iHeart Leads Podtrac August Publisher Rankings

RADIO ONLINE | Wednesday, September 9, 2026 | 10:48am CT

Podtrac

iHeart Audience Network and iHeartPodcasts remained atop Podtrac's U.S. Podcast Publishers & Networks ranking for August 2026, while "Crime Junkie" continued as the top podcast based on U.S. unique monthly audience.

iHeart Audience Network ranked first among publishers and sales networks with 58.875 million U.S. unique monthly audience members and 266.85 million U.S. streams and downloads across 26,598 active shows. iHeartPodcasts followed at No. 2 with 31.112 million unique monthly audience members and 150.106 million streams and downloads across 947 shows.

NPR Sales Network was third with an audience of 18.116 million, followed by Libsyn at 13.701 million. Vox Media rounded out the top five with 6.851 million. PodcastOne, The Walt Disney Company, Fox Audio Network, DailyWire and Barstool Sports completed the top 10.

Podtrac reported that eight participants in its U.S. Publishers & Networks ranking increased U.S. downloads in August compared with July, while 18 posted month-to-month gains in U.S. unique monthly audience.

In the Top Podcasts ranking, Audiochuck's "Crime Junkie" held the No. 1 position, followed by The New York Times' "The Daily" at No. 2. "NPR News Now" ranked third and "Up First from NPR" was fourth, with "Dateline NBC" completing the top five.

"Fox News Hourly Update" ranked sixth, followed by "Pardon My Take," "Pod Save America," "The Ben Shapiro Show" and "Stuff You Should Know."

Among the month's notable moves, The New York Times' "The Ezra Klein Show" climbed five positions to No. 12. "Today, Explained" from Vox Media moved up one spot to No. 17, while The Walt Disney Company's "20/20" also gained one position to No. 20.

"The Shawn Ryan Show" dropped two positions to No. 14, "The Dan Bongino Show" slipped one to No. 15 and "My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark" fell three spots to No. 18.