Podtrac Podcast Rankings See Audience Gains in May

RADIO ONLINE | Thursday, June 5, 2025 | 11:00am CT

Podtrac

Podtrac has released its latest podcast industry rankings for May 2025, showing notable audience growth across many top shows and publishers, as well as sharp movement within the top 20 podcast rankings. NPR continues to dominate, with "NPR News Now," "Up First," and "The Daily" holding the top three spots, unchanged from April.

"Rotten Mango," hosted by Stephanie Soo, saw the biggest jump, climbing 10 spots to No. 17. "48 Hours" from Paramount gained 3 positions to land at No. 12, while "On Purpose with Jay Shetty" moved up 2 ranks to No. 9. Other upward movers included NPR's "Fresh Air" (up 4), Disney's "20/20" (up 2), and Barstool's "Pardon My Take" (up 1).

iHeartMedia continues to lead with its iHeart Audience Network reaching 72 million unique U.S. listeners and over 360 million streams/downloads. The NPR Sales Network holds third place with 22.6 million unique listeners, followed closely by Libsyn and Acast. The Walt Disney Company ranked sixth, ahead of Vox Media, Fox Audio Network, and PodcastOne.

14 podcast publishers in the U.S. rankings posted gains in unique monthly audience (UMA) compared to April. Three publishers reported increases in U.S. downloads month-over-month. However, all top global podcast networks experienced a decline in combined global downloads, streams, and views in May.

Podtrac's full rankings, including new "Top Podcasts by Country" for 35 nations, are available at podtrac.com.