[2][3] Initially published every other week, it scaled back to 24 issues a year in early 2016, then became a monthly in its later days.

The main sports covered include Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, National Football League, National Hockey League, college basketball, and college football.

On April 30, 2019, ESPN announced that it would cease paper publishing in September of that year.

[4][5] A multiplatform monthly story called ESPN Cover Story was launched to continue the magazine's legacy featuring a digital poster-style cover and profile in cover story fashion, including the continuation of NEXT Athlete proclamations and The Body Issue, but these two features did not return.

The Big Ticket, similar to The Jump, was introduced when ESPN Mag became a monthly in Fall 2018.