Sports Streaming Free Trials in 2026 by League

League-by-league trial status

Why sports streaming trials are different

The economics of league-rights deals make sports streaming a fundamentally different trial environment. A sports streamer does not pay broadcasters per subscriber; it pays a league a fixed multi-billion-dollar contract for streaming rights to a defined number of games per season. Apple pays Major League Soccer a reported $250 million per year for the MLS Season Pass according to The Athletic's reporting on the Apple-MLS deal. Amazon pays the NFL roughly $1.2 billion a year for Thursday Night Football. Disney pays the NBA approximately $2.6 billion per year under the 2024 deal documented by Sportico.

Because the rights cost is fixed, every additional subscriber is pure margin. That argues for generous trials to drive signups. The counter-argument that wins most boardroom debates is that sports fans are sticky once converted, so the cost of acquiring them via trial is rarely worth the discount on the first-year value of the converted subscriber. Sports trials therefore tend to be short, narrow (single-team Team Pass instead of full League Pass), or non-existent.

ESPN+: bundle is the trial

ESPN+ has not run a standalone free trial since 2019, when it offered a 7-day window during the launch year. The reason is structural: ESPN+ leans on UFC Fight Pass content, college football and basketball deep cuts, and out-of-market hockey and soccer (NHL and La Liga). None of these are the broad-appeal mass-market sports that would justify a customer acquisition spend via trial. The flagship sports on ESPN proper (NBA Finals, Monday Night Football, College Football Playoff) are not on ESPN+.

The way to sample ESPN+ without committing is through the Disney Bundle Trio, which has occasionally been offered with a 7-day window on the Hulu side (the Hulu 30-day on-demand trial does not extend to the Bundle, which is the most common point of confusion). Verizon myPlan also offers ESPN+ as a $10/month perk add, which is not free but is the cheapest legitimate way to maintain ongoing access alongside another carrier benefit. Standalone, $11.99 per month is the price of entry. We track Disney+ trial status separately on the Disney+ free trial page.

NFL+: 7-day trial, mobile-first, RedZone included

NFL+ is the best free trial situation in major US sports as of May 2026. The NFL+ Premium tier at $14.99 per month runs a 7-day free trial that includes RedZone access, live local-and-primetime games on mobile devices, and full-game on-demand replays of every regular season game. The trial requires a credit card and is for new accounts only.

The catch that the NFL+ marketing page understates is the mobile-only restriction on live games. NFL+ Premium streams live games only on phones and tablets in the standard signup. To watch NFL+ live games on a TV requires either casting or the NFL+ Sunday Ticket layer (sold separately via YouTube TV starting at $349 for the season, no free trial). RedZone on TV similarly requires either YouTube TV's Sports Plus add-on or a separate purchase. Reading the fine print at nfl.com/plus before signup is essential.

NBA League Pass: trial only on Team Pass

NBA League Pass runs a 7-day free trial, but only on the lowest tier called Team Pass, which limits viewing to live and on-demand games of a single team you select at signup. The full League Pass tier ($14.99 per month) and the Premium tier ($19.99 per month, no commercial breaks during live national games where possible) do not run trials.

Team Pass is $99.99 for the season or roughly $14.99 per month and limits you to one team's games. For a fan who only follows one team, this is the most cost-effective way to watch out-of-market games. The 7-day trial is enough to verify your team's broadcast schedule is included (in-market local broadcasts are typically blacked out due to regional sports network deals, which is the single most common complaint and the reason to use the trial to verify before committing). Full signup details and the blackout map are on nba.com/watch/league-pass.

MLB.TV: free Game of the Day instead of trial

MLB.TV does not run a standard free trial. Instead it offers a free Game of the Day during the regular season, where one out-of-market game per day is available to watch without subscription. The selection is at MLB's discretion, varies daily, and is announced on the MLB at Bat app and on mlb.com/tv each morning during the season.

MLB.TV does occasionally run a true 7-day free trial around Opening Week and All-Star Week, but these promotional windows are not consistent year to year. The base price is $29.99 per month or $149.99 for the full season. Like NBA League Pass, MLB.TV is out-of-market only because of regional sports network exclusivity in local markets. The free Game of the Day is the most useful introductory offer in pro baseball streaming and is the closest thing to a trial that the service maintains as an evergreen feature.

MLS Season Pass: no trial, one-time fee model

MLS Season Pass is exclusively on Apple TV and uses a different commercial model from every other league. There is no monthly subscription and no free trial. You pay either $14.99 per month or $99 for the entire MLS season ($79 if you are an Apple TV+ subscriber, which is the closest thing to a trial discount). The pass is good for every regular-season MLS match plus most playoff matches not on national broadcast.

The reason there is no free trial is that the Apple-MLS deal structure is a flat-rights buyout with no per-subscriber economics, and Apple has historically not run free trials on its sports content (the Friday Night Baseball games on Apple TV+ are similarly trial-free, included only for Apple TV+ subscribers). If you have a new Apple device and qualify for the 3-month Apple TV+ trial discussed on the Apple TV+ free trial page, the $20 discount on MLS Season Pass during that window is the closest equivalent.

DAZN: largely gone from the US

DAZN entered the US market in 2018 with an aggressive broad-sports streaming model and a 30-day free trial. By 2023 the service had pivoted away from broad sports to a boxing-PPV-only model in the US. The DAZN US site as of May 2026 sells individual fight PPVs (Canelo Alvarez fights, major championship bouts) rather than a monthly subscription. There is no free trial because there is no subscription to trial. Bloomberg covered the 2023 strategy shift in detail.

DAZN remains a viable broad-sports streamer in the UK, Spain, Italy, Germany, Canada and Japan. US-resident DAZN accounts can technically be opened with a UK or German VPN and payment method but doing so violates DAZN's terms and the service blocks playback when it detects a US IP on a non-US account. We cover the VPN ToS issue more broadly on the streaming trial ToS violations page.

Peacock as a sports streamer

Peacock is unusual because its free tier (no trial needed) includes some sports content (Premier League highlights, select Olympics archive) while its Premium and Premium Plus tiers ($7.99 and $13.99 per month) carry the live English Premier League matches, Sunday Night Football streaming, WWE, Big Ten football, and select Notre Dame home games. Peacock ended its free trial in November 2021 but the free tier persists as the closest substitute, covered separately on the Peacock free trial page.

What to do for one big event

The most common sports-streaming-trial use case is wanting to watch one specific event without committing to a season-long subscription. For a Super Bowl on Paramount+ or CBS broadcast, the Paramount+ 7-day trial times perfectly. For an NCAA Tournament, the games split across CBS (Paramount+) and TBS / TNT / truTV (Max with the Bleacher Report Sports Add-On at $9.99 extra per month, no trial). For NFL playoff weekend, NFL+ Premium's 7-day trial covers the mobile streams of all games plus RedZone. For the World Series, MLB.TV blackouts in-market and so the better play is just to watch the Fox broadcast over the air or on Hulu+Live TV's 3-day trial. We compiled a per-event matrix on the free trial for one event page.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

• Live TV streaming free trials covers YouTube TV, FuboTV and Hulu+Live TV for broader sports coverage.
• Free trial for one event guide matches the right trial to a specific game or tournament.
• Peacock free trial page covers the Premier League and Sunday Night Football angle.
• Cancel before charged for cancel flow walk-throughs after a one-event trial.
• Back to the main free trial comparison.

League trial terms verified as of May 2026. Sports rights deals shift annually with new TV contracts; we re-verify each league's signup page quarterly.