Podcast awareness, creation and consumption continues to explode, driven by consumer adoption of smart speaker devices, high calibre talent, streaming service investment and the pandemic. We've rounded up the latest global stats and even included what's available from the US, numbers which tend to be indicative of how the industry will follow globally. Here are the latest eye popping stats and insights you need to deliver to your team to accelerate your next media plan.
Global Audience
In 2018, 44% of Americans 12 or older had listened to a podcast, compared to 57% in 2021 (The Infinite Dial 2021)
In Australia, podcast listening has increased from 27% in 2019 to 32% in 2020. The global average is 41%. (APO)
As of 2021, 56% of all Americans, 12-34, listen to at least one podcast per month, compared to 49% in 2020. (The Infinite Dial 2021)
Each Week, More Americans Listen to Podcasts Than Have Netflix Accounts. In 2021, 28% or 80 million Americans are weekly podcast listeners. There are now 10 million more weekly podcast listeners than the 69 million Netflix account owners in the U.S. (The Infinite Dial 2021)
There were over 78 million global podcast downloads in August 2021 (Buzzsprout)
Advertising
We expect US podcast ad spending to increase by 38.7% YoY in 2021. And in just two years, US podcast ad spending will have nearly doubled, from $701.0 million in 2019 to $1.33 billion in 2021.(Insider Intelligence)
Podcast advertising is scaling so quickly that the US user base has doubled in the last 4 years (Mary Meeker, Internet Trends)
Podcast ads are the most recalled type of ad – with 86% of respondents saying they remember seeing or hearing an ad (Super Listeners 2021 report)
Host-read podcast ads achieve 72% brand recall, compared with 62% for non-host-read ads. Additionally, host-read ads on podcasts produce an average of 50% increase in purchase and recommendation intent among listeners when compared against non-host-read ads.(Neilson)
Content
There are over 2 million active podcasts and 48 million podcast episodes (Podcast Insights 2021)
Specialist podcasts are the most popular among Australian news consumers (15%), followed by lifestyle (12%), news (11%), contemporary life (11%), and sport (7%).(APO)
93% of listeners listen to most or all of the podcast (Infinite Dial 2021)
Devices
In August 2021, 89.5% of global podcast listens were on a mobile phone. 7.1% were on a computer, 0.8% on a smart speaker, 0.5% on a TV and 2.1% unknown (Buzzsprout)
Frequency
Podcast fans consume 8 episodes per week, on average (Infinite Dial 2021)
24% (68 million) listen to podcasts weekly – up from 22% in 2019 (Infinite Dial 2021)
2021 holds the record for hours spent listening to podcasts with 15 billion hours compared to 12 billion just two years ago (SEM Rush)
36 percent of men listen to podcasts at least once a month compared to 29 percent of women. (Oberlo)
Streaming Services
Spotify credits podcast popularity for 24% growth in subscribers (The Guardian)
Spotify achieved 31% of downloads globally in August 2021.Apple Podcasts 26.9%, Google Podcast 2.9% (BuzzSprout)
Podcasts’ share of digital audio usage will rise to 40.2% by 2023.(eMarketer)
There you go! You are now loaded up with fresh podcast stats to fuel your next campaign. For further insight contact us here.