October saw a shakeup to Triton Digital’s US Podcast Ranker as one major podcast player ended its relationship with the list while an up-and-comer joined. From September 30 to November 3, iHeart and NPR continued their sweeping success in the medium.
Perennial podcaster SiriusXM’s data was excluded from this period as its participation in Triton’s ranker ended with the September 2024 report, which marks an interesting change as the satellite broadcaster leans into on-demand offerings like Call Her Daddy. However, the growing independent network Lemonada Media joined the list.
The iHeart Audience Network secured the #1 position on the Top Sales Networks Report with 68.7 million average weekly downloads and 19.3 million average weekly users. NPR ranked second with 25.3 million downloads and 6.7 million users, while Wondery took third with 20.2 million downloads and 7.0 million users.
For podcasts ranked by downloads, NPR News Now (NPR) maintained its #1 spot, followed by Up First (NPR) at #2 and The Dan Bongino Show (Cumulus Podcast Network), which rose to #3. Among listeners, NPR News Now also ranked first, with Up First climbing to #2 and Morbid (Wondery) moving up to #3.
Several new podcasts debuted in October for downloads and listeners. New entries for both lists included Kill List (Wondery), Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Lemonada Media), and The Colin Cowherd Podcast (iHeart Audience Network). Additional debuts for downloads included Club 520 Podcast (iHeart Audience Network), Welcome to Night Vale (Soundrise/PRX), and Car Talk (NPR).
For listeners, newcomers included All The Smoke (iHeart Audience Network), The NoSleep Podcast (Audioboom), and True Crime All The Time (Wondery).
The rankings are based on Average Weekly Downloads and Average Weekly Users, adhering to v2.1 of the IAB Podcast Technical Measurement Guidelines.
