The mainstreaming of podcasts: Listening tops 50%; growing fastest in 55+(Edison Research)

One of the most resonant parts of yesterday’s release of The Infinite Dial 2025, the annual survey from Edison Research of digital media consumer behavior in America, is the consumption of podcasts. There are two parts of this:

• Sheer number of consumers
• The consumption format

Breaking 50%

On the first point, 55% of American adults — 158 million — consume podcasts. Breaking the 50% barrier is guaranteed to generate headlines.

On the second point, seven percent of that 55 percent reported watching podcasts, but not listening to them. It is that watching cohort which pushed the overall metric to a new high, as illustrated by Edison Research below:

Trumpets

Anytime a major metric pushes over 50% consumption, trumpets blare, not least on the Edison website, where the podcasting breakthrough headlines the company’s marketing of The InfiniteDial. (Which, by the way, can be downloaded HERE.)

And Edison’s survey crunching team did more: A gender breakdown and four-year timeline:

 

And further, Edison supplies that four-year perspective in three age groups:

Maturing Growth

We see above that while podcast listening is growing across the ages pectrum, it is jolting upward fastest in the 55+ cohort — seemingly a powerful indicator of overall continued growth:

Listening growth by age group, 2024-2025:

Age 12-34: 11%

Age 35-54: 11%

Age 55+: 30%

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