December 2025 Podcast Industry Rankings: Year-End Leaders Across Shows, Publishers, and Advertisers
Press Release ·
The December 2025 rankings from Podscribe underscore continued momentum across podcasting and audio advertising, even as year-end seasonality contributed to softer month-over-month reach for many of the biggest shows. This month’s data, captured between December 1 and December 31, 2025, highlights the competitive dynamics shaping audio performance, from steady leaders in reach to shifting viewership patterns and advertiser spend surges closing out the year.
Podcast Highlights:
- Stability at the top despite softer reach: The top five shows by audio reach remain unchanged: The Daily, Crime Junkie, The Joe Rogan Experience, Up First from NPR, and NPR News Now, even amid a month-over-month decline in audio reach.
- IHIP News and Crime Junkie re-enter the top 10 monthly downloads & views rankings, landing at #7 and #9 respectively.
- Candace (#2, 47.3M) and The Joe Rogan Experience (#3, 46.2M) switch positions in monthly downloads & views.
- The MeidasTouch Podcast continues to dominate the monthly downloads & views chart.
The full podcasts ranker is here.
Publisher Highlights:
- Audacy returns to the top 10 by audio reach, overtaking The New York Times.
- The top publishers by audio reach retain their positions from last month: Spotify, SXM Media, Acast, and iHeartMedia.
- Acast jumps to #2 from #5, despite a 6% drop in monthly downloads & views, reinforcing its leadership in reach and publisher momentum.
- 9 out of 10 publishers in the top rankings declined across both audio reach and monthly downloads & views, reflecting seasonal demand shifts in December.
The full publisher ranker is here.
Advertiser Highlights:
- Amazon takes the top spot with estimated ad spend at 7.4M (+47%).
- Aura Frames rockets into the chart at #2, representing a 133% increase versus the previous month.
- Two new entrants join the top 10: The Coca-Cola Company and Liberty Mutual join the top 10 advertisers in estimated spend at #7 (5.0M, +94%) and #8 (3.8M, +148%), respectively.
- Spend trends skew upward: 8 out of 10 advertisers increased spend in December, with only BetterHelp and Squarespace showing declines.
This is a press release which we link to from Podnews, our daily newsletter about podcasting and on-demand. We may make small edits for editorial reasons.