The week of May 11-17 was up 4% for downloads and up 3% for audience compared to the previous week. This is the fourth consecutive week download growth has been flat or positive, and the fifth consecutive week that audience growth has been flat or positive.
Weekly downloads since the first week of January are up 30% and weekly audience is up 12% through the week ending May 17, 2020 across all Podtrac measured podcasts.
Downloads during peak weekday commute times are trending up since a low point the week of April 13-19.
On a monthly basis, per Podtrac’s Ranking of Top Podcast Publishers for April 2020, average U.S. unique monthly audience for the top 10 publishers decreased 15% in April from March, while increasing 11% from April 2019. Average downloads for the top 10 publishers were down 6% in April over March and 20% higher than April 2019.
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 ninth 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 30% and audience growth is up 12% through the week ending May 17, 2020 across all Podtrac measured podcasts.
Week-Over-Week U.S. Podcast Download and Audience Growth
U.S. weekly podcast download growth was: +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: +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: +74% for News, +33% Comedy, +21% Business, +16% for Sports, and -1% Society & Culture through the week ending May 17.
Week-Over-Week U.S. Podcast Download Growth for Top Categories
For Podtrac measured shows downloads week-over-week for the week May 11-17 compared to the week May 4-10 for top podcast categories are: +3% for News, +8% Comedy, +1% Business, +1% for Sports, and +5% 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 11-17 is: +74% for News, +33% for Comedy, +28% for History, +28% for True Crime, +26% for Kids & Family, +22% for Science, +21% for Business, +19% for TV & Film, +18% for Government, +17 for Technology, +16% for Sports, +11% for Health & Fitness, +9% for Arts,+5% for Religion & Spirituality, +1% for Fiction, +1% for Leisure, -1% for Society & Culture, -1% for Education, -24% 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 11-17 compared to the week May 4-10 are: +3% for News, +8% for Comedy, -5% for History, +12% for True Crime, +4% for Kids & Family, +9% for Science, +1% for Business, -1% for TV & Film, +6% for Government, +3 for Technology, +1% for Sports, +4% for Health & Fitness, +6% for Arts, -1% for Religion & Spirituality, -2% for Fiction, -1% for Leisure, +5% for Society & Culture, +4% for Education, +12% 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 11-17 is: +32% for News, +17% Comedy, +8% Business, -2% for Sports, and 0% (unchanged) 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 16% for the week of May 11-17 compared to the week of March 2-8 across all Podtrac measured podcasts. On Saturday May 16 the peak hour was up 18%, and for Sunday May 17 the peak hour was up 27%.
