The number of downloads last week (Aug. 17-23) was steady compared to the prior week, according to the weekly update from Podtrac. Among the publishers it measures the company said downloads were up 49% compared to the same period a year ago.
The True Crime and History categories showed the largest week-over-week download growth. Podtrac said that True Crime downloads were up 11% last week compared to a week earlier. History podcast downloads increased 7% week-to-week. Among the other top categories, the News and Arts categories each grew 1%. The Society & Culture and Sports categories were flat while several others lost ground. Business podcast downloads fell 6% week-to-week, the largest decrease among the top genres. Also declining were Education (-4%), Science (-2%) and Comedy (-1%).
Even as some categories recorded a dip last week, the data shows nearly every one of the big genres had double- or triple-digit year-over-year increases. Downloads for shows in the Business podcast category, for instance, jumped by a third compared to a year ago. And News podcast downloads doubled.
Podtrac earlier reported that the average U.S. unique monthly audience was flat month-over-month in July. But on a year-to-year basis Podtrac says there was an average 22% increase from July 2019. In terms of downloads, the top ten publishers had an average 4% growth between June and July, and a 72% increase in July versus a year earlier.