Podtrac: iHeart Holds Publisher Lead In June.

Podcast listening eased in June as the industry entered its typical summer slowdown, with Podtrac reporting declines in both unique monthly audience and downloads for most publishers, consistent with seasonal trends observed in prior years.

Despite the softer listening levels, the competitive order at the top of the publisher rankings remained largely intact. The iHeart Audience Network retained its position as the largest podcast publisher measured by Podtrac with 55.1 million U.S. monthly listeners and 267.6 million downloads and streams. iHeartPodcasts again ranked second with 29.5 million listeners and 150.3 million downloads and streams.

The NPR Sales Network held onto the No. 3 position with 17.0 million monthly listeners and 94.9 million downloads, followed by Libsyn at No. 4 with 12.8 million listeners and 44.3 million downloads. Vox Media rounded out the top five.

A few publishers did shuffle positions within the Top 10. PodcastOne climbed one spot to No. 6, moving ahead of The Walt Disney Company, while Barstool Sports entered the Top 10 at No. 10 as Paramount slipped to No. 11. Fox Audio Network remained eighth and DailyWire+ held the No. 9 position.

Further down the rankings, Versant stayed at No. 12, while The Volume, the sports podcast network founded by Colin Cowherd, remained in the rankings at No. 18 with 1.4 million monthly listeners and 5.6 million downloads and streams.

The biggest change in the monthly podcast rankings came at the very top.

Audiochuck’s “Crime Junkie” debuted at No. 1, becoming the most-listened-to podcast measured by Podtrac in June and ending “The Daily’s” one-month run atop the rankings. The New York Times podcast slipped to No. 2, while “NPR News Now” fell to No. 3. “Up First from NPR,” “Dateline NBC,” and “Fox News Hourly Update” each dropped one position to round out the top six.

The remainder of the Top 10 was relatively stable. “Pod Save America” ranked seventh, “Pardon My Take” held eighth, “The Ben Shapiro Show” slipped two places to No. 9, and iHeartPodcasts’ “Stuff You Should Know” remained at No. 10.

Several podcasts made notable moves farther down the chart. “Rotten Mango” posted one of the month's biggest gains, climbing eight spots to No. 17, while “Today, Explained” rebounded two positions to No. 18. Meanwhile, Paramount's “48 Hours” fell four spots to No. 13, and “Morning Wire” also dropped four places to No. 19. “The Dan Bongino Show” held steady at No. 14.

Podtrac's Global Multi-Channel Publishers & Networks Ranking continued to underscore how podcasting is evolving well beyond traditional audio distribution.

The iHeart Audience Network remained the world's largest podcast network, generating 551.9 million combined audio and video downloads, streams and views of full podcast episodes in June. Beyond full episodes, the network also recorded 271.2 million Instagram video views, 230.7 million TikTok views and 76.0 million YouTube clip views, illustrating the growing importance of short-form video in extending podcast reach.

The Meidas Media Network remained second in the global rankings, followed by the NPR Sales Network, Libsyn, and Sonoro Global Media. Paramount, DailyWire+, The Walt Disney Company, Fox Audio Network, and PodcastOne rounded out the global top 10.

The data points to a fundamental shift in how audiences are consuming podcasts, with video becoming an increasingly important distribution platform rather than simply a promotional tool. Across the 18 publishers in Podtrac’s Global Multi-Channel Rankings, about 26% of all full-episode consumption now comes from video, while roughly 74% still comes through traditional audio downloads and streams. Those figures are weighted by each publisher's total audience and do not include the hundreds of millions of additional podcast-related clip views that Podtrac tracks across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.

The mix varies considerably by publisher. While video accounts for about 20% of the iHeart Audience Network’s full-episode consumption and roughly 13% of Libsyn’s, publishers with a stronger video strategy derive much more of their audience from visual platforms. Paramount generated about 61% of its full-episode consumption from video in June, while The Volume drew approximately 58% from video and Sonoro Global Media nearly 29%. Those percentages underscore how differently publishers are approaching multi-platform distribution.