Australia is a hotbed for home-grown podcasting talent, according to the 2022 insights from the Australian Podcast Ranker, commissioned by Commercial Radio & Audio and produced by Triton Digital.
Australians downloaded 755 million podcasts in 2022, a 39% increase on 2021, and all top six podcasts based on average monthly listeners were all Australian made.
CRA chief executive officer Ford Ennals said: “It’s clear from the massive growth in podcast listening in 2022 that Australia’s love affair with podcasts continues and that, unlike so many other countries in the world, the most popular podcasts in Australia are local made Australian podcasts.”
Between January and November 2022, the average listener downloaded 4.3 podcasts and listened to 2.46 hours of content each week, while a massive 96% of podcast listening is on a mobile device like a smartphone or tablet.
Comedy was once again the most popular category based on downloads, accounting for 152.56 million during the year, up 26%, followed by news with 118.24 million downloads, up 18%. Health and fitness and true crime were the fastest growing categories, up by 67% to 37.44 million and 45% to 113.20 million respectively.
Richard Palmer, Triton Digital director of market development, APAC, said: “Australians continue to be one of the largest populations of podcast listeners in the world, with downloads continuing to increase by a steady rate. With the increase in interest, our rankers continue to provide the accurate insights into monthly performance trends Australians rely on.”
The Australian Podcast Ranker reports on the most popular podcasts consumed in Australia across all platforms and apps and is in reported in accordance with IAB Tech Lab’s Podcast Measurement Guidelines. Participating publishers in the ranker include Audioboom, ARN’s iHeartPodcast Network Australia, DM Podcasts, Equity Mates Media, LiSTNR (SCA), Mamamia, Motorsport Podcast Network, News Corp Australia, Nine, NOVA Entertainment, Podshape, Schwartz Media, SBS, Sports Entertainment Network (SEN), Stitcher, Studio71, Wondery, The Chaser and West Australian Newspapers.
The latest Australian report is here.