Podtrac Releases September 2026 Podcast Rankings

RADIO ONLINE | Thursday, October 8, 2026 | 4:56pm CT

Podtrac

Podtrac has released its September 2026 rankings of the top U.S. and global podcast publishers and networks, along with its latest list of the 20 most popular podcasts based on unique monthly audience in the U.S. According to Podtrac, eight participants in its U.S. publisher and network rankings recorded increases in U.S. downloads compared with August, while 11 reported gains in U.S. unique monthly audience.

The iHeart Audience Network maintained its top position among U.S. podcast publishers and sales networks, reaching 57.6 million unique monthly listeners and generating 285.6 million streams and downloads across 32,741 active shows.

iHeartPodcasts ranked second with 32 million unique monthly listeners and 162.3 million streams and downloads across 991 shows. NPR Sales Network followed in third place with 18 million unique listeners and 93.7 million streams and downloads from 73 shows.

Libsyn ranked fourth with 12.7 million unique listeners, followed by The Walt Disney Company in fifth with 6.9 million. Rounding out the top 10 were Vox Media, Barstool Sports, PodcastOne, Fox Audio Network and DailyWire.

In the individual podcast rankings, Audiochuck's "Crime Junkie" retained the No. 1 position, followed by The New York Times' "The Daily" at No. 2 and NPR's "NPR News Now" at No. 3. NPR's "Up First" ranked fourth, while "Dateline NBC" completed the top five.

The remainder of the top 10 included "Fox News Hourly Update," "Pardon My Take," "Pod Save America," "The Ben Shapiro Show" and "This American Life."

Several podcasts improved their positions during September. "This American Life" climbed one spot to No. 10, while "48 Hours," "The Shawn Ryan Show" and "The Dan Bongino Show" each advanced one position to Nos. 12, 13 and 14, respectively.

"My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark" rose three positions to No. 15, while ABC's "20/20" also gained three spots to reach No. 17.

The month's biggest upward move among the top 20 came from DailyWire's "Morning Wire," which climbed six positions to No. 19. Meanwhile, "The Ezra Klein Show" recorded the largest decline, falling four places to No. 16.

Podtrac's rankings are based on measured U.S. unique monthly audiences and include participating podcasts that were measured for the full reporting month. Publisher rankings also track U.S. streams and downloads across participating shows.