Familiar Names Dominate Top Podcasts Of 2025 So Far

Edison Research’s latest quarterly report of the top fifty podcasts in the US confirms what many in the industry already know: the biggest shows are staying big. Q1 2025 rankings reveal remarkable inertia among the medium’s top-tier performers.

Based on audience reach among weekly listeners ages 13 and up, The Joe Rogan Experience continues its long-standing reign at #1, followed closely by Crime Junkie, The Daily, Call Her Daddy, This Past Weekend with Theo Von, and Dateline NBC, all of which maintained their exact positions from Q4 2024.

Compiled from more than 5,000 ongoing interviews conducted in English and Spanish, Edison Podcast Metrics measures actual weekly listening behavior across all platforms based on reach, as opposed to downloads.

Only one new entry broke into the Top 10: Rotten Mango, hosted by Stephanie Soo, landed at #8. The true crime podcast, now part of the SiriusXM Podcast Network, recently gained wider attention after being highlighted in YouTube’s one-billion-user milestone announcement for podcasting.

Elsewhere in the Top 50, The Mel Robbins Podcast made a strong debut at #15, powered by Robbins’ viral “Let Them” self-help philosophy and massive social media following. Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast entered the list at #50, buoyed by co-host Shane Gillis’s second Saturday Night Live appearance.

Despite these new additions, most shows in Edison’s ranker are familiar names. Longtime chart residents like This American Life, SmartLess, and Pod Save America are flanked by newer staples like New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce, which continue to maintain steady reach quarter after quarter.

Of radio brands, NPR continues to outperform its over-the-air competitors like iHeartMedia and Cumulus with four shows in the Top 50.