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 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.

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 2024, a survey on podcast consumption revealed that 47 percent of U.S. adults had listened to a podcast within the last month, a figure which has more than tripled over the past decade. Weekly podcast consumption has also sharply increased, and some of the world’s leading podcast publishers achieve millions of unique streams and downloads per month. Podcast consumption in the U.S. Once a niche format, podcasts have now become part of the mainstream media landscape. Between 2009 and 2019, the share of Americans who had ever listened to an audio podcast more than doubled, growing from 22 to 51 percent. As podcasts have grown in popularity, so has the variety of content available in the format. Some of the more popular podcast genres are music and comedy, but tens of millions of U.S. households have fans of sports, science, news and arts podcasts too. Podcasts are often also used as part of marketing strategies or to generate engagement between bloggers, news publications, or even different departments within a company. Like most forms of modern media, podcasts frequently include ads, and podcast ad revenue reached almost 480 million U.S. dollars in the United States in 2018. By 2021, it is expected that advertising revenue in this sector will grow by around 200 million each year and will exceed one billion U.S. dollars in 2021. For U.S. consumers, podcasts are not just a source of inspiration or a way to escape from daily life but also an opportunity to educate themselves. In a survey held in early 2019, the majority of respondents said that their main reason for listening to podcasts was to learn new things. There are podcasts on philosophy, history, travel, and business, as well as much more including content aimed solely at educating children.

In recent years, monthly podcast listening in the United States has gained in popularity, both with male and female consumers. The most recent data gathered in 2024 also showed that men have always been more likely to consume podcasts every month, since 2021. However, women caught up over time and in 2024, they were just three percent behind male listeners.

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.

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 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 survey held in early 2024 in the United States, 59 percent of respondents aged 12 to 34 years old had listened to a podcast within the preceding month, compared to 27 percent of those aged 55 or above. Adults in the latter age category have been increasing their podcast listening consistently for years, to a point where respondents aged 35-54 almost caught up on the younger age category. Podcasts are gaining popularity This increased monthly podcast consumption shows the growing prevalence of the format in the United States. A survey on podcast consumption found that in 2012 only 29 percent of U.S. respondents had ever listened to an audio podcast, but this figure increased annually and reached 57 percent in 2021. Although this rise in popularity is significant, it might also reflect the generational gap in podcast consumption, with younger consumers tuning in more regularly than their older counterparts. In 2021, the share of Millennial podcast consumers in Canada and the U.S. amounted to 48 percent, with Boomers only making up 23 percent. Podcast providers The recent controversy surrounding Spotify and the Spotify-exclusive podcast ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’, in which Spotify sided with Joe Rogan despite complaints from artists, demonstrated the rising influence of podcasts and their importance for streaming platforms. In the United States, the main platform used to access podcasts among adults was Spotify in 2020, with 31 percent of respondents using the service. Slightly less popular was Apple Podcasts with 22 percent of respondents citing the platform as their preferred provider. Similarly, data on the most popular podcast providers in the United States according to users’ age showed that Spotify was the go-to choice for all adults in the survey, though Apple Podcasts also fared well and SoundCloud was also the preferred platform among 26 percent of those aged 18 to 34 years old.

A survey conducted in the United States in 2023 revealed that younger generations are more likely to be daily or weekly podcast listeners. On top of that, 35 percent of Millennials stated to listen to podcasts daily. Only ten percent of the baby boomer generation stated the same. A similar picture drew itself concerning weekly listenership, with Millennials being the leading podcast listening generation.

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.

According to a study from 2022, the share of Black and Hispanic podcast listeners has increased between 2020 and 2022. The share of Black consumers increased from 34 percent in 2020 by a whooping 26 percent to 43 percent in 2022. The same development can be observed with Hispanic podcast listeners.

According to a study from 2023, podcast consumption in Canada had been steadily increasing until spring 2023, from 17 percent in spring 2016 to 50 percent in 2023 among 18 to 49-year-olds. However, as of fall 2023, the number fell to 44 percent again. While the consumption has been showing a similar development through all generations, there is still a gap between younger and older age groups, with only 33 percent of the general population consuming podcasts monthly.

A study conducted in early 2024 revealed that 34 percent of US adults had listened to a podcast during the week leading up to the survey, up from 31 percent who said the same one year before. Weekly podcast consumption has grown more than threefold since 2013, when just seven percent of consumers listened to podcasts on a weekly basis.

Compared to the previous year, monthly podcast listening has grown within all age groups in the United States in 2024. Although younger age groups still outranked podcast listeners older than 55 years old by a margin, the latter showed the biggest growth, as the share of monthly podcast listeners grew by six percent in this age group, compared to 2023.

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.

According to a survey on podcast consumption in the United Kingdom in 2024, 34 percent of respondents who listened to podcasts at least once a month did so while doing housework. Another 43 percent stated that they consumed podcasts while they were at home relaxing.

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.

During an April 2023 survey carried out among podcast listeners from the United States, 40 percent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the majority of the ads they hear on podcasts were relevant to them, with 39 percent saying that they go out of their way to support brands advertising on their favorite podcasts.