Edison Research releases Top 30 U.S. Podcasts

Edison Research has released a public version of its subscription product Podcast Consumer Tracker (PCT). The PCT is intended to rank podcasts by reach, while most rankers use downloads as the determining factor of their lists.

Some other rankers also give information about audience size. Edison’s product is differentiated in a couple of ways. First, it is based on consumer surveying, not on server measurements. And, because of Edison’s ability to segment survey respondents, the PCT can (and does) focus on weekly podcast listeners. so the list below represents top percentages of shows consumed by active podcast listeners.

The time period represented in today’s release is Q3 2019 through Q2 2020.

Along with the list, an interesting COVID-related note from Edison SVP Tom Webster: “Even with the work and life disruptions caused by COVID-19, people did continue listening to their favorite podcasts, and we ultimately saw little to no reduction in reach among weekly podcast listeners.”

Here’s the list:

Rank Podcast Producer
1 The Joe Rogan Experience Joe Rogan
2 The Daily The New York Times
3 This American Life This American Life/Serial
4 My Favorite Murder Exactly Right
5 Crime Junkie Audiochuck
6 Stuff You Should Know HowStuffWorks
7 Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! NPR
8 Planet Money NPR
9 Pod Save America Crooked Media
10 Serial This American Life/Serial
11 Radiolab WNYC Studios
12 Fresh Air NPR/WHYY
13 Office Ladies Earwolf
14 The Dave Ramsey Show Ramsey Solutions
15 Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend Earwolf
16 WTF with Marc Maron Podcast Independent
17 The Ben Shapiro Show The Daily Wire
18 Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard Armchair Umbrella
19 Freakonomics Radio Dubner Productions
20 TED Talks Daily (tie) TED
20 Up First (tie) NPR
22 Hidden Brain NPR
23 Bill Simmons Podcast The Ringer
24 Criminal Radiotopia
25 Last Podcast On The Left Last Podcast Network
26 Call Her Daddy Barstool Sports
27 H3 Podcast h3h3productions
28 Lore Independent
29 The Breakfast Club (tie) iHeartRadio
29 The Moth (tie) The Moth

Brad Hill