READ: UFO Sightings Surge in 2025 as Reports Hit Record High Halfway Through the Year
The first half of 2025 has seen a dramatic rise in UFO activity, with the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) logging 2,174 sightings so far — up from 1,492 in 2024 and surpassing the 2,077 reports recorded in early 2023.
With this dramatic rise, many are asking: what’s happening in our skies, and what could the second half of the year bring?
NUFORC, a nonprofit organization that collects and investigates UFO sightings, says the total number of submitted reports actually exceeds 3,000 for the first six months of 2025. However, many of those involve sightings from years or even decades ago, only now being reported due to lingering stigma around the topic.
Chief Technology Officer Christian Stepien estimates that only about 5% of sightings are ever reported, meaning the true number of unexplained encounters could be far higher. Reports come from ordinary citizens, air traffic controllers, police officers, and even military personnel, adding weight to the growing conversation.
Public interest in UFOs (or UAPs — Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, as the U.S. government now calls them) exploded after whistleblower David Grusch’s 2023 congressional testimony. Grusch alleged the Pentagon has been secretly recovering and reverse-engineering nonhuman craft, claims the Department of Defense strongly denies.
His testimony sparked congressional hearings and led to more insiders stepping forward, claiming the government has not been transparent with either the public or lawmakers. Some witnesses have described massive triangle-shaped craft, glowing orbs, and discs performing maneuvers far beyond known human technology.
While many reports are dismissed as balloons, drones, or misidentified stars, NUFORC says about 3% of sightings remain highly unusual and defy easy explanation. Stepien notes reports often describe triangles, discs, cigars, and orbs, some of which shift shapes mid-flight or display impossible levels of agility. These “dramatic” cases, including craft described as the size of football fields, continue to fuel speculation about what’s really happening above us.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon maintains that there is no verified evidence of extraterrestrial craft. A recent Wall Street Journal investigation even suggested that some UFO rumors may have been deliberately planted by government agencies to cover up classified Earth-based projects, leaving truth-seekers questioning what’s fact and what’s distraction.
With sightings climbing and public demand for answers growing louder, the second half of 2025 could bring major revelations — or deepen the mystery. NUFORC says they plan to continue collecting reports and are calling for greater government transparency, especially access to high-resolution imagery and infrared data already being captured by advanced military technology.
