Apple Podcasts: top shows around the world for 2023
Apple published a number of charts looking at popular shows on the platform. These charts were published within the Apple Podcasts app, and only your own country’s data was visible: but we have the data from many different countries to share.
Top shows by country
USA · 
Australia · 
Brazil · 
Canada · 
China · 
France · 
Germany · 
Japan · 
Mexico · 
Saudi Arabia · 
South Korea · 
Sweden · 
Taiwan · 
UK
Overall statistics
There were a total of 140 highlighted shows. This data is purely algorithmic, calculated by a combination of new follows, playback activity and completion rate. It allows us to take a quick snapshot of the top podcast shows in the world.
Top ten genres
1: True Crime (20)
= Culture (20)
3: Comedy (16)
4: News (14)
5: Health & Fitness (11)
= Education (11)
7: Business (9)
8: Society & Culture (7)
9: unknown (5)
10: Politics (4)
Top ten podcast hosts
1: Simplecast (14)
= Megaphone (14)
= Acast (14)
4: Spotify for Podcasters (13)
5: Omny Studio (12)
6: ART19 (5)
= www.ximalaya.com (5)
= unknown (5)
= SoundOn (5)
10: Audiomeans (4)
Podcasts nominated in three countries or more
3 countries: Huberman Lab (Scicomm Media)
Podcast language
English (46 podcasts)
Chinese (19 podcasts)
Portuguese (10 podcasts)
German (10 podcasts)
Spanish (10 podcasts)
Arabic (9 podcasts)
French (8 podcasts)
Swedish (8 podcasts)
Japanese (7 podcasts)
Korean (7 podcasts)
(None given) (5 podcasts)
Norwegian (1 podcasts)
By Apple Podcasts Channel
1: Wondery (4 entries)
2: Scicomm Media (3 entries)
= iHeartPodcasts (3 entries)
= Mamamia (3 entries)
= RTL (3 entries)
= mics | مايكس (3 entries)
7: audiochuck (2 entries)
= The New York Times (2 entries)
= Dateline NBC (2 entries)
= TBS Podcast (2 entries)
= Perfect Day (2 entries)
= Sveriges Radio (2 entries)
We also carry Apple Podcasts top shows from 2022.
Hero image: Daniel Fontenele via Unsplash
Sources: Charts from Apple Podcasts (who supplied names only). Our genre data uses a normalised list via Podcast Index, based on the RSS feed. Podcast hosting company data based on the RSS feed and media enclosure, using OPAWG, and counts total nominations. Language information is as stated in the RSS feed. Where podcasts have opted-out of external directories or restrict our systems from seeing the RSS feed, we can’t extract any information.
Affiliate links: This page links to Apple Podcasts. We may receive a commission for purchases made via those links.