Podcast Industry Statistics

Comprehensive data and trends across the global podcast ecosystem.

Last updated: May 30, 2026

3.3M Podcasts Indexed

With 915.8K actively publishing (28.0% active rate)

Peak Growth in 2020

804.3K new podcasts launched that year

English Dominates

Representing 59.4% of all podcasts globally

Society & Culture Most Popular

563.6K podcasts in this category

Total Podcasts 3,267,677

Active 915,784 updated in last year

Total Episodes 151,649,841

Avg Episodes 46.4 per podcast

Key Insights

Our database indexes 3,267,677 podcasts with 151,649,841 episodes. 915,784 podcasts (28.0%) are actively publishing.

Podcast creation peaked in 2020 with 804,275 new shows. In 2026, 174,417 new podcasts have launched so far.

English dominates with 59.4% of all podcasts, followed by Spanish and Portuguese.

Growth Trends

The podcast boom peaked in 2020 (804,275 new shows). Recent years have stabilized around 260,827 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 83.3% of all podcasts. The three most popular categories (Society & Culture, Education, Business) represent 45.8% of content.

By Language

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By Category

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Publishing Patterns

Weekly is the most common schedule (303,231 podcasts). 56.8% 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

2,840,953 podcasts

Only 10.5% of Apple Podcasts have received ratings. 27,986 podcasts have 100+ ratings, indicating strong listener engagement.

10.5%

Have Ratings

120,140

With 10+ Ratings

27,986

With 100+ Ratings

107.3

Avg. Rating Count

Podcasts by Rating Count

Podcast Features

9.0% of podcasts feature guests, 3.4% have sponsors. Video podcasts remain niche at 0.8%.

With Sponsors 3%

111,881

With Guests 9%

295,579

Video Podcasts 1%

27,140

Explicit 13%

421,483

Podcasting 2.0

10.0% use 3+ features

10.0% of podcasts use 3+ Podcasting 2.0 features. Top tags: 'medium' (103,009) and 'transcript' (78,167).

Hosting Platforms

anchor.fm dominates with 50.3% market share, followed by www.spreaker.com (10.9%).

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