The end-of-year stream of research reports continues apace. Podcast/audiobook platform Podimo has produced The 2024 Global Trend Report, promising “a year of stories and reactions in 2024, and the trends that will define podcasting in 2025.”
Countering the trend of year-end reports illustrated with colorful charts and graphs, Podimo has produced a text-only document covering global trend highlights, genre growth comparisons, listening habits, topical engagement, geographic participation, audiobook crossover metrics, andmore.
The fully detailed report is preceded by five key trend highlights:
- Comedy experienced explosive growth, with Finland leading at a staggering +194% and Norway following at +81%.
- True Crime’s grip intensifies: Spain saw a remarkable +408% surge in True Crime engagement, particularly among women, while Germany saw 49% of listeners falling asleep to True Crime.
- Audiobooks via Podcasts: Denmark and Finland saw nearly double the amount (47% and 46%, respectively) of podcast lovers discovering audiobooks, showcasing an increasing synergy between the two formats.
- Binge Behavior: Denmark emerged as the most binge-oriented market, with 27% of users consuming 3+ hours of podcasts or audiobooks in a single day.
- Weekday Listening Habits: Across markets, weekday listening exceeded weekends by 40–50%, highlighting spoken audio’s role in daily routines.
- “2024 saw spoken audio entertainment reach new heights of influence globally,” says Podimo Chief Content Officer Sachin Doshi, “as we look to 2025, we see a stronger willingness to pay for quality local language content, and in multiple markets we’re already generating more revenue for podcasters than the entire local advertising business. Our goal is to make that a reality everywhere. Creators will continue to have differing goals, and our mission is to support them where they’re at, whether it’s helping them earn more, or developing their audience reach. Finally, the future of audio is audio, but many audio formats lend themselves to a richer experience through visual engagement, at the listener’s discretion. We produce more of our shows in video than ever before, but we want to dive further into what visual engagement could mean for formats like True Crime or single host shows, where filming the recording session might not add value for the listener, but there are other ways to enhance the listening experience.”
The full report, uncolored as it is, describes an interesting nation-by-nation reckoning of key topics. Six countries are analyzed in this report: Germany, Finland, Denmark, Netherlands, Spain, and Norway. It’s freely available HERE.
Copenhagen-based Podimo operates in seven markets, and serves creators and listeners with podcast and audiobook hosting and listening. An investor-funded startup, Podimo has raised over 48-million US$.
