YouTube has launched and announced a podcast popularity chart, awkwardly named “Weekly Top Podcast Shows: Most popular podcast shows on YouTube.” (We hope this arcane naming protocol does not start a trend of calling podcasts “podcast shows.”)
The first chart, representing May 5-11, is up now. One hundred podcasts are ranked. The frankly ugly and painfully inconvenient Web presentation is HERE. The harshly vertical layout was probably designed for phones and it does work better there, if not with any repair of damaged aesthetics.
If you have patience for excessive scrolling, you’ll see a ranking that ranges from The Joe Rogan Experience (#1) to Crime Weekly (#100).
Data hounds, especially those more sophisticated than we, will be interested in a spreadsheet presentation of YouTube’s data created by the estimable Dan Misener (Co-Founder, Bumper). It is HERE, and includes a pivot table worksheet.
The date range for this debut weekly chart is May 5-11, establishing a reporting cadence with a one-week lag.
Comparing YouTube’s list with the Top 50 Podcasts in the U.S. ranker from Edison Research is hard to resist, though not particularly instructive — and there is no right/wrong in the exercise. Edison’s work is based on surveys; YouTube’s list is a count of plays.
Nevertheless, we love comparisons, and we find two matches:
- Rotten Mayo (YouTube #3 / Edison #8)
- This Past Weekend (YouTube #8 / Edison #5