Podcastquery
Research/Podcast

Podcast 2026 Statistics (Updated September)

50 statistics on podcasts and podcast listeners. 44 come from surveys, platforms and reports by other organisations; 6 come from Podcastquery's count of the 4,711,475 feeds in the Podcast Index.

Sophie Winkler
Written by
Sophie Winkler
Growth Marketing Manager
Published
September 24, 2026
Last modified
September 24, 2026
Sources verified

Top 10

  1. The Podcast Index listed 4,731,279 podcast feeds and 167,311,051 episodes on September 24, 2026.
  2. 437,693 of the 4,711,475 feeds in the Podcast Index dump of 2026-08-16 (9.29%) published an episode in the 90 days before that date, in Podcastquery's count.
  3. 58% of Americans age 12 and older, an estimated 167 million people, listened to or watched a podcast in the last month in early 2026, the highest share Edison has measured.
  4. 2,768,200 feeds (58.75%) hold two or more episodes and published nothing in the year to 2026-08-16, the largest group in the Podcast Index; 892,068 (18.93%) hold exactly one episode, in Podcastquery's count.
  5. 44% of U.S. weekly podcast consumers said YouTube is the platform they use most for podcasts in April 2026, against 14% for Spotify and 5% for Apple.
  6. YouTube had more than 1 billion monthly active viewers of podcast content in February 2025.
  7. Anchor (Spotify for Creators) hosts 40.46% of all podcast feeds but only 15.36% of the 1,387 shows on Apple's top-100 charts; Megaphone hosts 0.57% of feeds and 17.23% of those chart shows, in Podcastquery's count of the Podcast Index and Apple top-100 charts.
  8. 49% of U.S. weekly podcast consumers prefer to actively watch the video while listening, up from 30% in April 2022.
  9. 54% of U.S. adults said in August 2025 that they had listened to a podcast in the past 12 months, up from 49% in 2022, in a Pew Research Center survey.
  10. The BBC holds 59 of the 1,800 top-100 slots across 18 Apple storefronts, more than any other company; Goalhanger is second with 44 slots from 11 shows, more than iHeartMedia (19) and Spotify (15) together, in Podcastquery's count of Apple top-100 charts.

How many podcasts are there

  1. 1

    The Podcast Index listed 4,731,279 podcast feeds and 167,311,051 episodes on September 24, 2026.

    Source: Podcast Index, daily counts, 2026 [1]

  2. 2

    467,359 feeds in the Podcast Index published a new episode in the 90 days to September 24, 2026, about one in ten of all listed feeds.

    Source: Podcast Index, daily counts, 2026 [1]

  3. 3

    336,422 feeds in the Podcast Index published a new episode in the 30 days to September 24, 2026.

    Source: Podcast Index, daily counts, 2026 [1]

  4. 4

    Listen Notes counted 3,814,616 podcasts and 194,479,537 episodes on September 24, 2026; it leaves out feeds with no episodes and very low-quality feeds.

    Source: Listen Notes, podcast stats, 2026 [2]

  5. 5

    Spotify lists 7 million podcast titles, next to 100 million music tracks and 700,000 audiobooks.

    Source: Spotify, company info, 2026 [3]

What 4.7 million podcast feeds show

  1. 6

    437,693 of the 4,711,475 feeds in the Podcast Index dump of 2026-08-16 (9.29%) published an episode in the 90 days before that date, in Podcastquery's count.

    Source: Podcastquery · 90 days to 2026-08-16 · 4,711,475 feeds

  2. 7

    2,768,200 feeds (58.75%) hold two or more episodes and published nothing in the year to 2026-08-16, the largest group in the Podcast Index; 892,068 (18.93%) hold exactly one episode, in Podcastquery's count.

    Source: Podcastquery · 365 days to 2026-08-16 · 4,711,475 feeds

  3. 8

    Anchor (Spotify for Creators) hosts 40.46% of all podcast feeds but only 15.36% of the 1,387 shows on Apple's top-100 charts; Megaphone hosts 0.57% of feeds and 17.23% of those chart shows, in Podcastquery's count of the Podcast Index and Apple top-100 charts.

    Source: Podcastquery · feed dump 2026-08-16; Apple charts of 18 storefronts · 4,711,475 feeds; 1,387 chart shows joined to a feed

  4. 9

    55.38% of podcast feeds (2,609,134) are in English and 14.78% (696,557) in Spanish, in Podcastquery's count of the Podcast Index.

    Source: Podcastquery · feed dump 2026-08-16 · 4,711,475 feeds

  5. 10

    The BBC holds 59 of the 1,800 top-100 slots across 18 Apple storefronts, more than any other company; Goalhanger is second with 44 slots from 11 shows, more than iHeartMedia (19) and Spotify (15) together, in Podcastquery's count of Apple top-100 charts.

    Source: Podcastquery · Apple charts read September 2026 · 1,800 chart slots in 18 storefronts

  6. 11

    True Crime is the first category of 0.52% of podcasts active in the last 90 days (2,266 of 437,693) but of 7.14% of the Apple top-100 chart shows (99 of 1,387), in Podcastquery's count of the Podcast Index and Apple top-100 charts.

    Source: Podcastquery · 90 days to 2026-08-16; Apple charts of 18 storefronts · 437,693 active feeds; 1,387 chart shows

How many Americans listen to podcasts

  1. 12

    58% of Americans age 12 and older, an estimated 167 million people, listened to or watched a podcast in the last month in early 2026, the highest share Edison has measured.

    Source: Edison Research at SSRS, The Infinite Dial 2026, 2026 [4]

  2. 13

    45% of Americans age 12 and older, an estimated 130 million people, listened to or watched a podcast in the last week in early 2026, in Edison Research's Infinite Dial 2026 survey.

    Source: Edison Research at SSRS, The Infinite Dial 2026, 2026 [4]

  3. 14

    An estimated 230 million Americans age 12 and older have ever listened to or watched a podcast, up from 210 million in 2025.

    Source: Edison Research at SSRS, The Podcast Consumer 2026, 2026 [5]

  4. 15

    The number of weekly U.S. podcast consumers age 12 and older rose from an estimated 115 million in 2025 to 130 million in 2026.

    Source: Edison Research at SSRS, The Podcast Consumer 2026, 2026 [5]

  5. 16

    57% of Americans age 12 and older have both listened to and watched a podcast, in Edison Research's Infinite Dial 2026 survey.

    Source: Edison Research at SSRS, The Infinite Dial 2026, 2026 [4]

  6. 17

    68% of Americans aged 35 to 54 are monthly podcast consumers; 44% of those 55 and older are.

    Source: Edison Research at SSRS, The Podcast Consumer 2026, 2026 [5]

  7. 18

    54% of U.S. adults said in August 2025 that they had listened to a podcast in the past 12 months, up from 49% in 2022, in a Pew Research Center survey.

    Source: Pew Research Center, Podcasts and News Fact Sheet, 2025 [6]

  8. 19

    67% of U.S. adults aged 18 to 29 said they had listened to a podcast in the past 12 months, against 54% of all adults, in Pew Research Center's August 2025 survey.

    Source: Pew Research Center, Podcasts and News Fact Sheet, 2025 [6]

Where people listen to and watch podcasts

  1. 20

    YouTube had more than 1 billion monthly active viewers of podcast content in February 2025.

    Source: YouTube Official Blog, February 2025, 2025 [7]

  2. 21

    More than 500 million Spotify users have streamed a video podcast, nearly 50% more than a year earlier, Spotify said in May 2026.

    Source: Spotify, Investor Day 2026 podcast update, 2026 [8]

  3. 22

    In Edison Research's Share of Ear diary, YouTube took 32% of the time Americans spent with podcasts each day in Q4 2025, Spotify 25% and Apple 20%.

    Source: Edison Research at SSRS, The Infinite Dial 2026, 2026 [4]

  4. 23

    37% of U.S. weekly podcast consumers use YouTube most often for podcasts in 2026, up from 31% two years earlier; Spotify had led the ranking before.

    Source: Inside Radio, reporting Edison Research's The Podcast Consumer 2026, 2026 [9]

  5. 24

    44% of U.S. weekly podcast consumers said YouTube is the platform they use most for podcasts in April 2026, against 14% for Spotify and 5% for Apple.

    Source: Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights, Podcast Download Spring 2026, via Westwood One, 2026 [10]

  6. 25

    62% of U.S. weekly podcast consumers knew by April 2026 that Netflix carries podcasts, four months after Netflix added them.

    Source: Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights, Podcast Download Spring 2026, via Westwood One, 2026 [10]

  7. 26

    38% of U.S. weekly podcast consumers listen via a smart TV, and podcast viewing on smart TVs grew 19% in a year.

    Source: Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights, Podcast Download Spring 2026, via Westwood One, 2026 [10]

  8. 27

    Apple Podcasts accounted for 35.8% of downloads of Buzzsprout-hosted podcasts in August 2026, Spotify for 28.8% and web browsers for 7.2%.

    Source: Buzzsprout, podcast stats, 2026 [11]

Do people watch or listen to podcasts

  1. 28

    92% of U.S. weekly podcast consumers say they listen to podcasts; 8% say they only watch.

    Source: Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights, Podcast Download Spring 2026, via Westwood One, 2026 [10]

  2. 29

    49% of U.S. weekly podcast consumers prefer to actively watch the video while listening, up from 30% in April 2022.

    Source: Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights, Podcast Download Spring 2026, via Westwood One, 2026 [10]

  3. 30

    90% of U.S. monthly podcast consumers listen to podcasts and 62% watch them, Nielsen found in 2026.

    Source: Nielsen, Podcast Listen & Watch Report, 2026 [12]

  4. 31

    27% of UK podcast listeners prefer video podcasts, 26% let the video play in the background and 39% prefer audio only.

    Source: Ofcom, audio listening research 2026, 2026 [13]

  5. 32

    72% of UK weekly podcast consumers aged 15 and older actively watch video podcasts in 2026, up from 58% in 2023.

    Source: Edison Research at SSRS, The UK Podcast Consumer 2026 (press release on Podnews), 2026 [14]

Listening time and podcast ads

  1. 33

    Podcasts take 10% of all audio time of Americans age 13 and older, and 36% of the audio time of daily podcast listeners, Edison's Share of Ear shows.

    Source: Inside Radio, reporting Edison Research's The Podcast Consumer 2026, 2026 [9]

  2. 34

    Radio and podcasts took 82% of Americans' daily ad-supported audio time in Q1 2026; streaming music services took 16%, according to Nielsen's The Record Q1 2026, using Edison Research Share of Ear data.

    Source: Nielsen, The Record Q1 2026 (Edison Share of Ear data), 2026 [15]

  3. 35

    76% of U.S. weekly podcast consumers age 13 and older have acted after hearing an ad on a podcast, Edison reports.

    Source: Edison Research at SSRS, The Podcast Consumer 2026, 2026 [5]

  4. 36

    Two thirds of U.S. weekly podcast consumers listen most often at home, up from 61% in 2024 and 64% in 2025.

    Source: Inside Radio, reporting Edison Research's The Podcast Consumer 2026, 2026 [9]

  5. 37

    IAB predicted in 2024 that U.S. podcast ad revenue would reach nearly $2.6 billion in 2026 (forecast).

    Source: IAB, U.S. Podcast Advertising Revenue Study (2024), 2024 [16]

Podcast listening outside the U.S.

  1. 38

    27% of UK adults listen to a podcast every week, Ofcom reported in 2026.

    Source: Ofcom, audio listening research 2026, 2026 [13]

  2. 39

    11% of people across the 48 markets in the Reuters Institute's Digital News Report 2026 use news podcasts, unchanged from 2025.

    Source: Reuters Institute, Digital News Report 2026, 2026 [17]

  3. 40

    29% of UK weekly podcast consumers aged 15 and older use YouTube most for podcasts in 2026, ahead of Spotify at 28% for the first time Edison has recorded.

    Source: Edison Research at SSRS, The UK Podcast Consumer 2026 (press release on Podnews), 2026 [14]

  4. 41

    The 29 biggest UK podcasts reach half of UK weekly podcast consumers; in 2023 it took the top 43.

    Source: Edison Research at SSRS, The UK Podcast Consumer 2026 (press release on Podnews), 2026 [14]

  5. 42

    The ten biggest UK-based podcasts in the U.S. reach 3.5 million Americans age 13 and older each week.

    Source: Edison Research at SSRS, The UK Podcast Consumer 2026 (press release on Podnews), 2026 [14]

Podcast news, AI and creators

  1. 43

    32% of U.S. adults get news from podcasts at least sometimes, including 10% who do so often; in 2020 it was 22%.

    Source: Pew Research Center, Podcasts and News Fact Sheet, 2025 [6]

  2. 44

    23% of Americans who get news from podcasts trust it more than news from other sources, and 23% trust it less.

    Source: Pew Research Center, Podcasts and News Fact Sheet, 2025 [6]

  3. 45

    6% of U.S. adults paid for or gave money to a news podcast in the past 12 months, in Pew Research Center's August 2025 survey.

    Source: Pew Research Center, Podcasts and News Fact Sheet, 2025 [6]

  4. 46

    62% of U.S. podcast consumers see AI as at least somewhat of a threat to podcast credibility, Edison found.

    Source: Inside Radio, reporting Edison Research's The Podcast Consumer 2026, 2026 [9]

  5. 47

    72% of UK weekly podcast consumers consider AI a threat to the credibility of podcasts; 85% disapprove of an AI host.

    Source: Edison Research at SSRS, The UK Podcast Consumer 2026 (press release on Podnews), 2026 [14]

  6. 48

    66% of UK weekly podcast consumers approve of AI being used to research a podcast, and 64% approve of it for brainstorming.

    Source: Edison Research at SSRS, The UK Podcast Consumer 2026 (press release on Podnews), 2026 [14]

  7. 49

    Nearly 1 in 6 podcast consumers have made a podcast, and roughly a third of everyone who has ever made one has stopped creating altogether, Sounds Profitable found in its 2025 creator study.

    Source: Sounds Profitable, The Creators 2025 preview, 2025 [18]

  8. 50

    22% of podcast consumers listen to at least 75% of their podcasts as audio, Sounds Profitable's Audio Primes 2026 study found.

    Source: Sounds Profitable, Audio Primes 2026, 2026 [19]

Frequently asked questions

How many podcasts are there?

The Podcast Index listed 4,731,279 podcast feeds on September 24, 2026, and Listen Notes counted 3,814,616 podcasts on the same day; Listen Notes leaves out empty and very low-quality feeds. Far fewer are active: 467,359 feeds in the Podcast Index published an episode in the last 90 days.

How many podcasts are active?

In the Podcast Index dump of 2026-08-16, 437,693 of 4,711,475 feeds (9.29%) published an episode in the previous 90 days. The largest group, 2,768,200 feeds (58.75%), has two or more episodes and nothing new in a year.

How many people listen to podcasts in the U.S.?

Edison Research estimates that 58% of Americans age 12 and older, about 167 million people, listened to or watched a podcast in the last month in early 2026, and 45% (130 million) did so in the last week. Pew found 54% of U.S. adults had listened in the past 12 months in August 2025.

Which platform do people use most for podcasts?

YouTube. Edison found 37% of U.S. weekly podcast consumers use YouTube most often in 2026, and Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights found 44% in April 2026, against 14% for Spotify and 5% for Apple. YouTube reported more than 1 billion monthly viewers of podcast content in 2025.

Do people watch or listen to podcasts?

Most do both. 57% of Americans 12 and older have both listened to and watched a podcast, according to Edison. In the Cumulus survey 92% of weekly podcast consumers say they listen and 8% only watch, while 49% prefer to watch the video when they can, up from 30% in 2022.

How many people listen to podcasts worldwide?

We found no measured worldwide count. The widely quoted 584.1 million comes from a Statista forecast made in August 2023. Country surveys give shares instead: 27% of UK adults listen weekly (Ofcom, 2026), and 11% of people across 48 markets use news podcasts (Reuters Institute, 2026).

Sources

  1. [1]Podcast Index, daily counts. 2026.↑1 ↑2 ↑3
  2. [2]Listen Notes, podcast stats. 2026.↑4
  3. [3]Spotify, company info. 2026.↑5
  4. [4]Edison Research at SSRS, The Infinite Dial 2026. 2026.↑12 ↑13 ↑16 ↑22
  5. [5]Edison Research at SSRS, The Podcast Consumer 2026. 2026.↑14 ↑15 ↑17 ↑35
  6. [6]Pew Research Center, Podcasts and News Fact Sheet. 2025.↑18 ↑19 ↑43 ↑44 ↑45
  7. [7]YouTube Official Blog, February 2025. 2025.↑20
  8. [8]Spotify, Investor Day 2026 podcast update. 2026.↑21
  9. [9]Inside Radio, reporting Edison Research's The Podcast Consumer 2026. 2026.↑23 ↑33 ↑36 ↑46
  10. [10]Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights, Podcast Download Spring 2026, via Westwood One. 2026.↑24 ↑25 ↑26 ↑28 ↑29
  11. [11]Buzzsprout, podcast stats. 2026.↑27
  12. [12]Nielsen, Podcast Listen & Watch Report. 2026.↑30
  13. [13]Ofcom, audio listening research 2026. 2026.↑31 ↑38
  14. [14]Edison Research at SSRS, The UK Podcast Consumer 2026 (press release on Podnews). 2026.↑32 ↑40 ↑41 ↑42 ↑47 ↑48
  15. [15]Nielsen, The Record Q1 2026 (Edison Share of Ear data). 2026.↑34
  16. [16]IAB, U.S. Podcast Advertising Revenue Study (2024). 2024.↑37
  17. [17]Reuters Institute, Digital News Report 2026. 2026.↑39
  18. [18]Sounds Profitable, The Creators 2025 preview. 2025.↑49
  19. [19]Sounds Profitable, Audio Primes 2026. 2026.↑50

Method

We searched Google for podcast statistics, how many podcasts are there, podcast industry statistics and podcast listener statistics, read the 9 statistics pages that ranked, and counted how many of them repeat each number. We then traced each number to the organisation that produced it and checked it against that page on September 24, 2026. The Podcast Index and Listen Notes counters change every day; the numbers here are the ones we read on September 24. Forecasts are marked. Podcastquery numbers come from the Podcast Index feed dump of 2026-08-16 and the Apple top-100 charts of 18 storefronts.

All 50 statistics as a CSV: podcast-statistics.csv.

Cite this page

Podcastquery, “Podcast 2026 Statistics (Updated September)”, updated September 2026, https://podcastquery.com/research/podcast-statistics

To cite one number, link its anchor: each statistic has one, for example https://podcastquery.com/research/podcast-statistics#stat-1.

Sophie Winkler
About the author

Sophie Winkler, Growth Marketing Manager. Sophie works as a growth marketing manager in Düsseldorf, focused on brand communications.

Podcastquery is a research site covering the podcast industry. It counts podcasts, episodes and networks by category, language, country and hosting platform, and publishes the numbers as count pages and reports.

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