Podcasts are getting the new trend in 2024 for content creation. From 2021, podcasts experienced a significant surge in popularity, particularly for businesses, as companies aimed to connect deeply with their audience and attract more followers.
Now, you must be thinking, how many podcasts listeners worldwide?
As per the 2022 Podcast statistics, podcasts had 424.2 million listeners worldwide, reaching 464.7 million in 2023. According to the forecast, podcast listeners will reach 504.9 million by 2024. This growth is expected to continue in the coming years.
In this article, we’ll be covering some of the important podcast statistics for 2024 that will give you an overview of the rapidly changing podcasting industry, highlighting its widespread popularity and why businesses are going for Podcasts.
Before deep-diving into some exciting podcast statistics for 2024, let’s first understand what podcasts are.
What podcasts are?
Podcasts are online radio shows that can be listened to anytime, anywhere, featuring news, interviews, education, entertainment, and stories. Listening to podcasts is a great way to learn new things, stay updated on news, or have a good laugh.
Just in case you are wondering where the term “podcast” came from, it combines “iPod,” Apple’s portable media player, and “broadcast.”
Podcasting is flexible, as,
- It allows Podcasters to create episodes about various topics.
- Podcasts can be easily found on apps like Apple, Google, or Spotify.
- A podcast can have one episode or hundreds of episodes in a series.
- It is affordable to produce and is mostly free.
- The duration of a podcast episode might range from one minute to many hours.
Quick Fact: A podcast’s mean average episode length is 41 minutes and 31 seconds.
You can listen to podcasts while doing other things like driving, chores, or homework, making it enjoyable. Podcasts also act as an effective marketing tool for companies, allowing them to promote their brand and reach a wider audience.
Podcast Stats (Top 5 Stats):
- There are currently over 89,461,583 episodes published in Apple Podcasts as of Dec 2023.
- By 2024, the audio podcasting market in the United States is expected to double, reaching $4 billion, up from a projected $2 billion in 2023.
- English is the most popular podcast language, with over 1.94 million podcasts. With just 220k podcasts, Spanish is far behind as the second most popular language.
- In the UK, 78% of podcast listeners prefer smartphones, 9% use laptops or desktop computers, and the remaining 13% opt for other devices like tablets, music players, or smart speakers.
- Now, podcasts are available in more than 150 languages.
How many podcasts are there in the world?
There are more than 4,302,311 podcasts globally as per Podcast Index. While Listen Notes estimates a slightly different figure, with 3,245,071 podcasts and a substantial 183,662,416 episodes.
Highlighting the growing popularity of podcasts, Audioboom’s Q1 Trading Update shows a 13% increase in average monthly podcast downloads worldwide, rising from 110.9 million to 125.2 million.
Who listens to podcasts?
Podcasts are popular worldwide, with the United States leading in listener numbers. According to Buzzsprout, 47.9% of podcast listeners are in the United States, followed by 6.3% in the United Kingdom and 5% in Canada.
Statista’s findings show a significant growth in the U.S. audience: from 75 million podcast listeners in 2018 to a projected 164 million by 2024, growing at a rate of 17% annually from 2019 to 2023. Moreover, awareness of podcasting among American adults has increased substantially, from 22% in 2006 to 79% by 2022.
Podcast Listener Demographics (By Age & Gender)
Podcast listeners in the United States display diverse demographics in terms of age and gender.
Here’s a breakdown:
Gender-wise, 48% of women and 43% of men are podcast listeners.
Age-wise, the listener base is segmented as follows:
- The 12-34 age group makes up 47% of podcast listeners, making Millennials and Gen Z the largest groups. In 2022, 63% of Gen Z and 59% of millennials were engaging with podcasts.
- Those aged 35-54 represent 33%, with 51% of them listening to podcasts monthly and 39% weekly.
- The 55+ age group comprises 20% of listeners.
Furthermore, podcast consumption in the broader U.S. population (aged 12+) shows:
- 64% have listened to a podcast at some point.
- 42% listened to a podcast in the past month.
- 31% listened to a podcast in the past week.
These figures illustrate a significant and diverse engagement with podcasts across different age groups and genders in the United States.
How much do podcasters make?
Podcasters’ earning depends on so many factors including number of downloads, your niche and your audience, how frequently you come with new episodes. And secondary factors like presence on other social media platforms, how much value your content is adding to your podcast listeners (audience).
But in general podcasters make money from sponsorships. Along with that, you can earn from Amazon and other affiliate programs, selling online courses, getting donations from the listeners, consulting and speaking services.
As per DemandSage, a beginner podcaster earns in between $0 to $10k a year, while intermediate podcaster can earn in between $10k – $50k and the top podcasters can earn upto $30 million.
And you can also watch Shelby Church views on how much a podcaster can earn:
Which are the top podcasts in the World?
As per Spotify, The Joe Rogan Experience is the number 1 most listened podcast in the United States, with an average of 11 million listeners per episode.
And New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce is the second top podcast in the US and The Tucker Carlson Podcast is at the third number.
What are the most popular Podcast genres?
As per Listen notes, the most popular podcast genre is society and culture, with over 557,341 podcasts, followed by Education and Arts covering 12.6% and 9.2% of podcasts, respectively.
Spotify & Apple Podcast Stats
Spotify and Apple Podcast platforms are the market leaders where Spotify holds the number one position with 33.7% market share and Apple Podcast contains 27.6% with the second position and 38.7% of the rest of them including Google podcast, Amazon Music and others.
Device Preferences: Among podcast listeners, Apple iPhones are the most used devices at 69.6%, suggesting a strong inclination towards Apple Podcasts. Android phones and Windows computers follow with 17.3% and 5.6% respectively.
User Base in the U.S.: As of February 2022, Apple Podcasts had 28.5 million American listeners, a bit behind Spotify’s 32.5 million. However, projections for 2025 indicate a potential lead change, with Apple expected to reach 42.4 million listeners and Spotify 29.2 million.
Global Trends: Despite Spotify’s more extensive podcast library, globally, most people prefer using iOS devices and Apple Podcasts for their podcast listening experience.
Podcast Statistics for Advertising
Statista’s latest report shows that global sales of podcast advertising are expected to reach US $3.46 Billion by 2023 as it’s anticipated to grow at 8.74% annual rate till 2028 with a predicted market volume of US S 5.26 Billion by 2028.
Listeners themselves confirm the effectiveness of podcast ads: 70% say they’ve discovered new products and businesses through these ads, as reported by G2.com.
Revenue from podcast advertisement is also at an all time high. In 2022 podcast advertising revenue was 1.73 billion and it’s also expected to grow by 3.2 billion by 2026.
Now, let’s understand how do people listen to podcasts,
How do people listen to podcasts
As per Edison Research Report, Majority of the people listen to podcasts between 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM. And 28% of the US audience listen to podcasts while driving.
In 2022, 69% of people listen to podcasts while doing household chores, 59% while baking, 57% while doing laundry, and 55% while getting ready for the day.
73% of the podcast listeners prefer to listen to podcasts on their smartphone devices and 13% prefer to listen to podcasts on their laptops, and rest on other electronic devices.
FAQs
What is the number 1 most listened-to podcast?
The Joe Rogan Experience is the number 1 most listened podcast in the world with an average of 11 million listeners per episode.
What are the statistics about podcast consumption?
In 2006, only 22% of US adults were aware of podcasting, but by 2022, it had risen to 79%, with over 82 million listeners in 2021 and it is estimated to reach 100 million in 2024.
Who mostly listens to podcasts?
As of 2023, there are 46% men and 39% women, who listen to podcasts.
Which are the top podcasts in the World?
The Joe Rogan Experience is the number 1 most listened podcast in the world.
Other Podcast Reference Sources,
- https://learn.g2.com/podcast-statistics
- https://www.insiderintelligence.com/content/us-digital-audio-users-2022
- https://wiredclip.com/apple-podcasts-statistics/
- https://www.demandsage.com/podcast-statistics/
- https://www.statista.com/outlook/dmo/digital-media/digital-music/podcast-advertising/worldwide
- https://www.insiderintelligence.com/content/podcast-advertising-5-charts
- https://www.edisonresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/The-Podcast-Consumer-2023-1.pdf
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