Podcast Industry Statistics

Comprehensive data and trends across the global podcast ecosystem.

Last updated: February 28, 2026

3.0M Podcasts Indexed

With 848.5K actively publishing (28.2% active rate)

Peak Growth in 2020

762.7K new podcasts launched that year

English Dominates

Representing 59.2% of all podcasts globally

Society & Culture Most Popular

518.7K podcasts in this category

Total Podcasts 3,013,994

Active 848,497 updated in last year

Total Episodes 135,005,715

Avg Episodes 44.8 per podcast

Key Insights

Our database indexes 3,013,994 podcasts with 135,005,715 episodes. 848,497 podcasts (28.2%) are actively publishing.

Podcast creation peaked in 2020 with 762,728 new shows. In 2026, 69,652 new podcasts have launched so far.

English dominates with 59.2% of all podcasts, followed by Spanish and Portuguese.

Growth Trends

The podcast boom peaked in 2020 (762,728 new shows). Recent years have stabilized around 249,077 new podcasts annually.

Annual New Podcasts

Monthly New Podcasts (Last 12 Months)

Monthly Episode Releases (Last 12 Months)

Content Distribution

Top 5 languages account for 83.2% of all podcasts. The three most popular categories (Society & Culture, Education, Business) represent 45.6% of content.

By Language

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By Category

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Publishing Patterns

Weekly is the most common schedule (291,938 podcasts). 56.2% of podcasts have only 1-10 episodes. Most episodes are 0-15 min long.

Update Frequency

Episodes per Podcast

Average Episode Duration

Apple Podcasts Ratings

2,686,433 podcasts

Only 9.8% of Apple Podcasts have received ratings. 25,222 podcasts have 100+ ratings, indicating strong listener engagement.

9.8%

Have Ratings

107,771

With 10+ Ratings

25,222

With 100+ Ratings

110.8

Avg. Rating Count

Podcasts by Rating Count

Podcast Features

9.0% of podcasts feature guests, 3.3% have sponsors. Video podcasts remain niche at 0.8%.

With Sponsors 3%

100,410

With Guests 9%

271,319

Video Podcasts 1%

25,169

Explicit 13%

396,237

Podcasting 2.0

9.2% use 3+ features

9.2% of podcasts use 3+ Podcasting 2.0 features. Top tags: 'medium' (84,048) and 'license' (63,089).

Hosting Platforms

anchor.fm dominates with 52.0% market share, followed by www.spreaker.com (10.0%).

Browse by Language

Explore podcast statistics across 10+ languages. Find regional trends and top shows.

English Spanish Portuguese Indonesian German

Browse by Category

Discover podcast data across 10+ categories. From education to entertainment.

Society & Culture Education Business Arts Religion & Spirituality