July 2021- Top Podcast Publishers

Highlights of the July 2021 ranking include :

  • Two of the Top 20 publishers saw an increase in US monthly Audience in July over June, while four saw an increase in Global Downloads.

  • The average US Unique Monthly Audience for the Top 20 publishers was down 6% month-over-month and down 7% over July 2020.

NOTE: Global Streams & Downloads continue to be depressed in July by the Apple Podcasts download bug which was corrected by Apple in its iOS 14.7 release in mid July.

What’s Behind the Year Over Year Decrease in Podcast Downloads for June 2021

Our weekly podcast updates (which you can subscribe to here) have shown a consistent downward trend in the year-over-year growth rate of downloads since the beginning of June.

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Overall, 2021 has been just slightly above or on par with 2020 traffic through May, and June was the first month where 2021 saw less traffic than 2020.

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The overall pattern is also reflected in the data for Top 10 publishers (for all of whom Podtrac tracks Spotify traffic).

We dug into the numbers to see what was behind this trend and here is what we found.

June download data was negatively impacted by a bug reported by Apple on their Apple Podcasts for Creators page on July 1, 2021 and described more fully in this Vulture article from Nick Quah.  The below graph shows the decreased June traffic from Apple Podcasts (in the range of 20%) which was not seen with any other software client.

Adjusting for the 20% decrease in Apple Podcast downloads for the month of June, absolute downloads for June would have grown at 5% year-over-year, in line with the average monthly growth for January through May.











May 2021- Top Podcast Publishers

Highlights of the May 2021 ranking include :

  • Fourteen of the Top 20 publishers saw an increase in US monthly Audience in May over April, while 15 saw an increase in Global Unique Downloads and Streams over the same period.

  • The average US Unique Monthly Audience for the Top 20 publishers was up 3% month-over-month and up 1% over May 2020.

  • Global Unique Streams & Downloads increased for the Top 20 publishers by 4% from April and decreased by 1% over May 2020.

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April 2021- Top Podcast Publishers - 5 Year Anniversary

This month marks the 5 year anniversary of Podtrac’s Top Podcast Publisher ranking which first published in May 2016 with data for April 2016.  

Podtrac’s Top Podcast Publisher ranking was the first of its kind for podcasting providing insight into the size of the industry at a time when such data was not available elsewhere.  

Industry firsts for the Podtrac ranking include:

  • Multiple podcast publishers participating in a ranking that displays their audience and download counts publicly, and uses a consistent measurement method  

  • The unique monthly audience metric available in podcasting for the first time

  • Advertisers, publishers and the industry at large have a transparent method of tracking industry growth by key publishers over time

For the past five years, the Podtrac Top Publisher ranking has provided podcast publishers the ability to showcase their industry position. 

“Podtrac created a valuable way for us to benchmark our audience and get a wider view of the industry,” said Anya Grundmann, SVP for Programming and Audience Development at NPR, which was #1 on the ranking for 40 straight months. “The insights we gather from the tracker have been a valuable part of our toolkit as we imagine new shows and build out our portfolio.”

“As we’ve expanded and refined our podcasting efforts, the Podtrac Top Publisher ranking has provided us valuable benchmarking information that was not available to us anywhere else,” said Conal Byrne, CEO of the iHeartMedia Digital Audio Group which moved into the #1 position for the first time in August of 2019 and has held that position for the past 7 months.

The rankings launched as a Top 10 Publisher ranking and expanded to the Top 20 Publishers in March of 2020.  Besides the number of publishers on the list, a lot has changed in the podcasting space in the past 5 years.  Both Unique Monthly Audience and Global Downloads & Streams have increased dramatically over this time for top publishers, showcasing the overall growth in the space.

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“We at Wondery value the Podtrac ranker as both a clear and accurate barometer for the growth of the podcast industry, and a great resource for keeping a pulse on industry trends. We look forward to continuing our partnership with the innovative team at Podtrac.” commented, Jen Sargent, CEO of Wondery, who has been a Top 10 Publisher every month since their debut on the ranking in June 2017.

Said Mark McCrery, CEO of Podtrac, “We look forward to tracking and sharing industry growth by top publishers and podcasts in the years to come”

Highlights of the April 2021 ranking include :

  • Two of the Top 20 publishers saw an increase in US monthly Audience in April over March, while 6 saw an increase in Global Unique Downloads and Streams over the same period.

  • The average US Unique Monthly Audience for the Top 20 publishers was down 7% month-over-month and up 13% over April 2020.

  • Global Unique Streams & Downloads decreased for the Top 20 publishers by 2% from March and increased by 3% over April 2020.

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