Top 20 Podcasts: March 2020

Podtrac's ranking of the Top 20 Podcasts based on U.S. Unique Monthly Audience for March 2020 is now available at Podtrac.com.

For even more podcast data, check out Podtrac’s Podcast Audience Category Rankings.

*With the increasing popularity of shows which publish multiple times a day, beginning in December 2019, we now include theses shows in the Podtrac Top Podcast ranking. Previously these shows were excluded. While the counts for these shows are IAB V2 compliant, it should be noted that a segment of their audience members may listen to these shows from multiple locations throughout the day and present themselves technically as multiple unique users.

Visit Podtrac.com to sign-up to receive monthly updates to Podtrac's Top 20 Podcasts and Top 20 Podcast Publishers ranking reports.

Top Podcasts by Category Now Available from Podtrac

Understanding which of Podtrac’s measured podcasts are the most popular by content category and keeping track of that over time has been a challenge... until now.  

Podtrac’s new Podcast Audience Category Rankings provides current data on top shows measured by Podtrac in each of 19 topic categories -- delivered to your in-box each month.

Check out the sample ranking below and visit Podtrac.com to learn how to access the actual data for all 19 category rankings.

Weekly Podcast Data Amid the Coronavirus Crisis - Update through April 5, 2020

• Weekly podcast downloads and audiences have trended down since March 9th.  Last week’s data indicates this may be leveling off.  

• Overall growth in downloads and audiences is still positive year-to-date.

• Hourly data shows reduced downloads during commute hours and an increase on the weekend.

Lots of people have questions about what’s happening in podcasting as the COVID-19 crisis unfolds.  Podtrac measures thousands of podcast publishers and podcasts, including those listed on our monthly rankings, and over a billion downloads and streams a month, so each week we’ll keep everyone up to date with weekly summaries of download and audience data across all the shows we measure.  

Last week we added charts for 19 podcast categories based on questions we received the previous week.  This week we add an hourly distribution chart that shows behavioral impacts during commute times and the weekend.  

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

Download growth since the first week of January is up 24% and audience growth is up 9% through the week ending April 5, 2020 across all Podtrac measured podcasts. 

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

U.S. weekly podcast downloads decreased 1% the week of March 30- April 5, 4% the week of March 23-29, 2% the week of March 16-22, and 1% during the week of March 9 -15, across all Podtrac measured podcasts.  

U.S. weekly podcast audiences increased 1% the week of March 30- April 5, and decreased 5% the week of March 23-29, 8% the week of March 16-22, and 2% the week of March 9-15, across all Podtrac measured podcasts.  

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: +66% for News, +30% for Comedy, +19% for Business, +9% for Society & Culture, and +7% for Sports through the week ending April 5.

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

For Podtrac measured shows downloads week-over-week for the week of March 30- April 5 compared to the week of March 23-29 for top podcast categories are: -1% for News, +1% for Comedy, -14% for Business, +3% for Society & Culture, and -1% for Sports.

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 of March 30- April 5 is: +66% for News, +30% for Comedy, +25% for Government, +22% for TV & Film, +19% for Business, +18% for Kids & Family, +17% for History, +17% for Science, +9% for Society & Culture, +9% for Leisure, +7% for Religion & Spirituality, +7% for Sports, +6% for Health & Fitness, +5% for Arts, +2% for Technology, +6% for Health & Fitness, +5% for Arts, +2% for Technology, -7% for Music, -12% for Education, -12% for True Crime, -20% for Fiction.

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

For Podtrac measured shows, category downloads week-over-week for the week of March 30- April 5 compared to the week of March 23-29 are:  -1% for News, +1% for Comedy, -4% for Government, +20% for TV & Film, -14% for Business, -5% for Kids & Family, +9% for History, -8% for Science, +3% for Society & Culture, +2% for Leisure, +2% for Religion & Spirituality, -1% for Sports, 0% for Health & Fitness, -1% for Arts, 0% for Technology, -5% for Music, 0% for Education, -4% for True Crime, +18% for Fiction.

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

Weekly category audience year-to-date for top podcast categories through the week of March 30- April 5 is:  +26% for News, +18% Comedy, +4% for Business, +6% for Society & Culture, -7% for Sports.

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

Podcast streams and downloads during peak weekday morning commute times are down an average of 23% for the week of March 30- April 5, 2020 compared to the week of March 2 -8 across all Podtrac measured podcasts. On weekends, the peak for Saturday is up 12% and the peak for Sunday is up 20%.

March 2020- Top Podcast Publishers

The Top Podcast Publishers ranking for March 2020 is now available at Podtrac.com.

Highlights of the ranking include:

• This month we expand the ranking to the Top 20 publishers and welcome first time participants: WarnerMedia(#10), Fox News Radio (#18), and Slate (#20) along with returning participants American Public Media (#17) and WBUR (#20).

• US UMA for five of the top 20 are either up or flat for March over February with the largest increases coming from newcomers WarnerMedia (41%) and FoxNews(15%) - both buoyed by topical news coverage.

• Sixteen of the Top 20 were up or flat for March over February in regards to Downloads.

• The average Unique Monthly Audience for the top 10 publishers decreased by 4% from February while it increased by 33% from March of 2019.

• Global Unique Streams & Downloads increased for the top 10 publishers by 12% over February and by 28% over March 2020.

Note: As of April 2019, Global Downloads and Streams reflect updates to Podtrac’s measurement algorithm and are not directly comparable to months prior to April 2019. Unique Monthly Audience numbers were not impacted by this update.

Weekly Podcast Data Amid the Coronavirus Crisis - Update through March 29, 2020

Weekly podcast downloads and audiences are trending down since March 9th while overall growth in downloads and audiences is still positive year-to-date

Lots of people have questions about what’s happening in the podcast space as the COVID-19 crisis unfolds.  Podtrac measures over a billion podcast downloads a month, so each week we’ll keep everyone up to date with weekly summaries of download and audience data across all the shows we measure.  

Last week we provided data on the top podcast categories, and we had questions about the other categories, so this week we added charts for all 19 categories.  

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

Download growth since the first week of January is up 25% and audience growth is up 8% through the week ending March 29, 2020. 

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

U.S. podcast downloads decreased 1% during the week ending March 15, 2020, 2% the week ending March 22, and 4% the week ending March 29 across all Podtrac measured podcasts.  

U.S. weekly podcast audiences decreased 2% the week ending March 15, 8% the week ending March 22, and 5% the week ending March 29.  

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: +67% for News, +39% for Business, +29% for Comedy, +8% for Sports, and +6% for Society & Culture through the week ending March 29.

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

For Podtrac measured shows, downloads for the week ending March 29 compared to the week ending March 22 for top podcast categories is: +10% for Business, -4% for Comedy, -5% for Society & Culture, -6% for News, and -10% for Sports.

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 ending March 29 is: +67% for News, +39% for Business, +31% for Government, +29% for Comedy, +27% for Science, +24% for Kids & Family, +8% for Sports, +7% for History, +7% for Leisure, +6% for Society & Culture, +6% for Health & Fitness, +4% for Religion & Spirituality, +2% for Technology, +2% for TV and Film, +2% for Arts, -3% for Music, -9% for True Crime, -16% Education and -32% for Fiction.

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

For Podtrac measured shows, category downloads week-over-week for the week ending March 29 compared to the week ending March 22 are:  -6% for News, +10% for Business, -10% for Government, -4% for Comedy, +9% for Science, +9% for Kids & Family, -10% for Sports,-17% for History, -8% for Leisure, -5% for Society & Culture, -7% for Health & Fitness, +2% for Religion & Spirituality, -19% for Technology, -12% for TV and Film, 0% for Arts, -1% for Music, -1% for True Crime, -12% Education and +19% for Fiction.

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

Weekly category audience year-to-date for top podcast categories through the week ending March 29 is:  +29% for News, +11% for Business, +12% for Comedy, -6% for Sports, +2% for Society & Culture.

New Weekly Podcast Data Amid the COVID-19 Crisis

Weekly podcast downloads and audiences trend downward post March 9th while overall growth in downloads and audiences is still positive year-to-date

Lots of people have questions about what’s happening in the podcast space as the COVID-19 crisis unfolds.  We were curious as well, so took a look at our data to identify trends. Each week, Podtrac will keep everyone up to date with weekly summaries of download and audience data across all the shows we measure.  

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

Download growth since the first week of January is 31% and audience growth is 14% through the week ending March 22, 2020. 

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

U.S. podcast downloads decreased 1% during the week ending March 15, 2020 and 2% the week ending March 22 across all Podtrac measured podcasts.  U.S. weekly podcast audiences decreased 2% the week ending March 15 and 8% the week ending March 22.  

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

Across Podtrac measured shows, download growth year-to-date (through March 22) for top podcast categories is:  74% for News, 34% for Comedy, 21% for Sports, 12% for Society & Culture, and -8% for True Crime.

Week-Over-Week U.S. Podcast Download Growth by Category

For Podtrac measured shows, download growth week-over-week for the week ending March 22 compared to the week ending March 15 for top podcast categories is:  -1% for News, -5% for Comedy, -5% for Sports, -2% for Society & Culture, and -10% for True Crime.

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

Weekly category audience year-to-date for top podcast categories is:  36% for News, 14% for Comedy, 7% for Sports, 5% for Society & Culture, and -6% for True Crime through the week ending March 22.

Top 20 Podcasts: February 2020

Podtrac's ranking of the Top 20 Podcasts based on U.S. Unique Monthly Audience for February 2020 is now available at Podtrac.com.

Visit Podtrac.com to sign-up to receive monthly updates to Podtrac's Top 20 Podcasts and Top 15 Podcast Publishers ranking reports.

*With the increasing popularity of shows which publish multiple times a day, beginning in December 2019, we now include theses shows in the Podtrac Top Podcast ranking. Previously these shows were excluded. While the counts for these shows are IAB V2 compliant, it should be noted that a segment of their audience members may listen to these shows from multiple locations throughout the day and present themselves technically as multiple unique users.

February 2020- Top Podcast Publishers

The Top Podcast Publishers ranking for February 2020 is now available at Podtrac.com.

Highlights of the ranking include:

• All Top 15 publishers increased US Unique Monthly Audience in February over January.

• The average Unique Monthly Audience for the top 10 publishers increased by 9% from January while it increased by 41% from February of 2019.

• Global Unique Streams & Downloads decreased for the top 10 publishers by 4% over January - consistent with the shorter month.

Note: As of April 2019, Global Downloads and Streams reflect updates to Podtrac’s measurement algorithm and are not directly comparable to months prior to April 2019. Unique Monthly Audience numbers were not impacted by this update.

3/7/20

Top 20 Podcasts: January 2020

Podtrac's ranking of the Top 20 Podcasts based on U.S. Unique Monthly Audience for January 2020 is now available at Podtrac.com.

Visit Podtrac.com to sign-up to receive monthly updates to Podtrac's Top 20 Podcasts and Top 15 Podcast Publishers ranking reports.

*With the increasing popularity of shows which publish multiple times a day, beginning in December 2019, we now include theses shows in the Podtrac Top Podcast ranking. Previously these shows were excluded. While the counts for these shows are IAB V2 compliant, it should be noted that a segment of their audience members may listen to these shows from multiple locations throughout the day and present themselves technically as multiple unique users.