Podcast Industry Statistics 2024 – Global Market Size and Growth
December 16, 2024 update
I spent some time today updating the estimate for the size of the podcast industry: https://podcastindustry.org/
My current estimate for total annual revenue (for the entire global industry) is approximately $3.94 - $4.95 billion.
Podcast Advertising is ~75% of this total, at $3.0 - $3.4 billion.
Assumptions/comments:
- I slightly revised the upper bound of my estimate ($4.75 billion to $4.95 billion). This is large because of recent financial reports (DWNLOAD, in particular, is more bullish). However, once the IAB releases its new figure, we will know how much podcast advertising really grew.
- Most of the global revenue for ads comes from the USA (which the IAB anticipates will cross $2 billion this year)
- Generally speaking, this report’s revenue refers to audio podcasts. Disentangling what constitutes “podcasting” and “podcasting-related revenue” is tricky. For example, many podcasters pay for Descript, but not all of Descript’s revenue can be ascribed to podcasting.
- I haven’t added any data for YouTube yet, so it will be difficult to estimate the revenue it earns from “podcasts” on the platform. In 2023, YouTube’s estimated advertising revenue was approximately $31.5 billion.
- Aside from advertising, the next biggest category in podcasting is “direct listener support.” This comes from Patreon’s disclosure that “Podcasters earned over $350 million from their fans on Patreon in 2023.”
Bigger thoughts on estimating the size of the podcast industry
The emergence of YouTube as a “podcast platform” really changes the math for the podcast industry.
If audio-based ad revenue accounts for $3.0 - $3.4 billion in the “before YouTube” era of podcasting, what does it look like if we include YouTube’s revenue derived from “podcasts?”
Spotify’s recent entry into video podcasting also complicates the calculation.