Crime Junkie Maintains Lead in Podscribe's May 2026 Podcast Industry Rankings

Podscribe, the leading podcast attribution and analytics platform, today released its May 2026 Podcast Industry Rankings, highlighting the top podcasts, publishers, and advertisers based on audience reach, downloads, and estimated advertising spend. This data is reflective of May 1-31, 2026.

Podcast Show Highlights:

• Crime Junkie and The Daily maintained their positions as the #1 and #2 podcasts by audio reach in May.

• One of the month’s largest gains came from The Mel Robbins Podcast, which climbed three places from #6 to #3, growing 39% month-over-month to reach 5.7 million listeners.

• Stuff You Should Know entered the audio reach rankings at #10 with 3.1 million listeners.

• The Oprah Podcast climbed from #7 to #4 in downloads and views per episode, increasing 7%.

• Crime Junkie also saw substantial engagement growth, jumping from #10 to #4 in monthly downloads and views with 43.2 million downloads and views, a 55% increase from April.

• Kill Tony maintained its #5 position in downloads and views per episode despite a slight 2% decline.

Publisher Highlights:

• Publisher rankings remained relatively stable in May, with no new entrants or departures from the top 10 publishers by audio reach.

• The most significant movement came from iHeartMedia, which increased audio reach by 31% to 44.2 million listeners, moving into the #2 position overall. iHeartMedia also gained three spots in monthly downloads and views, rising from #8 to #5 with 174.7 million.

• Acast moved from #4 to #3 in monthly downloads and views, reaching 197.2 million (+7%).

• Libsyn Ads climbed three positions from #7 to #4 in monthly downloads and views with 187.0 million.

Advertisers Highlights:

• Podcast advertising remained strong in May, with every advertiser in the top 10 increasing estimated spend compared to the previous month.

• Shopify retained its position as the #1 podcast advertiser, making it notable that all top 10 advertisers represented different industries.

• BetterHelp returned to the #2 position after increasing estimated spend by 28% to $4.7 million.

• Red Bull re-entered the top 10 at #5 with an estimated $2.9 million in spend, representing a 503% increase month-over-month.

• Progressive Insurance returned at #7 (+98%) and Toyota returned at #8 (+71%).

• PrizePicks entered the top 10 for the first time, while Wayfair rounded out the rankings at #10.

Explore the full May 2026 Podscribe podcast industry rankings:

• Top Podcasts: https://podscribe.com/podcast-rankings/may-2026

• Top Publishers: https://podscribe.com/top-publishers/may-2026

• Top Advertisers: https://podscribe.com/top-advertisers/may-2026