Sunil Gill58% of Americans aged 12 and over, about 167 million people, listened to or watched a podcast in the past month, according to Edison Research's Infinite Dial 2026. That is a record, and so is the 80% who have ever tried one. The medium has also changed shape: the word Edison now uses is "consumed", because more than half of Americans have both listened to and watched a podcast, and YouTube reports over a billion monthly podcast viewers.
This report collects the podcast figures that come from measured sources: Edison's survey for audiences, YouTube's and Spotify's own statements for platforms, Listen Notes for the number of shows, and the IAB/PwC study for advertising revenue. Each figure carries its date.
Podcast statistics: the key figures
- 80% of Americans aged 12+ (230 million) have ever listened to or watched a podcast; 57% have done both (Infinite Dial 2026).
- 58% (167 million) consumed a podcast in the last month and 45% (130 million) in the last week.
- 68% of Americans aged 35 to 54 consume a podcast monthly, the highest of any age group.
- More than 1 billion people watch podcast content on YouTube each month (YouTube, January 2025).
- 3.82 million podcasts and 195 million episodes exist, with 211,000 new shows launched in 2025 (Listen Notes, October 2026).
- US podcast advertising revenue reached $2.9 billion in 2025, up 17.6% (IAB/PwC).
How many people listen to podcasts
Edison Research has asked the same questions every January since 2006, which makes the Infinite Dial the longest-running measure of the US podcast audience. The 2026 edition, based on 2,050 people aged 12 and over surveyed in January 2026, gives three headline numbers:
| Americans aged 12+, January 2026 | Share | People |
|---|---|---|
| Ever listened to or watched a podcast | 80% | 230 million |
| Consumed a podcast in the last month | 58% | 167 million |
| Consumed a podcast in the last week | 45% | 130 million |
The weekly figure is the one advertisers care about, because it describes a habit rather than an experiment. Nearly half the country now has that habit. Edison also found that more than half of people who use AI tools are weekly podcast consumers, against about a third of people who do not, which says more about who early adopters are than about AI.
By age, the heaviest monthly consumers are 35 to 54 year olds at 68%. The fastest growth is older: among Americans aged 55 and over, monthly online audio listening rose from 52% in 2024 to 70% in 2026.
Where people listen, and watch
The biggest podcast platform is a video site. YouTube said in February 2025 that more than a billion people a month watch podcast content on it, that it is the most frequently used podcast service in the US, and that viewers watched over 400 million hours of podcasts a month on television sets in 2024. Edison's finding that 57% of Americans have both listened to and watched a podcast describes the same shift.
Spotify, the other large platform, does not report podcast listeners separately; its 777 million monthly users (Q2 2026) cover music and podcasts together. Apple Podcasts publishes no audience figures. For how the streaming side of audio is performing, see the Spotify statistics report.
How many podcasts there are
Listen Notes, a podcast search engine that indexes public RSS feeds, counted 3,819,572 podcasts and 195,272,204 episodes on October 6, 2026. It excludes deleted shows and feeds with no audio, which is why its total is lower than figures of four or five million quoted elsewhere.
New launches have slowed from the pandemic peak but have not stopped: 210,960 new podcasts in 2025, and 113,332 in 2026 by early October. Most of them will publish a handful of episodes and stop. A show that is still releasing after a year is already in a minority.
Podcast advertising revenue
The IAB and PwC measure US podcast advertising revenue each year. It passed $2 billion in 2024 and grew 17.6% in 2025 to $2.9 billion, faster than digital audio as a whole, which grew 10.2% to $8.4 billion.
View as table
| Period | Value |
|---|---|
| 2022 | $1.8B |
| 2023 | $1.9B |
| 2024 | $2.4B |
| 2025 | $2.9B |
Source: IAB and PwC, US podcast advertising revenue studies and the full-year 2025 Internet Advertising Revenue Report
Growth has been uneven. Revenue rose 26% in 2022, slowed to about 5% in 2023 as advertisers pulled back, then recovered to 26% in 2024 and 17.6% in 2025. The IAB's 2022 projection that podcast revenue would pass $4 billion by 2025 did not happen; the market is about 70% of that forecast.
What the numbers mean for app marketers
- Podcasts reach the people who are hardest to reach elsewhere: 68% of 35 to 54 year olds monthly, and a 55+ audience that is growing fastest of all.
- Video is now part of the format. A podcast sponsorship without a YouTube component misses the largest platform, and creative made for audio alone no longer covers the audience.
- The supply of shows is enormous and the audience is concentrated. With 3.8 million feeds and 167 million monthly consumers, most shows have almost no listeners, and ad money follows the few that do.
- Host-read sponsorships are priced per thousand downloads and trade on the host's credibility rather than reach. Small, well-matched shows are often the better buy for an app with a specific audience.
How these figures are counted
Edison Research's Infinite Dial 2026 surveyed 2,050 Americans aged 12 and over in January 2026, with about half the sample from the probability-based SSRS Opinion Panel, weighted to census data; the "people" figures are Edison's projections to the 12+ population. YouTube's billion figure is its own statement of monthly active viewers of podcast content as of January 2025. Listen Notes counts podcasts in its public index, excluding deleted and audio-less feeds. The IAB/PwC figures are survey-based estimates of US podcast advertising revenue compiled for the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report.
FAQs
How many people listen to podcasts?
In the US, 58% of people aged 12 and over, about 167 million, consumed a podcast in the past month in January 2026, and 45% (130 million) did so in the past week, according to Edison Research. No equivalent survey covers the whole world.
What percentage of Americans listen to podcasts?
80% have ever listened to or watched one, 58% do so monthly and 45% weekly (Infinite Dial 2026). Among 35 to 54 year olds, monthly consumption is 68%.
How many podcasts are there?
About 3.8 million, with 195 million episodes, according to Listen Notes in October 2026. Roughly 211,000 new podcasts launched in 2025.
What is the most popular podcast platform?
YouTube, by its own count: more than 1 billion monthly viewers of podcast content, and the most frequently used podcast service in the US. Spotify and Apple Podcasts do not publish comparable podcast-only audience figures.
How much is the podcast advertising market worth?
$2.9 billion in the US in 2025, up 17.6% from $2.4 billion in 2024, according to the IAB and PwC.
Are podcasts growing or declining?
Growing, on every measure that is published. Monthly consumption among Americans aged 12+ reached a record 58% in January 2026, weekly consumption 45%, and US podcast advertising revenue grew 17.6% to $2.9 billion in 2025, faster than digital audio overall.
Sources
- Edison Research: The Infinite Dial 2026, March 2026
- YouTube: Celebrating 1 billion monthly podcast users on YouTube, February 26, 2025
- Listen Notes: podcast stats, October 6, 2026
- IAB and PwC: Internet Advertising Revenue Report, full year 2025 (April 2026); IAB news on 2022 revenue and 2023 revenue
- Spotify: Q2 2026 update
All figures were checked against the sources above on October 6, 2026.