Australians’ voracious appetite for podcasts has been confirmed with the release of the Dec. 2023 Australian Podcast Ranker, which revealed that Australians downloaded 1.03 billion podcasts in 2023, up 26% for the year.
The December Australian Podcast Ranker, released by Commercial Radio & Audio (CRA) and Triton Digital, is a monthly snapshot of the top 200 podcasts listened to by Australians, the top 200 Australian podcasts, the biggest publishers and the most successful podcast sales representatives.
The five most popular podcasts in Australia for 2023 were:
- Hamis & Andy — 841,364 monthly listeners
- Casefile True Crime — 813,514
- Mamamia Out Loud — 585,194
- Shameless — 574,599
- The Kyle & Jackie O Show — 529,073
“The Australian Podcast Ranker has confirmed that podcast listening is a passion many Australians share. One billion podcast downloads in 2023 equates to over 2.8 million downloads daily,” said Ford Ennals, CEO of CRA.
A remarkable December
December, usually a quieter month for podcast listening as radio stars go on leave and radio networks produce fewer podcast episodes, saw monthly downloads increase by 29% compared to Dec. 2022. In order, the top five podcasts for Dec 2023 were Casefile True Crime, Mamamia Out Loud, Hamish & Andy, Shameless, and The Imperfects.
“It has been an incredible year for podcasts and the Australian Podcast Ranker, with eight new publishers coming on board in 2023, including the ABC in November, which assisted with the December year-on-year increase. Underlying it all is that podcasts are now part of many Australians’ everyday lives. We are the largest consumers of podcasts globally, with 43 percent listening every month,” Ennals said.
“Australian listeners are dedicated to homegrown and the best of international content. Four of the top five podcasts of 2023, and 15 out of the top 20 most popular podcasts in December, were produced locally.”
Committment to local content
The Australian Podcast Ranker analysis revealed the average Australian listener spent 2.3 hours a week listening to podcasts in 2023 and downloaded 3.95 podcasts a week. “With 38 publishers from across Australia, the Australian Podcast Ranker, established in 2019, is the go-to place to discover what we are listening to. It’s the gold standard for advertisers to target dedicated listeners of quality podcast content,” Ennals said.
“Listener commitment to local content creates jobs across the audio industry as well as unlocking opportunities for advertisers to reach audiences that are fully engaged with podcasts they loyally listen to, engage with emotionally, and trust.”
The top five publishers, which attracted over 12.5 million listeners in December, were ARN/iHeart, LiSTNR(SCA), the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, SiriusXM Podcast Network, and Audioboom.
The top five most popular podcast genres in 2023 were society and culture, with 4.07 million average monthly listeners, comedy (3.95 million), true crime (3.75 million), news (3.66 million), and sports (2.71 million).
Thursday is the biggest day of the week to download or stream podcasts, and 8 a.m. is the peak listening hour. Ninety-four percent of all listening happens on a mobile device.