Weekly Podcast Data Amid the Coronavirus Crisis - Update through May 10, 2020

  • The week of May 4 - 10 was flat for downloads and up 1% for audience compared to the previous week.  This is the third consecutive week download growth has been flat or positive, and the fourth consecutive week audience growth has been flat or positive.     

  • Weekly downloads since the first week of January are up 25% and weekly audience is up 9% through the week ending May 10, 2020 across all Podtrac measured podcasts. 

  • On a monthly basis, average downloads for the Top 10 Publishers were down 6%  in April over March, but still up 3% from January 2020.

Podtrac measures thousands of podcast publishers and podcasts, including those listed on our monthly rankings, and over a billion downloads and streams a month. Each week during the coronavirus crisis we’re keeping everyone up to date with weekly summaries of download and audience data across all the shows we measure  This is our eighth consecutive weekly update.  

Visit Podtrac.com for even more podcast data including: Top Podcasts by Category, Top Podcasts and Top Publisher rankings.

Year-To-Date U.S. Weekly Podcast Download and Audience Growth

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Download growth since the first week of January is up 25% and audience growth is up 9% through the week ending May 10, 2020 across all Podtrac measured podcasts. 

Week-Over-Week U.S. Podcast Download and Audience Growth

U.S. weekly podcast download growth was:  0% (unchanged) the week May 4-10, 0% the week April 27 - May 3, +4% the week April 20-26, -1% the week of April 13-19, -3% the week of April 6-12, -1% the week of March 30 - April 5, -4% the week of March 23-29, -2% the week of March 16-22, -1% the week of March 9-15, and +2% the week of March 2-8 across all Podtrac measured podcasts.  

U.S. weekly podcast audience growth was:  +1% the week May 4-10, +2% the week April 27 - May 3, +2% the week of April 20-26, 0% (unchanged) the week of April 13-19, -4% the week of April 6-12, +1% the week of March 30 - April 5, -5% the week of March 23-29, -8% the week of March 16-22, -2% the week of March 9-15, and +4% the week of March 2-8 across all Podtrac measured podcasts.  

Monthly Podcast Download Growth - Top 10 Publishers

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On a monthly basis, U.S. downloads for 8 of the Top 10 Publishers listed on Podtrac’s Publisher Rankings were lower for the month of April vs. March.   

  • Among the Top 5 Publishers, average U.S. monthly downloads per publisher were 104.4 million for April which was down 6% from March, but still up 9% from January 2020.

  • Among the Top 10 Publishers, average U.S. monthly downloads per publisher were 67.6 million for April which was down 6% from March, but still up 3% from January 2020.

To date, average downloads per month for the Top 5 and Top 10 Publishers have been higher each month in 2020 than any month in 2019.

Year-To-Date U.S. Weekly Podcast Download Growth for Top Categories

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For Podtrac measured shows, download growth year-to-date for top podcast categories is: +69% for News, +23% Comedy, +20% Business, +16% for Sports, and -6% Society & Culture through the week ending May 10.

Week-Over-Week U.S. Podcast Download Growth for Top Categories

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For Podtrac measured shows downloads week-over-week for the week May 4-10 compared to the week April 27 - May 3 for top podcast categories are: +1% for News, -8% Comedy, +8% Business, -1% for Sports, and +2% Society & Culture.

Year-To-Date U.S. Weekly Podcast Download Growth for All Categories

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For Podtrac measured shows, download growth year-to-date by category through the week May 4-10 is: +69% for News, +36% for History, +23% for Comedy, +22% for Kids & Family, +20% for Business, +20% for TV & Film, +16% for Sports, +15% for True Crime, +14 for Technology, +12% for Science, +12% for Government, +6% for Health & Fitness, +6% for Religion & Spirituality, +3% for Fiction, +3% for Arts, +1% for Leisure, -5% for Education, -6% for Society & Culture, -32% for Music. 

Week-Over-Week U.S. Podcast Download Growth for All Categories

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For Podtrac measured shows, category downloads week-over-week for the week May 4-10 compared to the week April 27 - May 3 are:  +1% for News, +2% for History, -8% for Comedy, +2% for Kids & Family, +8% for Business, -2% for TV & Film, -1% for Sports, +4% for True Crime, +1 for Technology, -2% for Science, -13% for Government, +1% for Health & Fitness, +2% for Religion & Spirituality, +5% for Fiction, +1% for Arts, 0% for Leisure, +5% for Education, +2% for Society & Culture, -12% for Music. 

Year-To-Date U.S. Weekly Podcast Audience Growth for Top Categories

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Weekly category audience year-to-date for top podcast categories for the week May 4-10 is:  +27% for News, +12% Comedy, +3% Business, -3% for Sports, and -4% Society & Culture.

Week-by-Week:  U.S. Hourly Distribution - Weekday Commute & Weekends  

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Podcast streams and downloads during peak weekday morning commute times were down an average of 17% for the week of May 4-10 compared to the week of March 2-8 across all Podtrac measured podcasts.  On Saturday May 9 the peak hour was up 17%, and for Sunday May 10 the peak hour was up 17%.