The week of May 18-24 was +5% for downloads and +4% for audience compared to the previous week. This is the fifth consecutive week download growth has been flat or positive, and the sixth consecutive week audience growth has been flat or positive.
Weekly downloads since the first week of January are up 36% and weekly audience is up 17% through the week ending May 24, 2020 across all Podtrac measured podcasts. Weekly download growth year-to-date was 1% higher than the previous peak week of March 2-8.
Comedy saw the largest week-over week growth of any category at 24%.
Downloads during peak weekday commute times continue to trend up since a low point the week of April 13-19.
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 shutdown we’re keeping everyone up to date with weekly summaries of download and audience data across all the shows we measure This is our 10th 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
Download growth since the first week of January is up 36% and audience growth is up 17% through the week ending May 24, 2020 across all Podtrac measured podcasts.
Week-Over-Week U.S. Podcast Download and Audience Growth
U.S. weekly podcast download growth was: +5% the week May 18-24, +4% the week of May 11-17, 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: +4% the week of May 18-24, +3% the week of May 11-17, +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
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
For Podtrac measured shows, download growth year-to-date for top podcast categories is: +71% for News, +66% Comedy, +36% Sports, +30% Business, and +4% Society & Culture through the week ending May 24.
Week-Over-Week U.S. Podcast Download Growth for Top Categories
For Podtrac measured shows downloads week-over-week for the week May 18-24 compared to the week May 11-17 for top podcast categories are: -2% for News, +24% Comedy, +17% for Sports,+7% for Business and +5% for Society & Culture.
Year-To-Date U.S. Weekly Podcast Download Growth for All Categories
For Podtrac measured shows, download growth year-to-date by category through the week May 18-24 is: +71% for News, +66% for Comedy, +36% for Sports, +32% for Government, +32% for History, +30% for True Crime, +30% for Kids & Family, +30% for Business, +21% for TV & Film, +21 for Technology, +19% for Health & Fitness, +16% for Science, +15% for Religion & Spirituality, +14% for Education, +11% for Leisure, +8% for Arts, +4% for Society & Culture, -2% for Fiction, -19% for Music.
Week-Over-Week U.S. Podcast Download Growth for All Categories
For Podtrac measured shows, category downloads week-over-week for the week May 18-24 compared to the week May 11-17 are: -2% for News, +24% for Comedy, +17% for Sports, +12% for Government, +2% for History, +2% for True Crime, +3% for Kids & Family, +7% for Business, +2% for TV & Film, +3 for Technology, +8% for Health & Fitness, -5% for Science, +10% for Religion & Spirituality, +16% for Education, +10% for Leisure, -1% for Arts, +5% for Society & Culture, -3% for Fiction, +7% for Music.
Year-To-Date U.S. Weekly Podcast Audience Growth for Top Categories
Weekly category audience year-to-date for top podcast categories for the week May 18-24 is: +31% for News, +48% for Comedy, +6% for Sports, +17% for Business, and +1% Society & Culture.
Week-by-Week: U.S. Hourly Distribution - Weekday Commute & Weekends
Podcast streams and downloads during peak weekday morning commute times were down an average of 11% for the week of May 18-24 compared to the week of March 2-8 across all Podtrac measured podcasts. On Saturday May 23 the peak hour was up 21%, and for Sunday May 24 the peak hour was up 18%. Downloads during weekday commute times are up compared to the pandemic low week of April 13-19.