2018 was a big year for podcasts with 28% of Americans now listening at least monthly.
Monthly podcast listeners in U.S. according to Activate (% change):
1) 2016–58M
2) 2017–67M (↑ 16%)
3) 2018P — 73M (↑ 9%)
4) 2019P — 86M (↑ 18%)
5) 2020P — 99M (↑ 15%)
6) 2021P — 115M (↑ 16%)
7) 2022P — 132M (↑ 15%)
Advertising revenue per year according to PwC (% growth):
1) 2017 — $314M
2) 2018P — $402M (↑ 28%)
3) 2019P — $515M (↑ 28%)
4) 2020P — $659M (↑ 28%)
5) 2021P — $766M (↑ 16%)
6) 2022P — $887M (↑ 16%)
Top 10 podcasting apps by share:
1) Spotify — 29%
2) Apple Podcasts — 26%
3) Google Play — 16%
4) Soundcloud — 12%
5) iHeart Radio — 10%
6) Google Podcasts — 10%
7) TuneIn — 6%
8) Slacker Radio — 4%
9) NPR One — 4%
10) Stitcher — 4%
A recent Nielsen study found that Podcast advertising has 4.4X higher brand recall compared to other forms of digital advertising.
More: How Podcasts Became a Seductive — and Sometimes Slippery — Mode of Storytelling
