Puppy Bowl 2025: Start Time, How to Stream the Cute Canine Competition

The Super Bowl is happening this weekend, and if you also enjoy sporting events with tail-wagging, toy-tugging and miniature limbs, you can watch good boys and girls face off in the 21st Puppy Bowl.

Puppy Bowl XXI will showcase 142 rescue puppies from 80 shelters — the biggest canine cohort yet — before the Super Bowl airs at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT. The aggressively cute competitors will vie for the Lombarky trophy as part of either Team Ruff or Team Fluff. The three-hour spectacle will include play-by-play commentary from sportscasters Steve Levy and Taylor Rooks and a pause for purrs during the Kitty Halftime Show. 

For the first time, there will be a Puppy Combine pregame show, where 10 dogs will take part in practice drills in hopes of being the top pick in the Puppy Bowl draft. The Bowl will include 11 special needs pups, including a blind and hearing-impaired Australian shepherd mix and a pit bull terrier mix participating in a wheelchair. It’ll also highlight adoption journeys and the work of shelters and rescues. 

Viewers can catch a sneak peek of James Gunn’s upcoming Superman movie and a message from the writer-director and his furry companion. If the details of this dog-palooza have won you over, here’s how to watch the 2025 Puppy Bowl.

Read more: Super Bowl 2025: How to Watch the Kendrick Lamar and SZA Halftime Show

Where to Stream Puppy Bowl 2025

The Puppy Bowl will begin at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT on Sunday, Feb. 9 and will be simulcast across Max, Discovery Plus, Discovery, Animal Planet, TBS and TruTV. The Puppy Combine pregame show will air at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT on Animal Planet.

Max recently changed the names of its plans, but the features remain the same. There are three versions: Basic With Ads, which costs $10 per month or $100 per year; Standard, which costs $17 per month or $170 per year; and Premium, which costs $21 per month or $210 per year. You can opt for a bundle of Max, Hulu and Disney Plus or a Max student discount. Read our review of the streaming service here.

Outside of Max, Discovery Plus is a way to stream content from brands like HGTV, Food Network, TLC, ID, Animal Planet and Discovery Channel. After a price increase last month, the service costs $6 per month with ads and $10 per month without.

Philo is a live TV streaming service that allows you to watch Discovery and Animal Planet, which will both have the Puppy Bowl. While it doesn’t carry as many channels as more expensive rivals like YouTube TV, it does have Lifetime, TLC, Game Show Network, Hallmark Channel, A&E, AMC and more. A free trial is also available.

The live TV streamer Sling TV will grant you access to TBS regardless of whether you have the Orange plan, which costs $46, or the Blue plan, which costs between $46 and $51, depending on where you live. Blue also includes the Puppy Bowl-having channels Discovery and truTV.

How to watch the Puppy Bowl with a VPN

Perhaps you’re traveling abroad and want to stream the Puppy Bowl while away from home. With a VPN, you’re able to virtually change your location on your phone, tablet or laptop to access the program from anywhere in the world. There are also other good reasons to use a VPN for streaming.

A VPN is the best way to encrypt your traffic to stop your internet service provider from throttling your speeds. Using a VPN is also a great idea if you’re traveling and want to add an extra layer of privacy for your devices and log-ins when connecting to Wi-Fi networks. Streaming TV can be a bit smoother with a reliable, quality VPN that’s passed our tests and meets our security standards.

You can use a VPN to stream content legally as long as VPNs are allowed in your country and you have a valid subscription to the streaming service you’re using. The US and Canada are among the countries where VPNs are legal, but we advise against streaming or downloading content on illegal torrent sites. We recommend ExpressVPN, but you may opt for another provider from our best list, such as Surfshark or NordVPN. 

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If you’re looking for a secure and dependable VPN, check out our Editors’ Choice: ExpressVPN. It’s fast, works on multiple devices, and provides stable streams. It’s normally $13 a month, but it currently costs less overall to go for a 15-month subscription, where each month shakes out to $6.67.

ExpressVPN offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. Read our review of ExpressVPN.

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Follow the VPN provider’s instructions for installation and choose a country where the Puppy Bowl will be streaming on a service like Max. Before you open the streaming app, make sure you’re connected to your VPN using your selected region. If you want to stream the Puppy Bowl on more than one device, it’s possible you’ll need to configure each one to ensure you’re signed in. Go to settings and check your network connections to verify you’re logged in and connected to your VPN account.

If you run into issues with streaming, first make sure your VPN is up and running on its encrypted IP address. Double-check that you’ve followed installation instructions correctly and picked the right geographical area for viewing. If you still encounter connection problems, you may need to reboot your device. Close all apps and windows, restart your device and connect to your VPN first. Note that some streaming services will restrict VPN access.