The Christmas and New Year’s holiday download dip may not have been as steep in 2020 as in past years according to Podtrac data. If the numbers hold up, it will mirror a similar trend seen at Thanksgiving when the decrease in downloads was less than half what it was in 2019. Podtrac says downloads among publishers and podcasts it tracks were up five percent for the week of Dec. 28, 2020 to Jan. 3, 2021 compared to the prior week. That compares to a 12% drop during Christmas week. On a year-over-year basis, the company also says that podcast downloads went up 19%.
Nearly all the big podcast genres had week-to-week gains in their download numbers last week, with the Science category’s 20% growth rate at the front of the pack. Education podcast downloads grew 19%, the Society and Culture and History genres were both up 11%, while Business podcast downloads grew 10%. Podtrac also reports gains for Arts increased five percent while Comedy, News and True Crime all went up two percent.
Following the Thanksgiving holiday, Podtrac reported a 17% decline in weekly downloads among the publishers and podcasts it measures. But that was smaller than the 40% decrease it recorded during Thanksgiving 2019. The recovery after the holiday was also quicker than in years past.
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