Breakout Top Shows, Steady Publishers and Advertiser Growth in the September 2025 Industry Rankings
This month’s rankings brought some interesting debuts, big leaps from news-driven shows, and a shake-up in the advertiser leaderboard. This month’s rankings reveal a podcast and audio ad market that continues to diversify, accelerate, and surprise across the board.
Podcast Show Highlights:
- New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce (Wondery) exploded across the charts following the episode featuring Taylor Swift, debuting at #5 in Audio Reach (~5.3M, +205%), #2 Per Episode (~3.2M, +830%), and #7 Monthly Downloads(~31.8M, +644%).
- The Daily (NYT) stole the spotlight, climbing to #1 in Audio Reach (~11.7M) and #2 in Monthly Downloads (~39.6M).
- The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett kept momentum strong, rising to #1 Per Episode (~3.4M/ep, +19%) and #3 in Monthly Downloads (~37.9M, +116%).
- Crime Junkie (SXM Media) slipped from #1 to #2 in Audio Reach but still grew (+7%). It also climbed to #6 Per Episode and #8 Monthly, proving its enduring true-crime dominance.
Publisher Highlights:
- Spotify held its lead at #1 in Audio Reach (53.1M, -5%), but slipped in Monthly Downloads/Views to #4 (197.4M, -8%), facing pressure from fast-rising competitors.
- SXM Media climbed to 43.4M in reach (+17%) while holding steady at #5 in Monthly Downloads/Views (191.3M, -8%).
- iHeartMedia also steadily expanded in both categories: 33.9M reach (+7%, #4) and 153.9M downloads/views (+11%, #6).
- Acast grew in reach (28.5M, +12%, #5) but didn’t make the downloads/views top 10.
Advertiser Highlights:
- Amazon rose to the #1 spot, increasing spend by +3.6% ($7.1M). BetterHelp slipped to #2 despite growing spend by +4.3% ($7.3M), maintaining dominance in Mental Health.
- Toyota surged +30.8% ($6.5M), holding strong among the top 3 advertisers, and solidifying its presence in automotive podcast ads.
- Mint Mobile climbed to #5 (+7.6%), strengthening its position among top spenders.
The podcast industry is rapidly evolving, with trusted names maintaining dominance, breakout shows and publishers seizing opportunity, and major brands continuing to recognize podcasting’s unmatched engagement potential.
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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.