The Athletic: All Sports News

Review by eFreeware

The most distinctive thing about The Athletic is the newsroom behind it: the developer puts the number at more than 400 sports journalists, which is a scale few sports apps can match. That size shapes everything else in the app, from the volume of written coverage to the range of leagues it follows.

This is a news and analysis app first, with scores and stats sitting alongside the writing rather than replacing it. If you follow a handful of teams closely and want more than a headline and a final score, the depth on offer is the main draw. If you mainly want a quick scoreboard, the app still does that job, but the writing is where the effort has gone.

Reading the day's coverage

The core of the app is daily sports journalism. You get breaking news, expert insight and analysis across football, basketball, soccer, hockey, baseball and other sports, with coverage extending to both professional and college teams. The developer also promises deeply reported long reads and interviews with athletes, which is a different proposition from the short wire-style updates most score apps rely on.

What appeals to me here is the structure of it: a top stories feed for the day's biggest items, plus exclusive coverage tied to the teams you follow. Following a team means its scores, stats and news surface together rather than being scattered across separate screens. For a fan who reads as much as they watch, that combination of reporting and numbers in one place is the sensible way to organize it.

The scope runs wider than the big four US leagues. There is coverage of the Premier League and the Big Six, the FIFA World Cup, Formula 1, NASCAR, IndyCar, MotoGP and World Rally, plus the PGA Tour and March Madness through to the NCAA Football Championships. That international and motorsport range is broader than a lot of US-focused sports apps bother with, and it is one of the reasons the app travels well for fans of more than one sport.

Scores, stats and staying current

Live score updates and stats sit alongside the editorial coverage, covering the major teams and leagues. You can track which NFL teams are in playoff contention, follow MLB action through the season, keep up with NHL games and news, or watch the NBA and college basketball storylines develop. The stats and scores are presented as part of the same feed as the reporting, so a result and the analysis of it are never far apart.

Notifications are the mechanism for staying current. Turning them on brings real-time updates across the sports you care about, which is the practical way to follow a game you cannot watch. How much you get out of this depends on how you configure it; the app is built around following your favorites so that updates, scores and stats arrive for the teams you actually care about rather than everything at once.

The app has been available since October 2016 and now sits at over a million installs with a 4.6 average from more than 53,000 ratings. Those numbers suggest a settled, widely used product rather than a new arrival. The most recent update listed is general fixes and updates, which is the kind of maintenance note that tells you little beyond the app still being worked on.

Podcasts and the daily game

Audio is a full part of the package rather than an afterthought. You can follow and listen to sports podcasts tied to the leagues you follow, with daily shows such as The Athletic Football Show, The Audible and No Dunks named as examples. For anyone who already listens to sports talk on the move, having that alongside the written coverage in one app removes a step.

There is also a daily game for sports fans, built around grouping sports terms that share a common thread. It is a light, once-a-day puzzle rather than a deep game, and it gives the app a reason to be opened on quiet days when there is no live action. I would treat it as a small extra rather than a reason to install on its own.

What you need before you start

The app is a free download and carries no ads, which is a cleaner arrangement than many free sports apps. It does offer in-app purchases, so the free download is not the whole financial picture. The app's offer should become clear once you are in it.

Following your favorites and turning on notifications are the two actions that shape what you see, and approaching it that way from the start, rather than browsing everything, is how the app is designed to be used.

On requirements, the app is rated Everyone and the developer states that notifications can be switched on for real-time updates. Beyond that, the practical demands are the obvious ones for a news app, and enough interest in the sports covered to make the volume worthwhile.

Who gets the most from it

The Athletic is built for readers. If you want long-form reporting, interviews and analysis alongside your scores, the depth of the newsroom is the reason to choose this over a plain scoreboard app. Fans of the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, college sports, the Premier League, Formula 1 and the PGA Tour will find their competitions covered, and the international range means it is not limited to US audiences.

It also suits people who follow several sports rather than one. The podcast lineup and the daily game add reasons to return on days when your main team is not playing, which matters for an app you keep installed year-round. Someone who checks scores once a week and reads nothing beyond the result will find less here to justify the space.

A reading-first sports app worth keeping

The Athletic stands out through the writing. A newsroom of more than 400 journalists, coverage that runs from the NFL and MLB to MotoGP and World Rally, and podcasts like The Audible and No Dunks make it a broad package for anyone who follows sport seriously. The 4.6 average from over 53,000 ratings reflects a large, settled audience.

The trade-offs are straightforward. It is a free download with in-app purchases, and the app rewards readers over score-checkers. The daily game is a pleasant extra rather than a headline feature.

My recommendation is for fans who read about their teams as much as they watch them, and who follow more than one league. If that describes you, this is a natural install. If you want nothing but a scoreboard, the writing at the center of the app will be more than you need.

What's new in version 13.153.0

General fixes and updates