If you’re trying to watch ESPN+ outside the US, unfortunately, the streaming service won’t work. You’ll come across an error saying, “we’re sorry an unexpected error occurred.”
This is happening because ESPN+ doesn’t have the rights to broadcast its content outside the US. It blocks anyone in other countries from accessing its service.
Even if you’re a paying subscriber and are away on holiday, ESPN+ won’t work outside the US.
Fortunately, there’s an easy way to watch ESPN+ outside the US and worldwide. All you need is a reliable VPN.
This article will explain how to watch ESPN+ outside the US using a reliable VPN.
See also:
- ESPN+ not working with VPN? Here’s how to fix that! (March 2023)
- How to bypass NFL+ blackout restrictions: The EASY method! (March 2023)
How to watch ESPN+ outside the US: Quick Guide
To watch ESPN+ outside the US, you need to change your IP address to a US-based one.
The easiest and most reliable way to do that is with a VPN.
Follow these steps to watch ESPN+ outside the US:
Create a new account with ExpressVPN ($6.67/month).
Download and install the new VPN app
Select a US server
Go to Live Sports Streaming, Original Shows & Award-Winning Documentaries | ESPN+
Login to your ESPN+ account (if you don’t have one, read below to find out how to make one)
Watch ESPN+ outside the US
How to make an ESPN+ account outside the US
Making an ESPN+ account outside the US can be a bit tricky. The reason it’s difficult is because ESPN only accepts US forms of payment. You need either a US credit card or a US PayPal account.
Below we’ll go through the best ways to create an ESPN+ account outside the US:
If you have a US credit card or PayPal account
- Connect to a US server on ExpressVPN ($6.67/month).
- Visit Live Sports Streaming, Original Shows & Award-Winning Documentaries | ESPN+
- Select sign up or create account
- Input your credit card details
- It will ask you for a US address. If you don’t have one, you can use one here.
Use an Apple gift card
If you have an Apple device, an easy way to create an ESPN+ account is with an Apple gift card.
Follow the steps below to create an ESPN+ account using an Apple gift card
- Connect to a US server on ExpressVPN ($6.67/month).
- Create a new US-based Apple ID
- Sign out of your existing account
- Create a new Apple ID account with an active email address
- Input your current phone number
- Verify your email address
- Once your account is created, go into your account and go to Payments and Delivery
- Select change region
- Click review
- When prompted, change your country to the US
- Click next
- When asked for a US address, you can get one here.
- You’ll now have access to the US Apple App Store
- Download the ESPN app
- Purchase an Apple gift card, you can get one from Amazon and redeem it
- Open up the ESPN app and select “Subscribe Now.”
- Pay for the account with your Apple account funds
Use a Google Play Store gift card
The Android version of the ESPN+ app allows in-app purchases.
This means you don’t have to have a US credit card or PayPal account to subscribe to ESPN+ on Android. You can use Google Play gift cards to pay as well.
Follow the steps below to create an ESPN+ account using a Google Play gift card:
- Connect to a US server on ExpressVPN ($6.67/month).
- Change to the US version of the Google Play Store
- Open the Play Store app
- Select General, then Account and device preferences
- Select Country and profiles and select the US
- Add your payment details. You can use any credit card
- You’ll now have access to the US version of the Google Play Store
- Purchase a Google Play gift card
- Download the ESPN app
- Click “subscribe now.”
- Pay for your account using your Google Play gift card
Why does ESPN+ block my connection while abroad?
You can’t watch ESPN+ outside the US because of content and licensing restrictions.
Although ESPN+ has the rights to broadcast its content in the US, it doesn’t have the rights to broadcast it internationally.
If ESPN+ made itself available overseas, it would be breaching copyright and licensing laws and would face severe financial punishments.
It blocks anyone outside the US from accessing its service to prevent that from happening.
How does ESPN+ know my region?
This is all to do with your IP address.
An IP address is a unique code allocated to you when you go online. It’s used so your device can communicate with whatever online service your visiting, in this case, ESPN+.
The problem is that for this communication to work, ESPN+ needs to know where to send your requested information. To achieve that, your IP address contains information about your location.
When you connect to ESPN+, it scans your IP address to determine where you’re located. If it finds you’re outside the US, it blocks your connection.
To get around this, you need to change your IP address to a US IP so ESPN+ thinks you’re accessing it from within the US. We recommend ExpressVPN ($6.67/month) or Private Internet Access ($2.03/month).
Does ESPN+ allow VPNs?
Officially, ESPN+ doesn’t allow VPNs. The reason for this is because VPNs can potentially allow customers outside the US to access the streaming service.
ESPN doesn’t have the rights to broadcast its content outside the US, so it needs to be seen actively trying to prevent international users from accessing ESPN+. That’s why it tries to block VPNs from accessing ESPN+. If it didn’t do this, it could face severe financial punishments, which it obviously wants to avoid.
Annoyingly, ESPN’s VPN blocking techniques are very effective, and a lot of VPNs struggle to get around them. However, there are some VPNs that are able to get around these blocks, namely ExpressVPN ($6.67/month) or Private Internet Access ($2.03/month),
Both ExpressVPN ($6.67/month) or Private Internet Access ($2.03/month) work well with ESPN+.
Which VPNs work with ESPN+?
The VPNs that work with ESPN+ are the ones that have measures in place to ensure they work reliably with the streaming service.
A lot of VPNs, especially free VPNs, don’t have the infrastructure or the financial backing to ensure you can watch ESPN+ reliably.
The best VPNs, like ExpressVPN ($6.67/month) or Private Internet Access ($2.03/month) do have these sort of measures.
When an IP address provided by these VPNs get blocked by ESPN+, they’ll close that IP and open a new one. This will ensure you can watch ESPN+ reliably anywhere in the world.
The best VPNs to watch ESPN+ outside the US
1. ExpressVPN 🥇
Why You Should Use ExpressVPN? It’s the fastest and MOST reliable VPN of 2022
Pros
- ✅ Fast servers
- ✅ Thousands of IP addresses
- ✅ 10-simultaneous connections
- ✅ 24/7 Live Chat
- ✅ Easy-to-use app
- ✅ 30-day money-back guarantee
Cons
- ❌ Expensive
Special Offer for you!
Get 3 extra months free when you sign up for a 12-month ExpressVPN plan. That’s 15 months in total for the price of 12.
Number of servers: 3,000+ | Speed: >80% | Bandwidth: Unlimited | IP locations: 160 in 94 countries | Devices supported: 5 | Live chat: Yes | 30-day money-back guarantee: Yes
- $6.66/month for 15 months
- $9.99/month for 6 months
- $12.95/month for 1 month
ExpressVPN ($6.66/month) is still the best VPN. And importantly, it ALWAYS has servers that are open with major streaming sites such as Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Paramount+, Amazon Prime Video, etc.
ExpressVPN is usually very good at playing Cat and Mouse with online streaming sites. Meaning, whenever one of its servers is blacklisted it creates a new one – giving its users a constant stream of servers that aren’t blocked. Needless to say, this is a valuable attribute if you’re looking for a VPN to unblock streaming sites.
Its app is easy-to-use and free to download on pretty much any device you can think of. Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, FireStick, Android TV, Roku, PS4, Xbox, Linux, even Apple TV (with a workaround). It’s got it all covered.
The app is another main reason this VPN is so good at unblocking TV streaming sites (that claim they block VPNs) is that its software takes a pragmatic approach to user management. While other VPNs tempt customers by promising them access to hundreds/thousands of servers in multiple countries, ExpressVPN does things differently.
With ExpressVPN you only have a handful of server locations to choose from. Once you select your location the app takes care of the rest. Assigning you to the fastest available server that’s not oversubscribed. This simple technique is so important, as it keeps ExpressVPN’s servers operating at lightning-fast speeds and prevents its IPs from getting blacklisted for “abnormal” usage in the first place.
Check out our full ExpressVPN review.
Special Offer for you
(30-day money-back guarantee)
2. Private Internet Access 🥈
The BEST low-cost VPN for streaming!
Pros
- ✅ Fast and reliable servers
- ✅ Thousands of IP addresses
- ✅ 10-simultaneous connections
- ✅ 24/7 Live Chat
- ✅ 30-day money-back guarantee
Cons
- ❌ Only 48 server locations
Special Offer for you!
Sign up for a 3-year plan with Private Internet Access and save 83% + 3 months free. That works out at $2.03/month.
Number of servers: 25,000+ | Speed: >75% | Bandwidth: Unlimited | IP locations: 70 in 74 countries | Devices supported: 10 | Live chat: Yes | 30-day money-back guarantee: Yes
- $2.03/month for 3 years
- $7.50/month for 6 months
- $11.99/month for 1 month
Private Internet Access is one of the leading no-log VPN services with over 1-million paying customers.
This VPN is one of the best in the industry at beating streaming sites’ VPN bans. It provides reliable connections with US Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+ Amazon Prime Video, etc. It also allows 10 simultaneous devices to be connected to its servers at the same time, so you can share the account with your close friends.
If – for whatever reason – you’re not happy with Private Internet Access, there’s a 24/7 live chat support available to assist you with your problem. PIA also offers the industry-standard 30-day money-back guarantee.
From my tests (from New Zealand) I was able to get download speeds of 70 Mbps while connected to a UK server using the Private Internet Access VPN (my non-VPN speed is 100 Mbps).
Special Offer – Save 83%
(30-day money-back guarantee)
3. NordVPN 🥉
A very quick and trustworthy VPN
Pros
- ✅ Fast servers
- ✅ No logs
- ✅ Thousands of IP addresses
- ✅ 6-simultaneous connections
- ✅ 30-day money-back guarantee
- ✅ Easy-to-use app
Cons
- ❌ No refunds for purchases from iTunes/App store
Special Offer for you!
Sign up for a 3-year plan with Private Internet Access and save 83% + 3 months free. That works out at $2.03/month.
Number of servers: 5,000+ | Speeds: >80% | Bandwidth: Unlimited | IP locations: 62 countries | Devices supported: 6 | Live chat: Yes | 30-day money-back guarantee: Yes
- $3.49/month for 2 years
- $6.99/month for 1 year
- $11.95/month for 1 month
NordVPN is the most widely-used VPN in the world. And it’s easy to see why. It’s a polished app that delivers fast connections (more on this later) to a massive network of VPN servers.
It’s the most reliable at unblocking popular streaming services too – US Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, BBC iPlayer, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, etc. This is because NordVPN hired a full-time technical team (that’s responsible for monitoring its servers’ connections with popular TV streaming services) and has been aggressively investing in its network of IP addresses in key locations.
Another interesting thing to note is that NordVPN is an industry leader in its development of Nordlynx technology. Nordlynx is built using the WireGuard, a new VPN tunneling protocol designed to outperform current standards (OpenVPN and IPSec). The benefits, according to NordVPN, are dramatically faster transfer speeds while connected to a VPN. My tests – New Zealand to London – confirm that Nordlynx is currently the fastest VPN on the market. However, the difference isn’t dramatic, a few Mbps is all.
SPECIAL OFFER – SAVE 70%!
(30-day money-back guarantee)
4. Ivacy
A very quick and trustworthy VPN
Pros
- ✅ Fast servers
- ✅ Thousands of IP addresses
- ✅ Dedicated streaming servers
- ✅ 5-simultaneous connections
- ✅ 30-day money-back guarantee
- ✅ 24/7 Live Chat
Cons
- ❌ Only 5 devices
- ❌ Sometimes runs slow
- ❌ Occasionally block by streaming sites for several days
Special Offer for you!
Sign up for Ivacy and enjoy a 7-day trial with no strings attached
Number of servers: 1,000+ | Speed: >65% | Bandwidth: Unlimited | IP locations: 275 in 100 countries | Devices supported: 5 | Live chat: Yes | 30-day money-back guarantee: Yes
- $1.16/month for 5 years
- $3.50/month for 1 year
- $9.99/month for 1 month
If you’re looking for an excellent VPN, with an even better price tag, Ivacy ($1.16/month) is a great option.
This VPN has all the features you need to stream BBC iPlayer, in HD, from any country in the world. I’ve been testing the app recently on Mac, PC, Android, iOS and FireStick and the results have been impressive – unlocking BBC iPlayer, US Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, etc. with ease.
The Ivacy app is a little different in regards to its UX (user experience). Instead of just selecting a UK server, you need to select the specific BBC iPlayer server. Don’t worry, this isn’t a bad thing – by connecting to a dedicated BBC iPlayer server, it simply means that you’re connecting to an IP address that Ivacy knows works with BBC iPlayer.
For an extra $1.99/month (£1.74) you can add-on a dedicated IP. This will buy you sole access to an IP address in a country of your choice, meaning you won’t have to share your IP (and speeds) with any other use. I don’t recommend this though, using the regular Ivacy servers is enough 95 per cent of the time.
Special Offer – 7-day FREE trial!
(30-day money-back guarantee)
5. CyberGhost
A very quick and trustworthy VPN
Pros
- ✅ 1-day free trial
- ✅ Reliable servers
- ✅ Thousands of IP addresses
- ✅ 7-simultaneous connections
- ✅ 30-day money-back guarantee
- ✅ Easy-to-use app
Cons
- ❌ Expensive
- ❌ Average speed scores
SPECIAL OFFER – 1-DAY FREE TRIAL
Take advantage of CyberGhost’s 1-day FREE TRIAL!
Number of servers: 1,000+ | Speed: >65% | Bandwidth: Unlimited | IP locations: 275 in 100 countries | Devices supported: 5 | Live chat: Yes | 30-day money-back guarantee: Yes
- $2.75/month for 3 years
- $3.69/month for 2 years
- $5.99/month for 1 year
- $12.99/month for 1 month
CyberGhost is one of the more established VPNs on the market. It has a well-established, and well-tested global network of servers that perform well.
From my tests over the past several months, CyberGhost has no trouble at unblocking major streaming services – US Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max etc. This VPN performed well at maintaining download speeds, well above 65 per cent of my regular (non VPN) ISP speed.
That said, there’s nothing really unique about the service. Which forces you to look at its price-point. And there’s nothing special here. Its short-term $12.99/month price tag puts is well above the industry average of $10.10/month. Similarly, its long-term $2.75/month for 3 years deal isn’t much of a “deal” either.
Oddly, CyberGhost’s most unique feature is its a 1-day, no obligations, free trial. This is an appealing offer to customers who are new to VPNs. However, it’s important to remember that most reputable VPNs will offer customers a 30-day money-back guarantee, so try not to be too seduced by the offer.
SPECIAL OFFER – 1-DAY FREE TRIAL
(30-day money-back guarantee)
How can I watch ESPN+ abroad?
It’s easy, all you need to do is change your IP address to a US IP address.
The best way to do this is with a reliable VPN like ExpressVPN ($6.67/month) or Private Internet Access ($2.03/month).
These VPNs allow you to change your IP address by encrypting your online data and rerouting it through their own servers. This data is then sent to a country of your choosing where it is decrypted and forwarded to an internet service provider in that country.
This gives you a US IP address and will allow you to access ESPN+ anywhere in the world.
