Podtrac April Rankings Show Modest Podcast Gains

RADIO ONLINE | Friday, May 8, 2026 | 11:10am CT

Podtrac

Podtrac has released its Top U.S. and Global Podcast Publishers & Networks rankings along with its Top U.S. Podcast chart for April 2026, showing modest month-over-month gains across several participants and the addition of a new publisher to the list.

Among U.S. publishers and networks, six participants posted increases in U.S. downloads compared to March, while seven saw gains in U.S. unique monthly audience (UMA). Globally, four participants recorded increases in UMA, and two reported growth in U.S. downloads.

Podtrac also added The Volume to its rankings for April, expanding the list of measured publishers.

The Top U.S. Podcast ranking remained relatively stable in April. NPR News Now held the No. 1 position, followed by The Daily from The New York Times and Up First from NPR.

Dateline NBC and Fox News Hourly Update rounded out the top five. Movement within the top 20 included Pod Save America rising one spot to No. 6, while The Ben Shapiro Show slipped one position to No. 7.

Elsewhere, The Tim Dillon Show posted one of the largest gains, climbing six positions to No. 19. ABC's 20/20 also moved up three spots to No. 20. The Shawn Ryan Show saw the sharpest decline, dropping three places to No. 17.

In the publisher rankings, iHeart Audience Network remained the top U.S. publisher with 62.9 million unique monthly listeners and more than 343 million U.S. streams and downloads. iHeartPodcasts ranked No. 2, followed by Acast at No. 3.

NPR Sales Network and Libsyn completed the top five. Vox Media, Fox Audio Network, and The Walt Disney Company were also among the top 10.

DailyWire and Paramount remained in the top tier, while Barstool Sports and PodcastOne continued to rank among the leading publishers by audience and downloads.

The addition of The Volume marked a notable update to the rankings, reflecting ongoing changes in the podcast publishing landscape.

Podtrac noted that its rankings are based on publishers and podcasts that participate in its measurement system for the full reporting period.