Edison Research Announces Top 50 U.S. Podcasts for Q2

RADIO ONLINE | Monday, August 9, 2021 | 5:02pm CT

Edison Research

Edison Research has released the U.S. Top 50 Podcast chart for Q2 2021. This list -- topped by "The Joe Rogan Experience," "The Daily" and "Crime Junkie" -- ranks the 50 biggest podcasts by audience size, based on the Podcast Consumer Tracking Report, a podcast measurement service that measures the relative audience size and demographics of all podcast networks. It's the only measurement based on actual listening, not downloads.

The top shows based on measurement from Q3 2020 to Q2 2021 are as follows:

"This is the second anniversary of the Podcast Consumer Tracker, and the top shows have been fairly consistent over that time. Because our research covers the entire space, regardless of publisher or listening application, we have been able to report that stability even as the space continues to evolve," said Edison Research SVP Tom Webster.

The Edison Research Top 50 Podcasts of 2021 list is derived from data collected continuously from Q3 2020 to Q2 2021, from surveying weekly podcast consumers ages 18 and older in the U.S. Participants indicate which podcasts they listened to in the past week along with a variety of demographic, psychographic, and purchase behavior information. The results are then coded and analyzed to ascertain the genre, network, and sales representation for each podcast. The relative audience size of each podcast network is then calculated and expressed as the percentage of weekly podcast listeners reached by that network. Surveys of over 8,000 podcast listeners were conducted Q3 2020 through Q2 2021.

"What is fascinating about these data is that we are seeing some marked differences between people who primarily get their podcasts through Apple Podcasts, those who primarily use Spotify, and those who mainly use YouTube. The character of the shows -- and of the audiences -- differs by platform," added Webster.