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In January 2026, iHeart Audience Network had million audience members in the United States. Excluding networks, iHeartPodcasts had the most unique monthly listeners, at over ** million.

Podcast streaming market

While publishers play an important role in the creation of podcasts, streaming services providing a platform for podcast consumption also benefit from the rising popularity of the format. In 2025, the most preferred podcast provider was YouTube, followed by Spotify. Streaming services have realized the potential of podcasts, which is why they have started to invest in podcast creating and podcast streaming companies. In 2020, Spotify acquired The Ringer while competitor Sirius XM, after having purchased Pandora, obtained the successful podcast streaming service Stitcher.

Popular podcast content

In terms of content, the most popular genre within the podcast market in the U.S. was comedy. The podcast with the highest revenue worldwide in 2019 was The Joe Rogan Experience, a Spotify-exclusive podcast hosted by the American comedian of the same name in which he talks to a wide array of guests. While podcasts were already on the rise over the last few years, there was an upsurge in podcast consumption during the last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, which meant a higher demand in audio, or entertainment in general, content.