Every year podcasting gains listeners — but also loses them. While early listeners were fans of the medium, the space is growing ever more complex, with people dipping in and out of the medium for a single show or catching their favorite podcast in places creators never planned for. While there is no shortage of advice about how to grow a single podcast, how do we grow podcasting?
This year’s study is the largest we have ever done, and stands as the largest publicly-available study of podcast consumption in the US. With a sample of over 5,000 Americans 18+, The Podcast Landscape is designed to provide the industry’s most reliable audience estimates and directional data. Among the highlights:
- Podcasts now reach 53% of Americans 18+ every month – the first report of monthly consumption reaching the majority of adults in the US
- The medium continues to index highly with 18-54s, and multicultural audiences. In addition, The Podcast Landscape is the first report to provide reliable estimates of Asian-American podcast consumption (62% monthly) and the LGBTQ+ audience (57% monthly consumption)
- Women and those 55 years of age and older represent the most significant growth areas for the medium – while the age composition of podcasting has shifted slightly older than it was in 2023, 58% of non-consumers are 55+
- Podcasting continues to generate new hits. While Joe Rogan still sits atop any podcast ranker, there are five new entrants among this year’s Top 20 Favorite Podcasts
- Some of those new favorites have been driven by YouTube podcast consumption, and today YouTube is named as a source for podcast discovery by 52% of podcast consumers, second only to recommendations (56%)
- There has been significant movement in the perceptions of non-consumers that may lead to opportunities in podcasting. Year-over-year, interest in the perceived benefits of podcasting grew significantly, led by “listening to discussions on topics of interest” (a 13 percentage point gain), “learning about new hobbies” (a 12 percentage point gain), and “hearing programs that accompany TV series or movies” (a gain of 8 percentage points)
The study also contains invaluable information about the reasons for churn and ways to improve conversion from podcasting trial to regular usage.
The study was conducted in partnership with Signal Hill Insights, and is made possible through the cooperation of Wondery, American Public Media, ESPN Podcasts, BetterHelp, SiriusXM Podcast Network, LibsynAds, Paramount, and NPR.
For this project, 5,071 Americans 18+ were sampled using a single, high quality online panel. Results were weighted to the latest US Census information.
