In 2025, podcasting stopped behaving like an emerging business and started operating as a core pillar of the entertainment economy, driven by video growth, daily consumption and more large platforms taking an interest in the medium.
This was the year where podcasting expanded beyond headphones and car radios and into living rooms, awards stages and streamer deal rooms as YouTube viewers watched over 700 million hours of podcasts on living room devices in October alone, up 75% from 400 million hours a year ago. iHeartPodcasts saw 200 million monthly downloads. SiriusXM reached one in two podcast listeners a month. And now almost half of the 50 most-listened to shows of the year have videos available on Spotify.
The surge underscores the importance of personality-driven content and makes podcasts an area to keep an eye out for in 2026, particularly with Netflix taking an interest in the medium with several deals to cap off 2025. The growth across platforms has also challenged the notion that podcasting has plateaued.
“Every time I even entertain the idea that maybe podcasting has hit its peak, there will be a new push or wave of momentum,” Conal Byrne, CEO of iHeartMedia, told TheWrap. “That can range from the importance of podcasting around the elections last year to the buzzwords of video podcasting today, and I’m sure there’ll be 10 more podcast buzzwords in 2026. I think we’re still just getting started with podcasting.”
Rather than topic driven content, star hosts are bringing more eyes and attention to the medium. Amy Poehler’s podcast Good Hang, which launched in March of this year, made it into Spotify’s Top 10 podcasts of the year and even earned a Golden Globe nomination.
According to Parrot Analytics, podcasting hosts reached exceptional peak demand levels in the U.S., an achievement earned by less than 1% of all tracked talent, regardless of profession or nationality. This list reflects a broad spectrum of public figures, including political commentators, journalists, comedians and actors.
Platform competition also intensified. SiriusXM overtook Spotify and iHeartMedia as the top podcasting network this year, according to Edison Research. President and Chief Content Officer Scott Greenstein attributed much of that growth to high-profile talent deals, including “Call Her Daddy,” “SmartLess,” “Morbid” and “The Mel Robbins Podcast.”
Unlike rivals that have leaned heavily into exclusivity, SiriusXM has largely allowed shows to distribute widely — a strategy Greenstein believes appeals to creators while still supporting the company’s subscription business.
“While we’re wide now, that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t consider a different ecosystem behind a paywall if talent wanted it,” Greenstein told TheWrap. “That kind of curation represents an opportunity to continue growing the business.”
Edison Research found that time spent listening to podcasts has jumped 355% since 2015, with U.S. consumption now averaging 773 million hours per week — record highs across monthly and weekly usage. Much of that growth, Edison said, is being fueled by video podcasts.
“2025 was the year that really proved podcasting is no longer a niche format,” Jordan Newman, Spotify’s head of podcast partnerships, told TheWrap. “It’s very much at the center of the cultural conversation.”
“What we overlooked for a moment was how quickly daily podcast consumption was growing,” Byrne added. “When people listen every day, it becomes a real part of their media routine and diet.”
By the numbers
Podcasting’s reach expands across ages and demographics. Nearly three quarters — 73% — of those ages 12+ have consumed a podcast, 55% have consumed a podcast in the last month, and 40% have consumed a podcast in the last week, each measure being an all-time high, according to Edison. YouTube said it draws more than a billion monthly viewers to podcasts and talk-style shows alone.
Byrne said that iHeartPodcasts’ two fastest growing audiences are Black and Latino listeners. As a result, the company launched two podcast companies: The Black Effect with Charlamagne tha God and Mi Cultura to meet demand.
“The Joe Rogan Experience” dominated 2025’s podcast charts, emerging on top of YouTube, Apple and Spotify’s top podcast shows in the United States. “This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von,” “Call Her Daddy” and “The Mel Robbins Podcast” also made it into the top podcasts of the year across platforms.
See the full rankings below:
YouTube’s Top 10:
- The Joe Rogan Experience
- KILL TONY
- Good Mythical Morning
- Rotten Mango
- The MeidasTouch Podcast
- 48 Hours
- Shawn Ryan Show
- Smosh Reads Reddit Stories
- This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
- The Diary Of A CEO
Apple’s Top 10:
- The Joe Rogan Experience
- The Daily
- The Mel Robbins Podcast
- Crime Junkie
- Dateline NBC
- SmartLess
- Call Her Daddy
- This American Life
- Huberman Lab
- The Ezra Klein Show
Spotify’s Top 10:
- The Joe Rogan Experience
- This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
- The Mel Robbins Podcast
- Call Her Daddy
- Crime Junkie
- The Shawn Ryan Show
- The Tucker Carlson Show
- The Daily
- Huberman Lab
- Good Hang with Amy Poehler
As for the top podcast networks of the year, SiriusXM broke through, outpacing top competitors iHeartPodcasts and Spotify. Three of the six nominees for the new podcasting category at the Golden Globes are housed at SiriusXM, and half of the Apple Top 10 shows of the year are from SiriusXM.
“Our existing lineup are definitely generating the power, but at the same time, we’re aggressively looking at younger shows to grow and get behind so we can sort of suppor the existing big shows with what hopefully will become the next generation of big shows behind it,” Greenstein added of the network’s growth looking ahead to 2026.
Apple’s Top 10 Podcast Networks:
- SiriusXM Podcasts
- Wondery
- iHeartPodcasts
- The New York Times
- audiochuck
- Dateline NBC
- Dear Media
- Cumulus Podcast Network
- Audacy
- Vox Media Podcast Network
Edison’s Top Podcasts as of Q3 of 2025:
- SiriusXM
- Spotify
- iHeartPodcasts
- Wondery
- The New York Times
- Audioboom
- Acast Creator Network
- NPR
- Audacy
- The Walt Disney Company
Bridging to traditional entertainment
Podcast has grown to the point that it’s starting to resemble the larger Hollywood machine. What was once viewed primarily as a discovery engine for film and television IP is increasingly being treated as a destination format in its own right — one that streamers, studios and broadcasters now see as both culturally influential and a worthy investment.
Netflix is expected to kick off next year with between 50 and 75 original podcasts, in addition to the slate of Ringer properties it is licensing through its partnership with Spotify. The streamer has also courted top podcast talent from iHeartMedia and Barstool Sports, as it looks to capture more casual viewing time dominated by YouTube and TikTok.
The strategy is multifold: Video podcasts offer Netflix a way to boost engagement hours, reach younger and more diverse audiences and expand its advertising inventory — all while producing “modern talk shows” at a fraction of the cost. Greenstein hinted that SiriusXM and its talent have been poached, too.
“You should assume, whether it’s Netflix or any of those streaming platforms, they’re all over us,” Greenstein said. “We just have to figure out when and if a deal makes sense for everybody.”
Other legacy media players are making similar moves. Fox Entertainment acquired rom-com podcast studio Meet Cute in November, while Amazon-owned Wondery underwent a major restructuring in August to prioritize creator-led and video-forward shows. The trend reflects a broader recalibration across entertainment companies, many of which now view as growing franchises capable of standing on their own.
At iHeartMedia, that expansion into traditional entertainment has been fueled by a roster of A-list executive producers. “If we got one thing right, it was setting up these podcast slates with executive producers at the top,” Byrne said. “People like Will Ferrell, Eva Longoria, Malcolm Gladwell and Questlove helped us find, curate and launch shows they believed in.”
Value of video
Video didn’t kill the podcast star. Instead, it made podcasters bigger ones.
The rise of video podcasts has led to YouTube, not its audio competitors Spotify or Apple, becoming the top destination for American podcast listeners. YouTube pulls in 31% of weekly podcast listeners in the states, compared to 27% for Spotify and 15% for Apple, according to data from Edison Podcast Metrics.
To keep pace, Spotify has rapidly expanded its video offerings. The platform is now home to nearly 500,000 video podcast shows, and roughly 390 million users have streamed a video podcast — a 54% increase from the prior year, the company disclosed during its third-quarter earnings call.
“I don’t think you can make a podcast today without video,” Claudia Oshry, co-host of “The Toast,” told TheWrap. “The only podcast that cracks the top five without a video component is ‘SmartLess.’ They’re an anomaly.”
A scan of the top podcast rankings across Spotify and Apple underscores the point. Beyond “SmartLess,” nearly every chart-topping show — from Joe Rogan and Alex Cooper to Mel Robbins, Bill Simmons, Megyn Kelly and Conan O’Brien — offers audiences the option to watch as well as listen. Even long-running audio-first hits are adapting: Dax Shepard added video to “Armchair Expert” in 2024, seven years into the show’s run.
Audience behavior has followed suit. According to Acast’s 2025 Podcast Pulse report, 56% of podcast fans either watch and listen equally or prefer watching, while 40% of listeners who primarily consume audio still occasionally watch episodes. That shift has translated directly into revenue: Podcast ad spending jumped 26% year over year in the third quarter of 2025, according to Magellan AI.
“Creators have added video because it allows them to communicate with fans in a new dimension,” said Jordan Newman, Spotify’s head of podcast partnerships. “You can do extremely high-production video, or you can do something raw and low-fi — and both can work. The barriers to entry are low for the right kind of podcast.”
Greenstein emphasized that SiriusXM’s approach to video remains talent-driven. “We don’t do video for the sake of video,” he said. “If great content works in audio or video, it’s great content.”
For Byrne, video is just a natural evolution of the podcasting medium. “There’s a lot of noise right now about podcasts becoming video podcasts,” he said. “What’s really happening is that some of the best creators in media are using a format that gives them creative freedom, and that content is starting to inform other types of media.”
Awards buzz
Hollywood’s continued interest in the medium has earned critical acclaim this year as six podcasts were chosen as inaugural Golden Globes nominees by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
This move is a significant acknowledgment from the entertainment industry of the medium. As more celebrities create podcasts of their own and as major shows become necessary press stops, podcasting proves more relevant than ever.
Several of the nominees are Hollywood stars in their own right, but half of the nominees are podcasters by trade. The 2025 nominees included “Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard,” “Call Her Daddy,” “Good Hanf with Amy Poehler,” “The Mel Robbins Podcast,” “SmartLess” and NPR’s “Up First.”
What’s ahead
Looking towards 2026, executives say the medium’s next phase will be defined less by format debates and more by creator expansion, diversification and deeper integration across platforms.
One of the clearest trends, according to Newman, will be the migration of short-form creators into long-form podcasting, allowing creators to build deeper relationships with their audiences.
While the talking-head format currently dominates, Newman expects experimentation to accelerate with podcasts pushing the limits of the medium with vlog style content or archival footage.
Byrne remains unconvinced that podcasting has peaked.
“I can’t find the ceiling yet of the growth of the IP that we have,” he said. “When it works in radio or podcasting, it tends to be able to become other things without cannibalizing the main thing yet, but we’ll see.”
Kayla Cobb contributed reporting to this story.
