As of July 2025, a survey found that the most popular podcast genre in the United States was comedy, with ***percent of respondents to a survey stating that they were listening to podcasts designed to make them laugh. Podcasts on news and politics as well as sports were also popular choices.Podcasts are becoming increasingly popularPodcasts have become a go-to form of audio entertainment, with digital episodes on different topics being either streamable or downloadable for easily accessible consumption. The number of podcast listeners within the United States is estimated to surpass a listenership of 100 million consumers in 2028.Podcast market leadersWithin the constantly growing market for podcast, the globally leading podcast publisher in 2024 was iHeartRadio with nearly *** million unique streams and downloads and views. In 2022, a study found that YouTube, Apple Podcast and Spotify were the most popular platforms to access podcast among Americans.

News and current affairs was the most popular podcast genre among male listeners in the United Kingdom in 2024, with a share of ** percent of regular podcast listeners saying that they listened to podcasts from the genre. It was closely followed by entertainment and comedy, to which ** percent and ** percent of respondents listened to respectively.

Entertainment was the most popular podcast genre among the 25 to 34 year-olds in the United Kingdom in 2022, with ** percent of listeners. Additionally, comedy ranked second, with ** percent of respondents saying that they listened to the genre.

According to a survey on mobile entertainment and social media trends in Indonesia in the first half of 2024, Comedy was the most popular podcast genre, as stated by ** percent of respondents. Horror came in second with ** percent of respondents saying so.

A study of podcast consumption in Latin America found that news was the most popular podcast genre, with a listening share of ** percent. Comedy ranked second, accounting for ** percent of listening share.

According to a study on podcast consumption worldwide in the first half of 2023, ** percent of podcast listening hours on Spotify were spent listening to comedy podcasts. Another ** percent were spent listening to society and culture podcasts.

According to the results of a survey released in 2020, the most preferred podcast genre among males was music, which was listened by ** percent of the respondents. Similarly, news contents were popular among ** percent of Italian male podcast listeners.

From a survey conducted in January 2020, it emerged that ** percent of podcast listeners aged between 35 and 44 years in Italy preferred listening to music podcasts. Furthermore, it was also found that the so-called genre entertainment was popular among ** percent of the respondents.

According to a survey carried out during January 2020, it was found that the podcast genre preferred the most by Italian people aged over 55 years was music. Similarly, ** percent of the respondents stated that they liked listening to podcasts with news content.

Comedy was the most popular podcast genre among 35 to 44 year-olds in the United Kingdom in 2024, with a share of ** percent of respondents. Moreover, following in second place was health and wellbeing, with ** percent of respondents listening to the podcast genre.

According to a 2020 survey, Italian female podcast listeners preferred music contents. The categories news and health & lifestyle followed with ** percent and ** percent of preferences, respectively. By contrast, only *** percent of the respondents stated that they listened to business podcasts.

According to a study from 2024 on podcast consumption in the United Kingdom, discussion and talk shows were the favorite genre among female respondents, with a share of ** percent. The second most popular genre was entertainment, with a share of ** percent of respondents tuning in to each genre.

News and current affairs were the most popular podcast genre among listeners aged 55 and older, with a share of ** percent. Furthermore, politics ranked second, with ** percent of respondents preferring the genre to others.

In 2020, music and news programs were the favorite podcast genres in Italy, with preference rates of ** and ** percent. The survey also revealed that another ** percent preferred entertainment content, as for instance audiobooks.

In 2020, news was the favorite podcast genre among Italian listeners aged between 18 and 34 years, with a preference rate of ** percent. The survey also revealed that another ** percent preferred entertainment content.

Technology was the most popular genre among male podcast listeners in Poland in August 2019, followed by music and entertainment.

This statistic shows the results of a survey about the most commonly used genre of audio podcast in South Korea as of **************, by gender. During the survey period, **** percent of male respondents stated News and politics as a most commonly used genre of audio podcast, whereas **** percent of female respondents stated Music as their most commonly used genre.

In 2020, the most commonly used app for listening to podcasts in the United States was Spotify, with ** percent of podcast listeners aged 18 or above saying that they used Spotify to listen to podcasts. Meanwhile, Apple Podcasts was used by ** percent of adults, down from ** percent in the previous year.

Growing market for podcasts

The term podcast, the name being a merge of the words “play on demand” and “broadcast”, refers to audio or video content in episodic formats that can be streamed or downloaded digitally. Topics cover a huge range of interests such as politics, health, or true crime; however, a study found that the most popular podcast genre in the United States was comedy. With **** million podcast listeners in the United States alone, podcasting has become a large market within the audio sector.

Podcast consumption

Despite the growing podcast audience, the consumption among listeners is relatively low with ** percent of consumers stating that they listen to podcasts less often than once a month. The relatively new audio format is preferred by younger generations, with ** percent of the age group of 18 to 34 years having paid to access podcasts.

According to a survey carried out in January 2020, the majority of Italian male podcast listeners utilized the application Spotify for listening to their favorite podcasts (** percent). The platforms Audible and Apple Podcast were also pupular, as they were used by ** and ** percent of the respondents, respectively.

As of ************, music and humor were the most popular genres of podcasts in Mexico, each mentioned by ** percent of internet users surveyed in the country. News and technology followed, cited by ** and ** percent of respondents, respectively. It was estimated that, in 2022, there were over ** million podcast listeners in Mexico.