Podcast Statistics 2027: Sourced Numbers From Edison, IAB and YouTube

Podcast statistics for 2027 start from Edison Research’s Infinite Dial 2026, surveyed in January 2026: 58% of Americans 12+ (about 167 million) consumed a podcast in the last month and 45% (about 130 million) in the last week, both records. U.S. podcast ad revenue hit $2.9 billion in 2025 (IAB/PwC), and YouTube is the platform most weekly podcast consumers use most often.

Most podcast statistics pages are aggregators quoting each other, with 2019 numbers sitting next to 2026 ones. Every figure on this page comes from the organization that measured it, with the date it was collected or published. Where two sources disagree, the “conflicts” table explains why. This page is the hub for our podcast data series; each section links to a deeper article.

As of October 10, 2026. No 2027 data exists yet. This page uses the newest primary data available: the Infinite Dial 2026 (published March 12, 2026), the Podcast Consumer 2026 (June 4, 2026), the IAB/PwC full-year 2025 report (April 16, 2026), Edison Podcast Metrics for Q3 2026 (October 7, 2026), Pew Research Center’s fact sheet (September 25, 2025), and YouTube’s and Spotify’s own announcements.

What are the most important podcast statistics for 2027?

The most important podcast statistics for 2027 are the audience reach figures from Edison, the revenue figure from IAB/PwC, and the platform data from Edison Podcast Metrics. The table lists each one with its source and the period it describes.

Statistic	Figure	Source	Data period
Americans 12+ who ever consumed a podcast	80% (about 230 million)	Infinite Dial 2026	January 2026 survey
Americans 12+ who consumed a podcast in the last month	58% (about 167 million)	Infinite Dial 2026	January 2026 survey
Americans 12+ who consumed a podcast in the last week	45% (about 130 million)	Infinite Dial 2026	January 2026 survey
U.S. adults who listened to a podcast in the past 12 months	54%	Pew Research Center	August 18–24, 2025 survey
Weekly podcast consumers who watch video podcasts	78%	Edison Podcast Metrics	Q1 2026
Weekly podcast consumers who use YouTube most often for podcasts	40%	Edison Podcast Metrics	Q3 2026
U.S. podcast advertising revenue	$2.9 billion (+17.6%)	IAB/PwC	Full year 2025
Daily time with all audio among daily podcast consumers 13+	5 hours 11 minutes	Edison Share of Ear	Q1 2026
Podcasts in the Listen Notes database	3.82 million	Listen Notes	October 10, 2026
Podcasts that published an episode in 2026	About 568,000	Listen Notes	October 10, 2026
Monthly podcast viewers on YouTube, worldwide	Over 1 billion	YouTube	As of January 2025, restated May 2026
Spotify users who have streamed a video podcast	Over 500 million	Spotify	May 2026

How many people listen to podcasts in 2026?

About 167 million Americans age 12 and older consumed a podcast in the last month, according to Edison Research’s Infinite Dial 2026. Edison surveyed 2,050 people in January 2026, about half from the probability-based SSRS Opinion Panel, and weighted the results to the U.S. 12+ population. Roughly 130 million consumed one in the last week and 230 million have ever listened to or watched one.

Year	Monthly podcast consumption (U.S. 12+)	Weekly podcast consumption (U.S. 12+)
2019	32%	22%
2020	37%	24%
2021	41%	28%
2022	38%	26%
2023	42%	31%
2024	47%	34%
2025	55%	40%
2026	58%	45%

One change matters when you read this series. Through 2024, Edison asked whether people had “listened to” podcasts. From 2025 it asked whether they had “listened to or watched” them. Part of the eight-point jump between 2024 and 2025 reflects that wider question, so the cleanest year-on-year comparison is 2025 to 2026: up three points monthly and five points weekly.

Edison’s Podcast Consumer 2026 report puts the same figures in millions: monthly consumers rose from about 158 million in 2025 to 167 million in 2026, and weekly consumers from about 115 million to 130 million.

When will the Infinite Dial 2027 podcast data come out?

The Infinite Dial 2027 hasn’t been published yet. The 2026 edition was surveyed in January 2026 and released on March 12, 2026. If Edison keeps that schedule, the 2027 numbers will arrive in spring 2027, and this page will be updated when they do. Until then, the 2026 edition is the newest annual measure of U.S. podcast reach, and anyone quoting “2027 podcast statistics” is quoting 2026 data or a forecast.

Who listens to podcasts?

Podcast listeners span every adult age group, with the highest reach among people aged 35 to 54. In the Infinite Dial 2026, monthly podcast consumption was 64% among ages 12 to 34, 68% among ages 35 to 54 and 44% among those 55 and older. Men (62%) were more likely than women (54%) to consume podcasts monthly.

The fastest change is among older Americans: monthly consumption among those 55+ rose from 21% in 2023 to 44% in 2026. Pew Research Center’s podcast fact sheet, based on an August 2025 survey of U.S. adults, shows the same pattern: 67% of adults 18 to 29 had listened in the past year, against 33% of those 65 and older.

Our article on podcast listener demographics and home buyers lines these figures up with NAR’s buyer ages and explains what that comparison can and can’t tell you.

A single show reaches far fewer people than these national totals; see average podcast listeners per episode.

Do more people watch or listen to podcasts?

Watching and listening are now roughly even among frequent podcast consumers. In Edison Podcast Metrics, 78% of U.S. weekly podcast consumers said they watch video podcasts and 80% said they listen to audio-only shows in Q1 2026. Video briefly passed audio-only in Q3 2025, at 82% against 78%. Most people do both: the Infinite Dial 2026 found 57% of Americans 12+ have both listened to and watched a podcast.

The full breakdown, including what YouTube’s and Spotify’s headline numbers do and don’t measure, is in our video podcast statistics.

Which platforms do people use for podcasts?

YouTube is the service U.S. weekly podcast consumers use most often for podcasts. In Edison Podcast Metrics for Q3 2026, published October 7, 2026, 40% chose YouTube, 17% Spotify, 9% Apple Podcasts and 3% Netflix.

Measure	YouTube	Spotify	Apple	Source and period
Service used most often for podcasts	40%	17%	9%	Edison Podcast Metrics, Q3 2026
Service used most often for podcasts	37%	21%	12%	Edison Podcast Metrics, Q1 2026
Share of daily podcast listening time	32%	25%	20%	Edison Share of Ear, Q4 2025

YouTube reports that its podcast audience passed 1 billion monthly viewers worldwide as of January 2025, and restated “over 1 billion monthly active users” in a May 28, 2026 post. Spotify said at its May 2026 Investor Day that more than 500 million users have streamed a video podcast. Both are company figures for global users of one platform, so they can’t be added together or compared directly with U.S. survey data.

How much time do people spend listening to podcasts?

Daily podcast consumers spend more time with audio than other Americans, and over a third of it goes to podcasts. Edison’s Share of Ear study for Q1 2026 found daily podcast consumers 13+ spend 5 hours 11 minutes a day with all audio sources, against 3 hours 57 minutes for all Americans 13+.

Podcasts take 10% of daily audio time across all listeners 13+, and 36% among daily podcast listeners. For ad-supported audio only, podcasts take 51% of daily podcast listeners’ time. Where people listen has also shifted: in Edison’s Q1 2026 data, 66% of weekly consumers listen most often at home and 13% in a vehicle.

For how long episodes themselves run, see our average podcast length benchmarks.

How many podcasts are there?

There are about 3.8 million podcasts in the largest public database, but only around 568,000 have published an episode in 2026. Listen Notes, a podcast search engine, counted 3,823,287 podcasts and 195 million episodes in its October 10, 2026 update. Listen Notes refreshes these counts continuously, so recent months shift slightly between updates.

Listen Notes measure (update of October 10, 2026)	Figure
Total podcasts in database	3,823,287
Podcasts whose latest episode is from 2026	567,678
New podcasts launched in 2020	1,020,468
New podcasts launched in 2025	211,038
New human-created podcasts, September 2026	8,848
AI-generated fake podcasts removed, September 2026	3,040

The 2020 launch spike has faded, and Listen Notes now reports removing thousands of AI-generated fake shows a month. Other directories publish larger totals; Listen Notes says some inflate counts with long-deleted feeds and very low-quality content. For an agent deciding whether the market is “too crowded,” the active count and your local competition matter far more than the total.

Our breakdown of how many podcasts are still active compares the totals from Podcast Index, Listen Notes and Spotify.

For the real estate niche alone, our 2027 study of real estate podcasts counts how many shows are still publishing and how many stop early.

How big is the podcast advertising industry?

U.S. podcast advertising brought in $2.9 billion in 2025, up 17.6% from 2024, according to the IAB/PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report published April 16, 2026. The exact figure is $2,862.2 million, up from $2,433.1 million in 2024 and $708.1 million in 2019.

That is still only about 1% of the $294.6 billion U.S. digital ad market. The IAB notes the figure uses a traditional audio-based definition of a podcast, so some video podcast ad revenue may sit in other categories. Edison’s Podcast Consumer 2026 adds that 76% of weekly podcast consumers say they have acted on a podcast ad, a self-reported figure. Current CPM rate cards, the per-episode math for small shows and measured ad response rates are in our guide to podcast advertising rates.

What that means for one show’s income is in how much podcasts make.

Which podcast statistics conflict, and why?

Podcast statistics conflict mainly because sources measure different people, over different time windows, with different definitions of “podcast.” None of the pairs below means one source is wrong. Pick the one whose question matches yours.

Topic	Figure A	Figure B	Why they differ
U.S. reach	Edison: 58% consumed in the last month (12+, Jan 2026)	Pew: 54% listened in the past 12 months (18+, Aug 2025)	Edison counts watching and includes teens; Pew asks adults about listening only. Wording and panels differ, so a past-month figure can exceed a past-year one.
Reach trend	Edison monthly: 47% (2024) to 55% (2025)	Edison monthly: 55% (2025) to 58% (2026)	The 2025 question added “or watched.” The 2024 to 2025 jump is partly definitional.
Top platform	YouTube 40% “most often” (Q3 2026)	YouTube 32% of listening time (Q4 2025)	Preference and time spent are different measures, taken in different quarters.
Platform audience	YouTube: over 1 billion monthly podcast viewers	Edison: about 167 million U.S. monthly consumers	YouTube’s figure is global and uses YouTube’s own definition; Edison’s is a U.S. survey.
Number of podcasts	Listen Notes: 3.82 million total	Listen Notes: about 568,000 published in 2026	Totals include dormant shows. Other directories report even larger totals.
Gender split	57% of men, 52% of women (often quoted)	62% of men, 54% of women	The first pair is Edison’s 2025 data; the second is 2026.
Ad prices	$18–$26 CPM for host-read ads (Libsyn Ads)	No fixed rate, campaigns from $250 (Spotify Ad Studio)	Sell-side rate cards and buy-side auctions price different products. Details are in our ad rates guide.

What do podcast statistics mean for a real estate agent?

Podcast statistics tell an agent that the audience is large, growing among older adults, and split between watching and listening. They don’t prove a podcast will produce listings. No published study measures how many home buyers or sellers listen to podcasts, so treat any precise claim about that with suspicion.

What the numbers do support:

• Your clients’ age groups listen. NAR’s 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, released November 4, 2025, puts the median first-time buyer at 40 and repeat buyer at 62. Edison measures 68% monthly reach among ages 35 to 54 and 44% among 55+.
• Video is half the game. Record on camera so the same episode works on YouTube and in podcast apps.
• The field is less crowded than it looks. About 568,000 shows published in 2026, and very few of them cover your city.
• Ad money is flowing in. A growing ad market means more shows looking for knowledgeable guests.

Guesting first is the low-cost way to test your message. You can pitch a free guest interview on the ICONS of Real Estate Podcast before you commit to your own show. When you’re ready to run your own, you can have a producer turn your market updates into a published agent podcast with promo clips and website articles. What’s likely to change next year is in our podcast trends for 2027.

Lenders who want to learn from podcasts can start with our list of mortgage podcasts for loan officers.

How often is this page updated?

This page is updated when a major primary source publishes new data. The next scheduled refresh is the Infinite Dial 2027, followed by Edison’s Podcast Consumer report and the IAB/PwC full-year 2026 report.

Date	Change
October 10, 2026	First published, using the Infinite Dial 2026, Podcast Consumer 2026, IAB/PwC full-year 2025, Edison Podcast Metrics Q3 2026, Pew’s September 2025 fact sheet and Listen Notes data from October 10, 2026.
Next	Replace audience figures when the Infinite Dial 2027 is published.