Podcast audience growth continued into September

Podcast audience growth continued into September, with a majority of publishers measured by Podtrac posting monthly audience gains, while iHeart maintained its commanding lead and several networks made significant moves up the rankings, reports Inside Radio.

According to Inside Radio, “Podtrac says 11 of its 19 U.S. ranking participants increased their unique monthly audience in September vs. August, while eight recorded gains in downloads and streams. The results follow August’s particularly strong performance, when 18 publishers reported audience growth.

“The iHeart Audience Network remained the largest podcast publisher measured by Podtrac, reaching 57.6 million U.S. monthly listeners. While that was down about 2% from August, its downloads and streams jumped 7% to 285.6 million. Meanwhile, iHeartPodcasts held the No. 2 position with 32 million monthly listeners, up nearly 3% from August. Its downloads and streams rose 8% to 162.3 million.

“NPR Sales Network remained third with 18 million monthly listeners and 93.7 million downloads and streams, followed by Libsyn with 12.7 million listeners and 42.3 million downloads.

“The biggest movement in the top five came from The Walt Disney Company, which climbed two positions to No. 5. Its monthly audience increased to 6.9 million, up nearly 3% from August, while downloads and streams grew by nearly 7% to 23.7 million.

“Vox Media slipped one position to sixth, while Barstool Sports made one of the month’s biggest moves, jumping three spots to No. 7. PodcastOne ranked eighth, followed by Fox Audio Network and DailyWire+.”

At the individual show level, “Crime Junkie” continued its run atop the Podtrac rankings, holding the No. 1 position for a fourth consecutive month. The Audiochuck true-crime podcast first took the top spot in June and has held it ever since. “The Daily” remained second, followed by “NPR News Now,” “Up First from NPR,” “Dateline NBC” and “Fox News Hourly Update.”