Interesting Facts and Statistics about
Podcasts
Podcast ads get more attention than any other medium - 55% of all listeners. This may be because the host often reads the ad.
Podcast ad revenue grew from $69 million in 2015 to a projected $659 million in 2020 - 1,000% in five years!
According to Forbes, there are more than 800,000 podcasts worldwide, totalling 54 million episodes.
80% of listeners listen to most or all of each episode - one of the highest rates for any medium.
10% of the content consumed by Millennials is podcasts, which they consider more reliable and intellectual than other content.
Podcast listeners like to multitask. 59% listen when they do housework, 52% while driving, 51% while cooking, and 50% when going to bed.
In 2019, there were 86 million podcast listeners in the US, and the number is projected to reach 132 million in 2022.
Podcasts are most popular in South Korea, with 53% listening at least once per month, followed by Spain (39%), Ireland (37%), and Sweden and the US (each with 35%).
The average podcast lasts 43 minutes and 24 seconds, but length varies across genres. The average gaming podcast is 72 minutes long, whereas language teaching podcasts last just 7 minutes.
According to Edison Research, 71% of podcast listeners listen for fun, 60% to keep up with news, and 51% to relax.
The majority of listeners consume podcasts at home (49%), 22% while driving, and just 4% while using public transport.
The most popular podcast in the USA is True Crime. Chat, news, current affairs, feminism, sports, and cuisine are also popular.
Around the globe, 43% of all users choose Spotify as their podcast platform; the service boasted over 200 million active users and half a billion Android downloads in 2019.
In the US, the most popular platform is Apple, with a 52% market share compared to 9% for Spotify and 4.6% for Sticher.
65% of podcast listening is on mobile devices compared to just 25% on computers and 10% on smart speakers.
Google has two million podcasts registered, but that is dwarfed by the 440 million blogs registered on Tumblr. Statistics indicate people lose interest in podcasts, so Google has developed tools to help browse through them.
Serial was one of the first big podcasts. It remains huge and was downloaded over 340 million times in 2019.
Apple hosts more than 525,000 active podcasts and 18.5 million episodes, broadcasting in 155 countries.