Apple Podcast Statistics By Facts And Trend (2025)

Introduction

Apple Podcast Statistics: Podcasting gained momentum in 2025. This was considered a big surprise to many. What used to be just a minor way of communication for long-lasting discussions turned into a technology-driven ecosystem. AI was even at the doorstep of every stage.

This article illustrates the scenario of Apple Podcasts statistics in 2025. It includes research-based insights to demonstrate how machine intelligence is changing the listeners and their preferences. It also covers the ways set by the creators and advertisers to reclaim value.

Editor’s Choice

• In 2025, Apple Podcasts is the home of more than 95 million episodes and 2.6 million shows, along with the publication of around 7,500 new episodes every day.
• If a podcast is active, it is probably one of the platforms with creator engagement still going on, for which the growth has not been as rapid as during the 2020 boom, but is still steady.
• The educational podcast genre takes up about 17% of the total uploads and is still on the rise as a favourite category.
• Apple’s features for localized discovery and curation have reached over 30 countries and are continuously expanding.
• Apple Podcasts is the third of listened to time worldwide, while Spotify is the first one with 38% and has continued to gain the leading position.
• On iPhones, Apple Podcasts is the king of the hill with 70% among the others in the podcast listening activity.
• iPhones account for most listening (85%), although there is an increase in usage of Apple Watch, and offline listening is strongly adopted.
• iOS 18 features such as transcriptions and voice bookmarks have contributed to a 9% rise in average session time.
• Paid subscriptions reached over 500,000 in 2025, with almost 9.8 million users having at least one premium show subscription.
• Channel subscriptions increased by 41%, and the premium content category has now captured 13% of the total listening time.

Total Number of Podcasts On Apple Podcasts

• In 2025, Apple Podcasts becomes a very large environment of over 2.6 million podcast shows at the very least, with the option of listening to more than 95 million single episodes altogether.
• The platform had a 9% year-on-year hike in the number of active podcast shows from 2024 to 2025, which serves as an indicator of creator involvement, as the market gets more mature.
• The number of new episodes published daily is approximately 7,500, thus indicating that there is still a constant engagement among podcasters.
• Apple Podcasts has over 43% of its total podcast content classified as “active” or alive, meaning that these podcasts have put out at least one episode recently (within the last 90 days).
• Although the overall market is still alive, it is not booming as before. Apple is now making use of this situation and consolidating content along with producers of high-quality shows.
• The educational podcast category is growing fast and thus accounts for roughly 17% of total uploads.
• Correspondingly, Apple has broadened its regional representativeness and its mechanism for discovering new podcasts, and by the end of 2025, it will have already introduced the podcast tools in more than 30 countries, allowing for their localization.

Apple Podcasts Vs. Spotify And Other Platforms

• In 2025, Spotify tops the world’s podcast consumption chart with a 38% share, while Apple Podcasts stays very close behind with 31%, thus making the difference between the two platforms even smaller.
• Apple has the upper hand in the Android ecosystem, where it owns 70% of the podcast listening market on iPhones, and most of it goes through Apple Podcasts.
• Spotify has an edge over Apple when it comes to the number of exclusive shows, and its podcast-music streaming combo is more powerful.
• YouTube Music Podcasts, which started in late 2024, has quickly developed its user base and now occupies around 12% of podcast listening time in the U.S.
• Apple’s overall ecosystem gives a competitive edge, with the perfect alignment of Apple Watch, HomePod, and CarPlay attracting customers more and more.
• On the other hand, while Spotify’s free, ad-supported tier is drawing users, Apple Podcasts is still offering a totally ad-free experience for non-subscribers, which certainly attracts some listeners who don’t like ads.
• The Apple Podcasts Creators, however, seem to prefer Apple Podcasts Connect, which is the company’s analytics dashboard, saying it is more stable and prioritizes privacy compared to other platforms.

Podcast Rankings And Trending Audio Content

Most Popular Podcast Platforms For Listening In The US

(Reference: sqmagazine.co.uk)

• YouTube in the US has become the leading platform for podcast listening, with more than 32% of listeners opting for it.
• This strong position signifies the rise of video podcasts and the very user-friendly recommendation system of YouTube as the main content discovery tool.
• Spotify is in the second place, and it is pulling in about 26% of the audience, still being a major spot for audio-first podcasts due to its connections to music, playlists, and exclusive shows.
• Next is Apple Podcasts, having about 13% of listeners.
• Although its share pales in comparison to YouTube and Spotify, it still has a very committed user base, especially among iPhone users, who really appreciate a dedicated, ad-free listening experience.
• The other 28% of podcast listening is shared by a whole lot of different platforms, thus indicating the extent of the fragmentation in the market outside the top three and the increasing trend of listeners trying out niche apps and other services.

Apple Podcasts’ Share of The Podcast Market

• In 2025, Apple Podcasts is expected to represent almost one-third of global podcast listening time.
• It has a 34% market share in the US, being just a notch under Spotify, which holds about 38%.
• When it comes to iPhone users, Apple Podcasts is the unambiguous leader, having more than 70% of the total listening activity on iOS devices.
• Spotify might still be ahead in getting exclusive shows, but Apple is the master of the subscription revenue that is hooked up so tightly to the ecosystem.
• Apple Podcasts also takes an important position in the area of listening through wearables, as its share of podcast consumption on smartwatches accounts for 43%, mostly thanks to the flawless syncing with the Apple Watch.
• The web player is also becoming more and more important as it already contributes around 7% of the total plays due to the continuous improvement of the browser-based access.
• In countries like Japan and Australia, Apple Podcasts is usually the market leader, and sometimes the share of total listens goes even beyond 50%.
• The competition from the likes of YouTube and Amazon Music is becoming tougher, but Apple counters this through its privacy-focused advertising and the strong loyalty of the users it has, with the average period of listeners being subscribed to shows being more than 5.4 months.

Device And OS Usage Statistics For Apple Podcast Listeners

• The iPhone is still the major device for listening to Apple Podcasts, and it will be responsible for about 85% of all plays in 2025. iPads will share about 8%, and MacBooks about 4%.
• Listening on Apple Watch is getting more popular and now has an estimated about 2.5% share in total playback, supported by the ability to download shows offline and fitness tracking features.
• Listening through third-party applications is very low at just about 1.3%, as Apple keeps on perfecting its native ecosystem.
• The launch of iOS 18 in September 2024 brought along the capabilities of podcast transcriptions and synced voice bookmarks, contributing to an average session time increase of 9%.
• An additional prominent stream is represented by CarPlay, which accounts for about 11% of the total listening, especially among those who use cars daily.
• People listening on AirPods use about 23% more time for podcasts than those who use wired headphones, and the typical Apple Podcasts user has around 2.4 Apple devices, which supports cross-device continuity.
• More than 20% of the podcast episodes that are released now have the availability of Spatial Audio, thus providing a more immersive listening experience.
• Those who prefer offline listening still have a significant role; almost 38% of the podcast plays are from the episodes that are downloaded, particularly for those that are longer.

Apple Podcasts’ Paid Subscriptions Rise

• In 2025, the number of paid podcast subscriptions on Apple Podcasts exceeded 500,000, and growth was 25% over the previous year; thus, 2024 would also be included in this comparison.
• Worldwide, the total number of listeners who subscribed to at least one premium podcast has increased to 9.8 million.
• A 41% increase has been seen in channel subscriptions that allow subscribers to get multiple podcasts in one plan, and these subscriptions are mostly used by podcast networks.
• Taking into account the full-range episodes and no ads, the creators get conversion rates of up to 62% for paid subscriptions that are higher than the average.
• Apple’s introduction of smarter renewal prompts and more flexible billing options led to the average churn rate falling to 6.3%.
• Free trial conversion rates now stand at 37% on average, and this is made possible by the offering of limited-time exclusives and teaser-style trailer episodes.
• The share of premium content in total listening time on Apple Podcasts is 13%, with strong interest in the areas of business, self-help, and entertainment among users.
• The retention rate of users was also increased by 12% according to Apple data, thanks to the creators getting cohort-based subscription analytics.
• Language-learning and investment-related podcasts would eventually become the top two paid categories in 2025, with the fastest growth.

Recently Accumulated News

• Apple Podcasts in 2025 was the year when the company came up with three major updates that are going to be the new ways of listening and the new ways of finding and supporting creators.
• Now the Company has also developed the in-app transcription features to such an extent that the transcripts are available in 12 languages. This will allow the listening audience to be wider and also help the users to search for the episodes more easily with the help of keywords.
• To offer content control to the listeners, Apple launched Podcast Playlists, a feature that resembles Apple Music playlists, which allows users to collect and share episodes from various shows in one place.
• Education was also given the spotlight with the birth of Apple Podcasts for Schools, which is a project that provides the K–12 and university learners with a curated collection of verified content.
• Then, in 2025, Apple introduced Creator Badges for podcasters as a way of turning attention to the best podcasters who would be placed in the “Top Creator” lists and thus gain more visibility.
• The company also made a new podcast widget API ready, which would enable the developers working for third-party companies to feature smart podcasts across apps for iOS and macOS.
• In addition to that, Apple rolled out Podcast Charts by Topic, allowing listeners to get the discovery that is more targeted discovery and thus have a wider choice than just general rankings.
• Rethinking the possibilities, Apple managed to lure a larger share of the listeners through the Up Next queue, a product of machine learning, which caused an increase in listener loyalty by 16%.
• Moreover, the company initiated the Podcast Labs project as a way of nurturing new talent and particularly aimed at making the marginalized voices heard.

Conclusion

Apple Podcast Statistics: Apple Podcasts has not only managed to remain among the top players globally. It has also backed its position up with a huge content library and active creators. This is alongside the close integration of Apple devices. The competition from such platforms as Spotify and YouTube is getting tougher. However, Apple can keep its users loyal with the help of its no-ads policy, privacy-first approach, and expanding subscriptions.

The increasing acceptance of paid podcasts and wider international market penetration is notable. Furthermore, there is more frequent use of AI-induced discovery and personalization features. These are all signs of Apple’s transition towards quality, sustainability, and user engagement. The combination of these trends makes Apple Podcasts capable of steady, long-term growth. This is true even in the more competitive and mature podcast market.

Priya Bhalla

I hold an MBA in Finance and Marketing, bringing a unique blend of business acumen and creative communication skills. With experience as a content in crafting statistical and research-backed content across multiple domains, including education, technology, product reviews, and company website analytics, I specialize in producing engaging, informative, and SEO-optimized content tailored to diverse audiences. My work bridges technical accuracy with compelling storytelling, helping brands educate, inform, and connect with their target markets.

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