Most Popular Podcast Platforms (2024)
The number of people listening to podcasts worldwide is set to surpass half a billion in 2024, registering an 8.6% annual increase. Podcast listener numbers from the United States alone show there are currently 109.1 million regular listeners.
With such a massive target market, not to mention rising revenues generated by these audio programs, podcasts make for an attractive marketing platform for businesses. If you’re thinking about starting a podcast, you need to know what the most popular podcast platforms are to reach as many listeners as possible.
Most popular podcast listening platforms in 2024
According to recent statistics, Spotify and Apple Podcasts are the two most popular podcast platforms among global listeners. Spotify is used by 37% of all podcast listeners, while Apple Podcasts is used by 32.9%. Together, Apple Podcasts and Spotify hold 69.9% of the listener share. This means that more than two out of every three people tuning in to podcasts do so either on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Web browsers are the third most popular platform and are used by 7.7% of podcast listeners. Buzzsprout Embed Player and Castbox rank next and complete the five most popular podcast platforms, with shares of 3.5% and 2.1%, respectively. Here are how some other popular podcast platforms perform, ranked by their respective shares:
- Overcast: 1.3%
- Apple iTunes: 1.2%
- Pocket Casts: 1.1%
- Amazon Music: 0.9%
- Podcast Addict: 0.8%
Most popular podcast listening platforms: top device types
|
Device |
Percentage of podcast listeners who use the following devices to tune in |
|
1. Mobile |
87.4% |
|
2. Computer |
9.4% |
|
3. Smart speaker |
0.6% |
|
4. Smart TV |
0.4% |
In terms of the types of devices listeners opt for when consuming podcasts, mobile leads the charts by a massive margin. As many as 87.4% of podcasts are listened to on mobile devices. In fact, when breaking this down to the type of operating systems used, the data shows that iOS is listeners’ favorite, with 61.8% of podcasts being consumed on Apple’s iPhones. Android phones rank next, with 24.4% of the share.
Mobile devices are followed by computers, on which 9.4% of podcasts are listened to. Smart devices are also popular choices for podcast consumption, with smart speakers and smart televisions holding 0.6% and 0.4% of the market share, respectively.
Most popular podcast platforms: leveraging the data
If you’re thinking about launching a podcast, simply knowing what the most popular podcast platforms are isn’t enough. Details such as episode duration and publishing frequency can also affect your metrics. To that end, the data indicates that more than half of podcasts (52%) last between 20 and 60 minutes.
|
Less than 10 minutes |
18% |
|
10–20 minutes |
15% |
|
20–40 minutes |
31% |
|
40–60 minutes |
21% |
|
>60 minutes |
15% |
Meanwhile, 38% of podcasts publish new episodes every eight to 14 days, while 36% do so every three to seven days.
|
0–2 days |
7% |
|
3–7 days |
36% |
|
8–14 days |
38% |
|
15–29 days |
18% |
|
>30 days |
1% |