How Much is the Podcast Industry Worth in 2024?

Podcasting is a form of media invented by Dave Winer and Adam Curry in 2004.

Curry and Winer wanted to find a way to download radio broadcasts in the online space to iPods.

They created a program called iPodder that allowed them to do just that.

The term podcast was written first by a writer from The Guardian, Ben Hammersley in 2004.

By 2005, Steve Jobs established ways to subscribe to podcasts via the iTunes space.

With all this history behind the concept of podcasts, we want the answer to the question of “How much is the podcast industry worth today?”.

While the history of podcasting is interesting, we will be focused today on how much it’s worth and other factors that contributed to podcasting.

Today, podcasting is a booming market valued at $18.52 billion (USD) as of 2022.

We’ll discuss the forecast for the present and future value and its expected growth rate in this article.

Let’s discuss podcasting.

Post Contents

1 Key Statistics
2 How Much is the Podcast Industry Worth in 2024?
3 FAQs
4 Conclusion
- 4.1 Sources

Key Statistics

The global podcasting market was worth $13.70 billion (USD) in 2021.
In 2006 only 22% of Americans were aware of podcasting.
Between 2022 and 2023, global podcasting grew from $20.14 billion to $25.85 billion.
North America has the largest share of the podcast market.
The Asia-Pacific region ranks third highest in podcast listening.
Sweden has the most listeners across 54 nations in a survey.
The highest proportion of podcast listeners belongs to the MENA regions.
The News and Politics topics generate the most revenue in the podcast market.
Apple podcasts lead the industry with a 43% market share.
The world currently has 3.02 million active podcasts.

How Much is the Podcast Industry Worth in 2024?

1. In 2021, the global podcasting market was worth $13.70 billion (USD).

According to our sources, the global podcast market was worth $13.70 billion (USD) in 2021.

It’s expected to reach $149.34 billion (USD) by 2030.

This data is calculated at a CAGR of 31.5% between 2022 to 2030.

Keep in mind that statistics may vary between research providers.

(Polaris Market Research)

2. In 2006 only 22% of Americans were aware of podcasting.

In 2006 data revealed that only 22% of the population in America even knew what a podcast is.

As of 2022, our sources show that 79% of survey respondents said they were aware of the podcasting format.

In 2021, more than 82 million people said they listened to podcasts.

This figure is expected to reach more than 100 million by 2024.

(Statista)

3. Between 2022 and 2023, global podcasting grew from $20.14 billion to $25.85 billion.

Research revealed that between 2022 and 2023 the global podcasting market rose from $20.14 billion (USD) to $25.85 billion (USD).

This data was calculated from a CAGR of 28.4%.

Moreover, the whole global market size of this industry is expected to reach $66.24 billion (USD) by 2027 at a CAGR of 26.5%.

(The Business Research Company)

4. North America has the largest share of the podcast market.

In 2022, North America made up for the biggest revenue share of the podcast market with 39.1% in its pocket.

Growth in this region is expected to continue between 2023 and 2030.

As of 2022, the United States dominated with a revenue share of 91% of the region’s podcast market.

Latin America is expected to expand with the highest CAGR of 37% between 2023 and 2030.

(Grandview Research)

5. The Asia-Pacific region ranks third highest in podcast listening.

Recent data shows that the Asia-Pacific region ranks third in podcast listening compared to all regional markets.

In fact, 63% of people in Indonesia say they spend an hour or more on podcast listening every week.

In Thailand (ranks sixth), that figure is 56% and India (ranks seventh) accounts for 54%.

(YouGov)

6. Sweden has the most listeners across 54 nations in a survey.

Statistical data revealed that Sweden owns the biggest share of podcast listeners among 54 surveyed nations at 47%.

Moreover, Brazil and the Republic of Ireland account for the only other surveyed nations that exceed 40% in podcast listening.

Furthermore, the United States (34%), the United Kingdom (31%), and Canada and Australia were within the 30% to 39% group in podcast listeners on the globe.

(Exploding Topics)

7. The highest proportion of podcast listeners belongs to the MENA regions.

In terms of proportion, MENA (the Middle East and Africa) region accounts for the highest in podcast listeners.

In fact, South Africa accounts for 69%, which ranks the highest of MENA regions.

In addition, Saudi Arabia accounts for 67% of podcast listeners in this region with Turkey (43%) and Lebanon (38%) falling below the global average in podcast listening.

(YouGov)

8. The News and Politics topics generate the most revenue in the podcast market.

In terms of genre, podcasts about news and politics generate the most revenue.

Second to these topics, society and culture generate the most revenue.

The genres following that generate the highest podcast revenues include comedy and sports.

(Grandview Research)

9. Apple Podcasts lead the industry with a 43% market share.

There are several podcast platforms where podcasters upload their content.

Apple Podcasts is the leader with a 43% share of the podcast platform sector.

Spotify comes in second to Apple, though it falls far behind the 43% of Apple’s share with under 20%.

However, Spotify does have 32.5 million monthly podcast listeners as of 2022 in the United States.

(Blogging Wizard)

10. The world currently has 3.02 million active podcasts.

Despite the fact that podcasts in terms of “how many” fluctuations at any given time, data revealed that as of

September 2023, there are 3.02 million global podcasts.

That said, other data (Podcast Index) estimates this number to be more like 4.2 million global podcasts.

(Exploding Topics 2)

FAQs

What is Podcasting?

The concept of podcasting is that it’s a digital medium that usually includes a series of audio files that its creators regularly release on a schedule (like a television or radio show).

Podcasts embrace several topics like politics, entertainment, mysteries, comedies, etc.

Podcasts can be listened to on various devices like computers, tablets, and smartphones.

How Can You Start a Podcast?

Podcasts are usually topical in nature, so you must start by choosing a topic that you know enough about to speak about in a podcast.

You must also produce a snappy name and then record your initial episode.

To record a podcast you’ll need a microphone, recording software, and a computer.

After you record your podcast episode, you must upload it to a podcasting service where listeners can access and listen to it.

How Do Podcasters Make Money?

Can podcasting earn you a living?

Podcasting has helped some popular podcasters to make a decent living and some even earn a lot of money.

However, the average podcast that experiences 10,000 downloads per episode can earn between $500 and $900.

Many podcasters also earn more by selling merchandise and by getting sponsorships. Many factors go into how much a podcaster makes.

Conclusion

Do you listen to any kind of podcast?

If you do, you’re not alone.

In fact, some people claim to listen to several different podcasts every day.

The globe has an estimated 3 to 4 million active podcasts available for modern listeners.

We have learned that podcast listeners vary across the globe in number and proportions as well as in revenues.

We have also learned that the overall global podcast industry is worth billions of dollars.

We hope we have helped you to learn more about the podcast industry and that we have satisfactorily answered the question, “How much is the podcast industry worth?”