The new year brought no change among the top five podcasts in Podtrac’s ranking of top shows. Among the publishers it measures, Podtrac says the New York Times-produced The Daily was the most listened-to show in January.
The Daily hit three years at number one in October and in January five of Podtrac’s top 20 shows hailed from the News genre. The remainder of the top five remained the same with NPR’s hourly five-minute podcast NPR News Now at second place followed by the NPR-produced morning news podcast Up First and the Dateline NBC at No. 4. The Daily Wire’s conservative talk The Ben Shapiro Show rounded out the top five – all in the same position in January as they were in every month since July 2021.
The top five has remained unchanged for the past seven months, although there has been shuffling in the second half. Barstool Sports’ Pardon My Take was the big mover in the top 10 as it rose three spots to No. 6 in January. It was the podcast’s best showing in months, likely tied to the NFL playoffs. Meantime, This American Life advanced one to No. 7 as Wondery’s SmartLess slid back to No. 9 and iHeartRadio’s Stuff You Should Know fell to No. 9. The Dan Bongino Show rounded out the top ten.
The big mover of the month was WNYC Studio’s Radiolab, which jumped five spots to No. 13 in January. The increase is likely tied to the announcement by show creator and longtime host Jad Abumrad that his last episode hosting the series will be released February 18.
The highest-ranking debut of the month was Meadowlark Media’s The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, which advanced two and moved into Podtrac’s top 20 for the first time.
Podtrac says global downloads for the top 20 publishers overall were up five percent month-over-month during January. They were also up 17% with the download numbers from a year earlier.
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