Podtrac: August Audiences Jump As iHeart Strengthens Its Lead.

Podcast audiences came roaring back in August, with nearly every publisher measured by Podtrac posting month-to-month audience growth as iHeartMedia strengthened its hold on the top of the U.S. rankings.

Podtrac says 18 of the 19 U.S. ranking participants increased their unique monthly audience in August vs. July. Download growth was less widespread but still positive, with eight participants recording month-to-month increases in U.S. downloads and streams.

The iHeart Audience Network remained the largest podcast publisher measured by Podtrac, reaching 58.9 million U.S. monthly listeners, up nearly 6% from 55.7 million in July. The network generated 266.9 million downloads and streams, down slightly from July.

iHeartPodcasts held the No. 2 position with 31.1 million monthly listeners, an increase of about 4% from July, while downloads and streams were essentially flat at 150.1 million.

NPR Sales Network remained third as its audience increased to 18.1 million, followed by Libsyn with 13.7 million. Vox Media held onto fifth place, narrowly edging PodcastOne — the two publishers were separated by just 1,000 monthly listeners at 6.851 million and 6.850 million, respectively.

The Walt Disney Company ranked seventh, followed by Fox Audio Network, DailyWire+ and Barstool Sports. Paramount moved ahead of Versant to take the No. 11 position.

Further down the chart, The Volume continued to build its audience. The sports-focused network grew from 1.5 million listeners in July to 1.9 million in August, an increase of nearly 28%, while its downloads and streams rose to 6.8 million.

At the show level, “Crime Junkie” is turning its stay atop the Podtrac rankings into a summer run. The Audiochuck true-crime podcast remained No. 1 for a third consecutive month after first taking the top spot in June. “The Daily” remained No. 2, followed by “NPR News Now,” “Up First from NPR,” “Dateline NBC” and “Fox News Hourly Update.”

In fact, the first 11 positions on Podtrac’s chart were completely unchanged from July. The biggest movement came just outside the top 10. “The Ezra Klein Show” jumped five positions to No. 12, making it August’s biggest climber. “Today, Explained” gained one position to No. 17, while ABC News’ “20/20” moved up one to re-enter the Top 20.

Podtrac’s Global Multi-Channel Publishers & Networks Ranking continues to show just how differently major podcast companies are building audiences across audio and video.

The iHeart Audience Network remained No. 1 globally with 508.1 million combined downloads, streams and views of full podcast episodes during August. Audio remained its primary distribution channel, accounting for 430.5 million of the total, while video contributed another 77.6 million.

But several publishers now generate most of their full-episode consumption from video. Meidas Media Network ranked second globally with 151.6 million downloads, streams and views, of which 141.9 million came from video. That means video accounted for roughly 94% of its full-episode consumption.

Paramount was also heavily tilted toward video, with 32.2 million video views and streams vs. 14.6 million audio downloads — meaning roughly 69% of its measured full-episode consumption came from video. DailyWire+ generated 21.1 million video views and streams vs. 18.6 million audio downloads, putting video at roughly 53% of its total.

The Volume is another network where video led the way. It generated 11.2 million video views and streams vs. 7.7 million audio downloads, meaning video accounted for about 59% of its full-episode consumption.

Those figures don’t include the enormous audiences that publishers are attracting with short-form podcast clips. Podtrac reports the iHeart Audience Network generated 958.1 million TikTok clip views and 849.3 million Instagram views during August. Fox Audio Network recorded more than 2.08 billion Instagram clip views, while Disney generated 1.08 billion.

Paramount recorded nearly 791.8 million TikTok clip views and 698.7 million Instagram views, along with another 227.4 million YouTube clip views.

The social clip figures don’t determine Podtrac’s rankings, which are based on downloads, streams and views of full podcast episodes. But they illustrate how much podcast consumption and engagement now occurs beyond conventional listening apps.

The August data paints an increasingly upbeat picture heading out of summer: podcast audiences grew across nearly the entire U.S. publisher chart, iHeart expanded its audience lead, “Crime Junkie” extended its run at No. 1, and video continued to open new avenues for publishers to reach consumers.