It was estimated that in 2024 there will be 147 million podcast listeners in Latin America, which will put the region almost on par with North America that year and set it up to surpass it by the end of 2027. Interestingly, China is expected to see similar numbers to Latin America in 2027, albeit starting much lower in 2023 - at 111 million podcast listeners.

According to a forecast from August 2023 on global podcast consumption, the number of podcast listeners worldwide has steadily increased and is predicted to rise even further. In 2023, the number of podcast listeners worldwide amounted to over 500 million internet users, while this number was predicted to grow to more than 650 million in 2027.

In 2018, the number of podcast listeners in the United States reached 75 million, and it is predicted that the number of monthly listeners will hit 164 million in the year 2024, with the compound annual growth rate between 2019 and 2023 pegged at 17 percent.

According to a forecast on the habits of podcast listeners in 2022, Spotify has overtaken Apple Podcasts in terms of monthly podcast listeners in the United States. Spotify is estimated to reach 32.5 million podcast listeners per month while Apple Podcast is predicted to only have 28.5 million monthly listeners. However, both numbers present an increase in listener number compared to the previous year.

The reach in terms of listeners in the 'Podcasts' segment of the advertising market in the United States was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total 37.2 million users (+48.7 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the reach in terms of listeners is estimated to reach 113.62 million users and therefore a new peak in 2029. Notably, the reach in terms of listeners of the 'Podcasts' segment of the advertising market was continuously increasing over the past years.Find more in-depth information regarding the number of users concerning the OTT video segment of the media market worldwide and the revenue growth concerning the traditional TV & home video segment of the media market in Poland. The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

The number of podcast listeners in China was estimated to surpass 150 million with a 12.4 percent of year-over-year growth rate in 2025. Storytelling and conversational podcasts were the most popular content types among Chinese podcast audience.

The number of podcast listeners in the United States has been growing steadily. In 2023, the format reached an audience of 103.6 million listeners and is set to grow even more in the next years.

According to a study from August 2022 on podcast consumption worldwide, 40.8 percent of internet users in North America listened to a podcast at least once a month. In comparison, podcast consumption in Western Europe was slightly lower with 28.1 percent during the same period. Overall, the share of podcasts consumers among internet users is to increase further until 2026.

In Italy, the podcasts audience has significantly increased over the last years, going from 10.3 listeners in 2018 to 16.4 million listeners in 2023. In the recent years the number of podcast enthusiasts has grown by roughly one million per year.

As of 2021, there were over 19.1 million podcast listeners in the United Kingdom (UK). The audience is growing steadily as the popularity of podcasts increases, with estimate of over 28 million listeners by 2026.

Podcast listening behavior and UK trends Over the past decade, podcasts have become one of the most popular forms of (audio) entertainment in the UK. While podcast reach and consumption are as high as ever, podcasts are still most widespread among young audiences, with close to 40 percent of UK listeners aged 26 to 35 listening to podcasts on a weekly basis. Correspondingly, a recent survey showed that smartphones are by far the most commonly used device to listen to podcasts. When asked about their podcast listening behavior, a large share of UK audiences stated that they primarily listened to podcasts while driving or traveling.

What is the most popular podcast genre in the UK? Audiences can choose from an ever-expanding catalogue of podcast genres, titles, and formats. Recent surveys indicated that sports and comedy were the most popular podcast genres with male listeners in Great Britain, while comedy and music were the leading genres among female listeners. Overall, News and Weather and Desert Island Discs ranked as most popular radio programs and podcasts in the UK, with 48 and 36 percent of listeners having a positive opinion of these shows in 2020.

As of August 2023, the United States was the country with the highest number of podcast listeners. Nearly 130 million internet users had tuned in to a podcast in the month prior to the survey. China followed in second position with around 117 million podcast listeners and Brazil ranked third with roughly 51.8 million listeners.

In 2023, the number of podcasts listeners in Latin America grew by 10.7 percent compared to the previous year. Podcast listeners numbers in the region will continue to grow by 2027, albeit slower - that year the growth figure is expected to be at the level of 6.1 percent year-on-year.

“Forklart” was the Norwegian podcast with the most unique listeners as of June 2024. The podcast had over 163 thousand unique streaming listeners. It gives a quick update everyday on one piece of news. “Oppdateret” led the ranking by total number of downloads or streams. The second podcast with the most unique listeners in the country was “Historier fra virkeligheten”, which follows real stories concerning people and society. Who listens to podcasts? Norwegians who were 30 years or younger accounted for the largest share of podcast listeners in the country in 2019. Very few Norwegians, who were 45 or older, reported to be using podcasts. Podcasts influencers' income In 2019 in Sweden, it was estimated that "macro" podcast influencer would earn between 15 and 120 thousand Swedish kronor per episode. Respectively, a "micro" influencer would earn between one and 15 thousand Swedish kronor.

According to a study on podcast consumption in the United States as of May 2021, 14 percent of respondents stated that they listened to podcasts on a daily basis while 20 percent said they listened more than monthly. On the other hand, 40 percent said that they never listened to podcasts.

The source estimated that, in 2023, Mexico was home to approximately 36 million podcast listeners. The figure was forecast to grow by 30 percent by 2027 when it would reach 47 million. Spotify and Google Podcasts were among the most popular podcast streaming platforms in Mexico in 2021.

According to a study from November 2020 on the podcast audience in the United States, the diversity among podcast listeners was higher than in the average U.S. population. While Hispanic Americans made 16 percent of the total U.S. population, they made 19 percent of U.S. podcast audience.

According to a study from 2024 podcasts were especially popular in Spain and the United States, where 44 percent of respondents respectively stated that they had listened to a podcast in the last month. Among the selected markets, podcasts were the least popular in Japan, with only 26 percent of surveyed people saying that they had listened to a podcast within the month prior to the study.

In 2023, around 51.8 million of internet users in Brazil listened to podcasts at least once a month. To compare, the number of podcast listeners stood at 27.5 million in Mexico and 10.4 million in Argentina that year. Forecasts expect that the number of podcast listeners will grow further until 2027 in all three examined countries.

In 2020, over 21 percent of surveyed podcasters registered an increase in the number of their listeners compared to the state before the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. At the same time, for 63 percent of podcasters the number of listeners did not change.

According to a survey on the overall audio penetration in Australia conducted in 2023, 54 percent of respondents aged 18-24 claimed they listened to podcasts weekly. In contrast, only 12 percent of Australians aged 65+ stated that they listened to podcasts every week.