Podcast Statistics 2026: Listeners, Shows, Ads & Video
58% of Americans age 12 and older, about 167 million people, consumed a podcast in the last month, an all-time high, and 45% did so in the last week. There are 4.7 million podcast feeds, but fewer than one in 10 published an episode in the last 90 days. US podcast advertising grew 17.6% in 2025 to $2.9 billion, and the medium is now as much video as audio: YouTube is the platform weekly listeners use most, and more than a billion people a month watch podcasts there. Here are the podcast statistics worth knowing in 2026, each sourced inline with the year noted.
58% of Americans consumed a podcast last month
58% of Americans age 12 and older, an estimated 167 million people, consumed a podcast in the last month, an all-time high, in Edison Research’s annual Infinite Dial survey (Edison Research, 2026).
45% of Americans 12 and older, about 130 million, consumed a podcast in the last week, also a record (Edison Research, 2026).
80% of Americans 12 and older, about 230 million, have ever listened to or watched a podcast (Edison Research, 2026).
68% of 35- to 54-year-olds consumed a podcast in the last month, the age group advertisers value most (Edison Research, 2026).
57% of Americans 12 and older have both listened to and watched a podcast (Edison Research, 2026). Edison’s summary: video is not replacing podcast audio, it is adding to it.
4.7 million podcasts, but under 10% are still publishing
There are 4,742,605 podcast feeds in the Podcast Index, the open directory most podcast apps draw on, as of October 15, 2026 (Podcast Index, 2026).
Only 465,765 of them, 9.8%, published a new episode in the last 90 days, and 340,950 (7.2%) in the last 30 days (Podcast Index, 2026). The “nearly 5 million podcasts” figure counts every feed ever created, including the ones that stopped after a handful of episodes.
110,208 podcasts published an episode in the last three days (Podcast Index, 2026).
Podcast ad revenue grew 17.6% to $2.9 billion
US podcast advertising revenue rose 17.6% in 2025 to $2.9 billion, outpacing digital audio overall, which grew 10.2% to $8.4 billion, in the IAB and PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report (Barrett Media, 2026).
Digital audio is still only 2.8% of the $294.6 billion US digital ad market, which grew 13.9% in 2025 (IAB, 2026). IAB’s podcast figure uses the traditional audio definition, so ads sold in video podcasts are partly counted elsewhere.
YouTube is where podcast listeners go first
YouTube has more than 1 billion monthly active viewers of podcast content, a milestone it passed in January 2025 (YouTube, 2025).
Viewers watched more than 400 million hours of podcasts a month on living room TVs in 2024, YouTube said in the same announcement (YouTube, 2025).
YouTube remains the most-used podcast platform among US weekly podcast consumers, with Spotify second at 17% and Apple Podcasts third at 9%, in Edison Research’s Q3 2026 Podcast Metrics (Barrett Media, 2026). Netflix, new to podcasts, already ranks seventh at 3%.
Spotify and Apple have lost ground fast: in October 2024, Edison had YouTube at 31%, Spotify at 27% and Apple Podcasts at 15% (Barrett Media, 2026).
For social video numbers, see social media statistics and influencer marketing statistics.
Booking guests without the email back-and-forth
Most podcasts that stop publishing do not run out of ideas. They run out of time, and a lot of that time goes to booking guests: pitching, finding a recording slot across time zones, sending the link and reminding them the day before. Carly is an AI assistant that works in your email and calendar. She replies to guest pitches, finds a time that works for both of you, books the recording with the link attached, and follows up so guests show up. Carly connects to thousands of apps, so she works with the recording and publishing tools you already use.
For more, see AI agents for podcasters and the best AI tools for podcasters.
FAQ
How many people listen to podcasts? 58% of Americans age 12 and older, about 167 million people, consumed a podcast in the last month, and 45% in the last week (Edison Research, 2026).
How many podcasts are there? The Podcast Index lists 4.74 million podcast feeds, but only about 466,000 (9.8%) published an episode in the last 90 days (Podcast Index, October 2026).
How much is podcast advertising worth? US podcast ad revenue was $2.9 billion in 2025, up 17.6% from 2024 (IAB and PwC, 2026).
What is the most popular podcast platform? YouTube. It is the most-used podcast platform among US weekly podcast consumers, ahead of Spotify (17%) and Apple Podcasts (9%) (Edison Research, 2026), and has more than 1 billion monthly podcast viewers (YouTube, 2025).
Related: Social Media Statistics · Influencer Marketing Statistics · Advertising Statistics · Content Marketing Statistics · Marketing Statistics
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