This is an archived page from 2021. Find out more
Podtrac, the podcast publisher ranking service, celebrated its fifth anniversary launching in May 2016 with data for April 2016. They were the first to launch a monthly audience metric and use a consistent measuring method.
They were the first to display multiple podcast publishers participating in a ranking that displays their audience and download counts publicly and uses a consistent measurement method.
US Unique Monthly Audience and Downloads & Streams have grown dramatically during this time, and their growth can be shown in raw numbers through Podtrac.
Here are their rankings for April 2021:
“Podtrac created a valuable way for us to benchmark our audience and get a wider view of the industry,” said Anya Grundmann, SVP for Programming and Audience Development at NPR, which was #1 on the ranking for 40 straight months. “The insights we gather from the tracker have been a valuable part of our toolkit as we imagine new shows and build out our portfolio.”
“As we’ve expanded and refined our podcasting efforts, the Podtrac Top Publisher ranking has provided us valuable benchmarking information that was not available to us anywhere else,” said Conal Byrne, CEO of the iHeartMedia Digital Audio Group which moved into the #1 position for the first time in August of 2019 and has held that position for the past 7 months.
“We at Wondery value the Podtrac ranker as both a clear and accurate barometer for the growth of the podcast industry and a great resource for keeping a pulse on industry trends. We look forward to continuing our partnership with the innovative team at Podtrac.” commented, Jen Sargent, CEO of Wondery, who has been a Top 10 Publisher every month since their debut on the ranking in June 2017.
Said Mark McCrery, CEO of Podtrac, “We look forward to tracking and sharing industry growth by top publishers and podcasts in the years to come.”
iHeartRadio remains in the top spot in the publishers ranking by a dramatic margin in both US Unique Monthly Audience with close to 27 million and in Global Streams and Downloads with just under 251 million.