In 2019, 335,000 new podcasts were created, according to Listen Notes. As of today, 513,000 podcasts have started in 2021, far surpassing 2019’s benchmark year which saw more new podcasts than any previous year.
As the industry knows, 2020 was an unusual year, when people restricted to their homes started new podcasts at a record rate — just over a million new shows launched last year.
2021 is catching up to 2019 in number of episodes as well: 16-million compared to 18-million.
All this transpires in a podverse of 2.5-million shows and 190-million episodes.
A great majority of podcasts are in English and published in the U.S. Spanish shows in Brazil take a robust second place.
Looking at hosts, it is perhaps unsurprising that the no-cost, spotify-owned Anchor ranks #1 in number of podcasts on the platform, but the extravagance of that industry-leading position might be surprising. Anchor hosts 1.4-million shows, and owns a 56% share of that market. The #2 host is Soundcloud, with a 5% share.