Last updated on April 2, 2024. Previously updated May 5, 2022.
We first published this blog in 2022. Since then a lot has happened, so we collected the latest stats to keep you up to date as of April 2024. There are over 4.1 million podcasts globally, and thousands are being added every week.
Two years later, we still believe podcasting is here to stay and will continue to grow explosively for years.
We don’t have a crystal ball to see the future, but we do have some incredible data on the history of podcasting. Let’s dig into it so you can see why we’re so excited about podcasting.
388M new podcast listeners are expected by 2024. (Insider Intelligence). Since we wrote this in 2022 the number of podcast listeners has grown from an estimated 177M people to 192M people (The Infinite Dial, 2024). Sadly Insider Intelligence was a bit off in this projection, but podcasting continues to grow and gain new raving fans.
67% (192M) of the US population have ever listened to a podcast, up from 64% in 2023. (The Infinite Dial, 2024)
Over 84% (241M) of the US population is estimated to be familiar with podcasting. (The Infinite Dial, 2024
The number of women who listen to podcasts has grown by 76% since 2018. (Nielsen). In 2024, Edison Research reported that “45% of women in the U.S. age 12+ have listened to a podcast in the last month, up from 39% in 2023” (The Infinite Dial, 2024).
55k people search for “how to start a podcast” every month. 51K people search for “what is a podcast” every month. 85k people search for “best podcasts” every month. (Ahrefs)
Podcast Industry Statistics
Podcasting has been rapidly growing for nearly a decade. But what does the industry look like from a business perspective? Here’s what you need to know.
The United States podcasting industry was valued at $11.5B in 2020 [Grandview Research]
The global podcast market is on track to be worth $94.88B by 2028 [Source]
44% of podcasters stop creating after their third episode. (Amplifi Media)
Podcast Advertising Statistics
Podcast ads are critical to the health of the industry for two reasons: First, they help podcast hosts, podcast networks, and even audio engineers and production teams to get paid. Second, they generate revenue and build brand awareness for the businesses that buy ads.
Here are the key stats you should know about podcast ads.
As of 2024, the average conversion rate for podcast ads is 1.0% for site visits, 0.1% for purchases, 0.3% for lead conversions (email capture or signup), and 0.4% for app installations. (Spotify Ad Analytics Insights)
$1.4B was spent on podcast ads in 2021, over $2B is expected to be spent in 2022, and over $4B is expected to be spent by 2024. (IAB)
$842M was made in the US on podcast ads in 2020. (Statista)
Mid-roll and Pre-roll ads appear to be the best-performing locations, with post-roll performing the worst overall. (Podsights Benchmark Report, Morning Brew)
Podcast Creator Statistics
If you’re a podcaster or content creator, then these stats below are specifically for you. Here’s why we think you should care about starting a podcast.
The top 10% of podcasts get only 475 downloads in their first seven days, up from 335 in 2022. The top 5% get 1,104 downloads in their first seven days, up from 803 in 2022. The top 1% get 4,842 downloads in their first seven days, up from 4,202 in 2022. (Buzzsprout)
The top 10 creators on Supercast generate a combined $12M per year from their listeners. (Supercast)
Darknet Diaries makes over $22,000 per month on Patreon. (Patreon)
A niche Star Trek podcast is making $1,237 per month with just 223 patrons. We checked again in 2024 and they still appear to be making $1,249/month. (Patreon)
Over 900 podcasters are making money on Patreon, publicly displaying the number of patrons and or monthly revenue on their profile. (Patreon)
There are dozens of podcast networks that each have multiple shows and generate millions of dollars in ad revenue.
As of 2019, the median length of a podcast episode was 36 minutes and 34 seconds. (Pacific Content)
The most crowded podcast categories as of March 2021 were religion & spirituality, sports, news, and TV & film. (Pacific Content)
22. The creator economy is booming, with over 50M content creators as of 2022. (Signal Fire)
23. People use a filler word in their speech five times per minute on average. That means people say a word such as um, ah, or you know every 12 seconds. Translation? That means either a lot of distractions or a lot of podcast editing. (Harvard Business Review)
US Podcast Statistics
73% of people listen to podcasts on their smartphones, while 13% listen on a laptop or desktop. (The Infinite Dial, 2022)
Podcasting reaches a younger and more affluent audience, with 50% of people who listened to a podcast in the last month being 12-34 years old. (The Infinite Dial, 2022)
51% of monthly podcaster listeners identified as women, 48% as men, and 1% as non-binary or other in 2022. (The Infinite Dial, 2022)
After 9 years of growth, 2022 was the first year that Edison Research has presented a decline in the percentage of monthly podcast listening, from 41% to 38% of the US population (The Infinite Dial, 2022). Since then, growth has picked back up, with 42% of the US population listening in the past month in 2023 and 47% in 2024. (The Infinite Dial, 2024)
Monthly podcast listening is still up from the 37% listed in 2020, the year the pandemic spread worldwide. (Tom Webster)
Global Podcast Statistics
The number of podcasts in non-English languages has already surpassed English, and the largest YOY growth of new podcasts in 2020 was in Hindi, followed by Chinese, Portuguese, and Indonesian. (Chartable)
40% of people surveyed in Japan in 2021 said they don’t know what a podcast is, which is why they do not listen to them. (Reuters Institute)
As of 2021, 31% of people surveyed had listened to a podcast sometime within the past month (302M people). Ireland had the most podcast listeners at 41%, followed closely by Spain. (Reuters Institute, Podnews)
A global survey was conducted asking people if they had listened to a podcast within the last 12 months. Out of all those surveyed, Sweden, Ireland, and Brazil were the countries with the highest reported listeners (over 41% said yes). Followed closely by the UK and US. (Statista)
Additional Sources
If you want to learn more about the podcast industry, I highly recommend following these people and publications:
Tom Webster – Formerly a VP at Edison Research, 25 years as an audience researcher, and a very entertaining writer as well
Buzzsprout Global Stats – Access a public dashboard of data from the 114K+ podcasters who host their show on Buzzsprout
Closing Thoughts
The podcast industry has shown incredible growth for the past decade (roughly), and we can’t wait to see what happens next. As you can see by the global podcasting statistics, there is still much room for growth. If you compare podcasts to TV, digital streaming, YouTube, and social media, you can see that there is still potential for massive expansion across new markets, countries, and demographics.
If you haven’t started your own podcast yet, it’s not too late! Learn how to record a podcast here to get started!
Did we miss any stats? Click here to let us know on Twitter.
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