A tale of two lists: Top new and existing podcasts of Q4

The Podcast Metrics division of Edison Research has released an interesting output of its relentless podcast metrics research: Top Ten New Podcasts of 2025. We compare that list with Edison’s Top 50 Podcasts of Q4 list. 

First, the top ten new podcasts of 2025:

Now, Edison’s top 50 of all podcasts in Q4 — the top 10 shown below:

1. The Joe Rogan Experience
2. Crime Junkie
3. The Daily
4. Call Her Daddy
5. SmartLess
6. Stuff You Should Know
7. This American Life
8. This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
9. Dateline NBC
10. New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce

No sharing between those two lists.

While it’s fun to make this comparison, we are not astonished by the outcome; it takes time to grow an audience.