Weekly Podcast Data through August 16, 2020

Update through week ending August 16, 2020

Podtrac’s weekly podcast updates return this week due to popular demand and thanks to the support of iHeartRadio.

• For the week of August 10-16, downloads were up 3% over the previous week and up 52% over the same period last year.

• The Comedy and News categories showed the largest week-over-week download growth at 7% and 6% respectively.

• The History category shows the largest drop in week-over-week download growth at -7%.

U.S. Weekly Podcast Download Growth

Download growth for the 52-week period from August 12, 2019 to August 16, 2020 was +52% across all Podtrac measured podcasts.

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

Week-over-week download growth for the week of August 10, 2020 to August 16, 2020 was +3% across all Podtrac measured podcasts.

U.S. Weekly Podcast Download Growth for Top Categories

Download growth for the 52-week period from August 12, 2019 to August 16, 2020 was +1% for Arts, +44% for Business, +54% for Comedy, +32% for Education, +36% for History, +100% for News, +30% for Science, +27% for Society & Culture, +43% for Sports, and +46% for True Crime.

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

Week-over-week download growth for the week of August 10, 2020 to August 16, 2020 was +4% for Arts, -2% for Business, +7% for Comedy, +4% for Education, -7% for History, +6% for News, -1% for Science, -1% for Society & Culture, +5% for Sports, and -2% for True Crime.

Podtrac’s Weekly Podcast Data is brought to you by iHeartRadio

Top 20 Podcasts: July 2020

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

For even more podcast data, check out Podtrac’s Top Podcasts by Category .

*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.

July 2020- Top Podcast Publishers

The Top Podcast Publishers ranking for July 2020 is now available.

Highlights of the ranking include:

• Eight of the Top 20 publishers saw an increase in US monthly Audience in July over June, led by ESPN/ABC (+38%) with the inclusion of ABC into the network.

• Thirteen Top 20 publishers saw positive growth in their Global Download numbers from June to July.

• The average US Unique Monthly Audience for the Top 10 publishers was flat month-over-month, while it increased by 22% from July of 2019.

• Global Unique Streams & Downloads increased for the Top 10 publishers by 4% over June and increased by 72% over July 2019.

Top 20 Podcasts: June 2020

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

For even more podcast data, check out Podtrac’s Top Podcasts by Category .

*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.

June 2020- Top Podcast Publishers

The Top Podcast Publishers ranking for June 2020 is now available.

Highlights of the ranking include:

• Fifteen of the Top 20 publishers saw an increase in US monthly Audience in June over May.

• All but three Top 20 publishers saw positive growth in their Global Download numbers from May to June.

• The average Unique Monthly Audience for the top 10 publishers increased by 4% from May while it increased by 21% from June of 2019.

• Global Unique Streams & Downloads increased for the top 10 publishers by 5% over May and increased by 64% over June 2019.

Top 20 Podcasts: May 2020

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

For even more podcast data, check out Podtrac’s Top Podcasts by Category .

*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 - May 2020

The May 2020 Top Podcasts by Category Ranking is now available at Podtrac.com.

Highlights from the May Top Podcasts by Category ranking of Podtrac measured podcasts by US audience in 19 Categories include:

• The May ranking covers 545 shows from 171 different publishers

• iHeartRadio has the most shows (93) across the most categories (17)

• NPR has the most #1 shows (6) across categories

• Comedy, Health and Sports tied for the category with the most shows showing positive audience growth (29 shows each) in May over April

• Music was the category with the most shows (10) losing audience in May from April

• News has the largest average US audience across its top 5 shows again in May at 5.6million, down slightly from April

• The Top 5 Categories ranked by average audience of the top 5 shows in the category are: News, Society & Culture, Comedy, Business and Sports.

Excerpt from May News Category Ranking (visit Podtrac.com to learn how to access all data)

The Top Podcasts by Category Ranking is based on US Unique Monthly audience as measured by Podtrac’s IAB 2.0 certified compliant measurement system for 19 podcast categories. For each show listed, the ranking provides US monthly audience, month-over-month and year-over year growth in US audience, and monthly global downloads.

The ranking provides a valuable resource to keep up to date with changes in the most popular podcasts by category, is updated monthly and is available for purchase at Podtrac.com.

May 2020- Top Podcast Publishers

The Top Podcast Publishers ranking for May 2020 is now available.

Highlights of the ranking include:

• All but one of the top 20 publishers saw an increase in US monthly Audience in May over April.

• All but two top 20 publishers saw positive growth in their Global Download numbers from April to May.

• The average Unique Monthly Audience for the top 10 publishers increased by 15% from April while it increased by 22% from May of 2019.

• Global Unique Streams & Downloads increased for the top 10 publishers by 7% over April and increased by 52% over May 2019.

Weekly Podcast Data Amid the Coronavirus Crisis through May 31, 2020 - Final Update

• The week of May 25-31 was down 4% for both downloads and audience compared to the previous week due to lower podcast streams and downloads on Memorial Day.

• Weekly downloads since the first week of January are up 31% and weekly audience is up 13% through the week ending May 31, 2020 across all Podtrac measured podcasts.  

• With the exception of Memorial Day, downloads during peak weekday commute times continue to trend up since a low point the week of April 13-19. 

This will be the final post of our coronavirus series.

If you’re interested in continuing to receive weekly download and audience updates, let us know by providing your contact info here. We’ll provide details when available.

This is our 11th consecutive weekly update.  We began publishing these updates in response to the shutdown on March 9, which corresponded to two consecutive weeks of negative podcast download and audience growth across all the shows we measure.  Since a low point the week of April 13-19, growth has been largely positive and on track for recovery.  

Podtrac measures thousands of podcast publishers and podcasts, including those listed on our monthly rankings, and over a billion downloads and streams a month. 

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 31% and audience growth is up 13% through the week ending June 31, 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 May 25-31, +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 May 25-31, +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: +62% for News, +57% Comedy, +30% Business, +18% Sports and +16% Society & Culture through the week ending May 31.

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

For Podtrac measured shows downloads week-over-week for the week May 25-31 compared to the week May 18-24 for top podcast categories are: -3% for News, -8% Comedy, -3% for Business, -13% for Sports and +3% 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 25-31 is:  +70% for Government, +62% for News, +57% for Comedy, +31% for Kids & Family, +30% for Business, +24 for Technology, +23% for History, +22% for Science, +21% for Education, +19% for Health & Fitness, +18% for Sports, +18% for TV & Film, +16% for Society & Culture, +14% for Arts, +5% for Leisure, -2% for True Crime, -6% for Religion & Spirituality, -14% for Fiction and -23% 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 25-31 compared to the week May 18-24 are:  +4% for Government, -3% for News, -8% for Comedy, +1% for Kids & Family, -3% for Business, +3 for Technology, +2% for History, +5% for Science, +6% for Education, 0% (unchanged) for Health & Fitness, -13% for Sports, -2% for TV & Film, -3% for Society & Culture, +5% for Arts, -5% for Leisure, -3% for True Crime, -18% for Religion & Spirituality, -10% for Fiction and +1% 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 25-31 is:  +24% for News, +41% Comedy, +14% for Business, -1% for Sports and +11% for 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 14% for the week of May 25-31 compared to the week of March 2-8 across all Podtrac measured podcasts.  On Monday, May 25, Memorial Day, the peak hour was down 36%. On Saturday May 30 the peak hour was up 28%, and for Sunday May 31 the peak hour was up 22%.  With the exception of Memorial Day, downloads during peak weekday commute times continue to trend up since a low point the week of April 13-19.