2025 UAP Sighting Wave
The first half of 2025 saw over 2,174 UFO/UAP sightings reported to the National UFO Reporting Center - an increase from previous years. New York alone logged 66 reports including glowing orbs, silent triangles, and shape-shifting lights. Experts describe 2025 as a 'tipping point' for UAP awareness.
The year 2025 has seen a remarkable surge in UFO sightings across the United States, with reporting organizations logging thousands of encounters and researchers describing the year as a potential “tipping point” in public awareness of unidentified aerial phenomena.
The Numbers
According to data from the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC), 2,174 UAP sightings were reported in just the first six months of 2025. This represents a significant increase from 2024, when 1,492 sightings were logged during the same period. The numbers approach 2023’s total of 2,077 for the first half of that year.
The surge isn’t evenly distributed. Certain states consistently produce more reports than others, with New York, California, Florida, and Texas leading the nation. New York alone recorded 66 reported sightings in the first half of 2025, a rate of roughly one report every three days.
Types of Sightings
The 2025 reports describe a familiar range of phenomena:
- Glowing orbs of various colors, often moving in ways inconsistent with conventional aircraft
- Silent triangular craft, sometimes massive in scale, hovering or moving slowly
- Shape-shifting lights that change formation or merge with one another
- Classic disc or saucer-shaped objects
- Unusual drone-like objects exhibiting anomalous flight characteristics
Witnesses come from all backgrounds - pilots, police officers, military personnel, and ordinary citizens. Many sightings involve multiple witnesses, and an increasing number are captured on smartphone video.
Technology Changes Everything
Researchers note that 2025 marks a shift in how UAP encounters are documented. The ubiquity of smartphones, trail cameras, and home security systems means that more sightings are being recorded than ever before. Drones equipped with cameras allow amateur investigators to examine sighting locations from the air.
This technological democratization cuts both ways - it produces more evidence but also more hoaxes and misidentifications. Sorting genuine anomalies from conventional explanations has become both easier and more difficult.
Congressional Attention
The surge in sightings comes amid unprecedented congressional attention to UAP issues. Multiple hearings in 2025 have addressed military encounters, whistleblower allegations, and Pentagon transparency. The FY2026 National Defense Authorization Act includes provisions requiring briefings on UAP intercepts by military commands.
Whether the increase in sightings reflects a genuine increase in phenomena, greater public awareness leading to more reporting, or some combination of factors remains unclear. What is certain is that UAP are now a mainstream topic of discussion in ways they weren’t even five years ago.