Triton Digital has published its third annual U.S. Podcast Report, providing a detailed analysis of podcast listening habits, audience demographics and top-performing podcasts and networks in 2024. The report highlights the continued growth of podcasting as a medium, with 44% of the U.S. population reporting they listened to a podcast in the past month, reflecting a nearly 10% increase in monthly listeners over the past year and a 23% rise over three years.
The findings indicate that podcast listeners tend to be younger, more educated, more affluent and increasingly diverse. YouTube was the preferred platform for 33% of listeners, marking its highest share to date, up from 27% in 2021.
The top podcast genres in 2024 were News (25% of downloads), True Crime (19%) and Comedy (13%). Gender preferences were notable: 67% of True Crime listeners were female, while 61% of Comedy and 56% of News listeners were male.
The year’s top sales networks
In the Triton U.S. Podcast Ranker, the top sales networks of 2024 were iHeart Audience Network at No. 1, SiriusXM Podcast Network at No. 2 and NPR at No. 3. NPR’s “NPR News Now” remained the top podcast, while “Serial Killer: The Alphabet Murders Part 1” from “Crime Junkie” was the most downloaded episode. “Murdered: JonBenét Ramsey” topped popularity rankings based on downloads in the first 30 days. The debut of “Bongino Report Early Edition with Evita” (Cumulus Podcast Network) ranked No. 1 for 2024.
The report incorporates data from Triton Podcast Metrics, certified by IAB Tech Lab, and Triton’s Demos+ solution, which offers audience demographics for podcasts. A survey of 12,000 monthly U.S. podcast listeners conducted with Signal Hill Insights provided additional insights.
“2024 marked another year of significant growth for the podcast industry, with listenership expanding across demographics and becoming increasingly mainstream,” said Daryl Battaglia, SVP of measurement products and strategy at Triton Digital. He noted that genres such as True Crime, Kids & Family and History drive strong engagement and back catalog consumption, presenting opportunities for programmatic advertising.
Triton Digital emphasized its commitment to delivering insights into listener behavior and platform preferences as the podcasting landscape continues to evolve.
You can download the 2024 U.S. Podcast Report here.
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