Apple Podcasts Statistics

With the current and increasing popularity of podcasts and only two or three big players in the podcast platform market, it is helpful to have some insight into the industry. 

We take a look at some Apple Podcasts statistics to help you understand what they do and how well they perform. 

Apple Music

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Active Podcasts

As of 2022, there are a total of 2,475, 736 active podcasts available on the Apple Podcasts platform. This provides listeners with an incredibly large amount of material to enjoy but also helps podcast creators to have a well-known and popular name as their platform. 

Prior to the standalone app for podcasts, Apple used iTunes 4.9 to support podcasts. In 2018 there were only 500,000 active podcasts available on that platform. 

Categories Offered

Apple Podcasts offers 110 different categories and subcategories. This means that regardless of the topic, you are likely to find it on Apple Podcasts. For podcast creators, it offers a wide range of places where they can choose to place their show. 

Other podcast apps and directories use this extensive list of categories created by Apple. With so many different categories, it can be difficult to decide which is the best fit for podcast creators. 

Number Of Episodes

In 2022, there were 65,097,311 episodes on Apple Podcasts. This varies according to category. Spirituality and Religion are the most abundant in terms of the number of episodes per category with more than 8.2 million. 

Society and culture is the category with the next largest number of episodes, at more than 3.6 million followed by business with 3.2 million podcast episodes. While good for listeners, it can be challenging for podcast creators to make their mark. 

New Podcasts & Episodes

Apple Podcasts publishes a new podcast every 90 days. This is not the same as new episodes being released for podcast shows, which happens according to the frequency set by the podcast creator through Apple Podcasts Connect. 

Podcasters can choose between daily, bimonthly, and everything in between (also see, ‘How Often Should I Publish A Podcast‘).

This alerts listeners to when they can expect you to update your show by releasing new episodes. Apple introduced this service in 2021. 

Market Share

Apple Podcasts is the most popular listening app for podcasts with a total market share of 37.4%. In second place is Spotify with 26.8% of listeners. This can move up and down as in October 2021 Spotify had 31.2% and Apple was slightly behind with 31.1%. 

In April 2022, Apple again overtook Spotify in the market share of listeners but who knows what will happen next year, the situation may once again be reversed (also see, ‘Spotify Podcast Charts‘).

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Spotify

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Competitors

As we have seen Spotify is Apple’s closest competitor, but there are other podcast platforms beyond these two mainstream platforms. 

Google Podcasts has just 2.9% of the share of podcast downloads, at around 2.2 million. This app is preinstalled on many Android phones and devices. Just behind Google is Castbox, with just 32,176 fewer downloads. This directory also creates its own podcasts. 

ALSO SEE: What Is The Average Number Of Downloads For A Podcast?

Subscription Service For Content

Apple Podcasts has introduced a service that charges listeners to access certain content, get extra content, or preview new content before non-subscribing listeners. There are 3 different levels now for Apple Podcast listeners: Free, Freemium, and Paid. 

The first means there is no charge for podcasts, with the second content is mostly free but there is a subscription for additional content, and paid means to subscribe and listen. 

Podcast creators get 70% of the subscription minus any applicable taxes. After a year of subscription, this percentage rises to 85% minus taxes. 

Age Groups

Apple Podcasts attracts many age groups, but its highest percentage of listeners comes from the 35-54 age group at 43%. However, this group already represents the second largest demographic who listen to podcasts

The majority of podcast listeners come from the 12-34 age range across all platforms. 

Podcast Analytics Tools

Number Of Monthly Listeners

The average number of monthly listeners to Apple Podcasts is 28.5 million users. This compares to 32.5 million users who prefer Spotify as their podcast listening app.

 As a purely audio service, Spotify has a more natural progression of its music listeners also using the service for podcast shows. However, 16% of listeners prefer to listen to podcasts on Apple Podcasts. 

Most Popular Genres

There are many genres of podcasts, but currently the most popular is comedy with 22% of surveyed respondents saying they prefer podcasts that make them laugh. 

The second most popular podcast genre is news, with society and culture coming in as the third favorite. 

This measurement is based on actual select podcast analytics and not on downloads from a survey of 8,000 users aged 18 and over. 

ALSO SEE: Podcast Trends

Most Popular Podcast

The most popular podcast of 2022 on Apple Podcasts was The Bill Simmons Podcast which is a sports podcast.  The second most popular was The Thing About Helen & Olga which is a fictional podcast (also see, ‘Top Podcasts‘). 

This was followed by Strangeland as the third most popular podcast of the year which is about different immigrant blocks. The most popular podcasts tend to change quite regularly so what is popular now may not be in six months’ time (also see, ‘Best Podcasts‘).

Monthly Subscription Cost

The new decision by Apple Podcasts to charge a subscription fee for listening to podcasts may change how the future of podcasting evolves. Currently, Apple offers a three-month free trial, so you can test out the service and see if it is for you. 

After this trial listeners can decide if the service is something that is right for them and either cancel or start paying for content. 

Apple takes 30% of the subscription fee in the first year, dropping to 15% in subsequent years. 

Final Thoughts

Apple Podcasts is one of the major podcast platforms and alongside Spotify makes up the majority of podcast provision in the US.

We hope this insight into some Apple Podcasts statistics has been of use to you.