow, the content is essentially the same. If you primarily used it for UFC, those events moved to Paramount+ and aren’t on ESPN Select at any price. Second, check whether the Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN Select bundle at $21.99/month makes more sense than paying $13.99 for Select alone — if anyone in your household watches Disney+ or Hulu, the $8 difference for both services is a net savings. Third, if the content no longer justifies the cost to you, cancel — the process takes under three minutes through ESPN.com.
Yes — for the leagues ESPN+ carried, ESPN Select has them. LALIGA, Bundesliga, FA Cup, NWSL, and select MLS matches are all there. What’s absent is the Premier League, which ESPN never held U.S. rights to — that’s on Peacock and USA Network. If you followed European soccer primarily through LALIGA or Bundesliga, your viewing experience in ESPN Select will feel identical to what you had in ESPN+. The streaming quality is the same, the match schedules are the same, and there are no blackout complications for international leagues. The only meaningful change for soccer-focused subscribers is the price — $13.99 now versus $10.99 for the same content 14 months ago.
UFC is no longer on any ESPN platform. The UFC moved its numbered events and Fight Nights to Paramount+ in early 2026 as part of a new media rights deal. ESPN Select carries no UFC content. ESPN Unlimited carries no UFC content. If UFC was the primary reason you subscribed to ESPN+, the platform that replaced it doesn’t serve your need. Paramount+ Premium currently starts at $12.99/month (without ads) and carries UFC events without a separate pay-per-view add-on fee — replacing what ESPN+ provided for combat sports fans. You can cancel ESPN Select and move to Paramount+ for UFC without losing anything you were using ESPN Select for, unless you also watch the soccer, golf, or college sports content it carries.
ESPN Select alone will not get you NFL games during the season in any meaningful way. The live ESPN cable channel — which carries Monday Night Football — is in ESPN Unlimited, not ESPN Select. Select gives you the streaming library only, with no access to the linear ESPN broadcast. Your NFL streaming options without cable: ESPN Unlimited ($31.99/month) covers Monday Night Football and NFL Network. Amazon Prime Video carries Thursday Night Football exclusively. Local CBS, FOX, and NBC games are available free over the air with a TV antenna. NBC’s Sunday Night Football can be streamed through Peacock for subscribers. NFL+ ($7.99/month) covers mobile-only local and national games but has device limitations. No single streaming service covers the complete NFL season — you need to identify which games you watch most and match them to their network.
Almost certainly not. Open the ESPN app, go to your account settings, find “TV Provider,” and link your Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, or DirecTV credentials. This activates ESPN Unlimited within the app at no additional cost. You’ll have access to the full live channel lineup — including the content ESPN Unlimited subscribers pay $31.99/month for — through your existing TV service. Many Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV subscribers are unaware this activation is available and either pay for a redundant ESPN subscription or simply don’t access the ESPN app’s full features. If you are currently paying $13.99 for ESPN Select on top of Hulu + Live TV or YouTube TV, you are paying twice for content you already have. Cancel ESPN Select and activate through your TV provider instead.
Depends on which games matter to you. ESPN Select does not include live NBA games — those air on the ESPN and ESPN2 cable channels, which are in Unlimited only. If you want to watch NBA games as they air on ESPN, you need ESPN Unlimited at $31.99/month. If your goal is game replays and highlights rather than live NBA, those are available in ESPN Select through the on-demand library. One important limitation even with Unlimited: NBA games that air on TNT and TBS are not on any ESPN platform. Certain playoff games, including specific conference finals matchups, air on Turner networks exclusively. For complete NBA season access — games on ESPN, TNT, and local broadcasts — you need either a live-TV service like YouTube TV or Hulu + Live TV, or a combination of ESPN Unlimited plus NBA League Pass for out-of-market games not on a national feed.
Prices and plan details in this guide reflect rates effective September 17, 2026, based on publicly available ESPN and Disney announcements. ESPN and Disney may update pricing, bundles, and channel lineups without advance notice — verify current pricing directly at espn.com before subscribing. This guide is intended for general informational purposes only and has no affiliation with ESPN, Disney, or any streaming platform mentioned. UFC and Paramount+ information reflects the rights situation as of publication; sports media rights deals change periodically.