Podtrac: iHeart Tops Charts As YouTube Impact On Global Rankings Grows.

The year-end holiday season disruption to normal listening habits is holding true in 2025. Podtrac says most of the publishers that it measures had softer download and unique listener numbers in November vs. the prior month. It says just three posted gains month-over-month.

The top spot was again held by iHeartPodcasts and its related ad network. Podtrac says iHeartPodcasts had 165 million downloads and streams during November, and iHeart had 30 million unique U.S. listeners last month.

At the same time, the iHeart Audience Network — which includes not only its shows but roughly 26,000 podcasts from other publishers — had a combined 337 million downloads and streams in November. It had 64 million U.S. listeners.

Acast and NPR continue to split third place in the Podtrac ranker. It reports the Acast sales network of shows had 77 million downloads in the U.S. during November, with a unique audience of 21 million. But while Acast had a bigger reach, NPR had significantly more downloads — it totaled 112 million in November, while its overall reach was more than a million listeners smaller.

Libsyn rounds out the top five. Podtrac says it had 87 million downloads and a U.S. reach of nearly 20 million last month.

Podtrac reports “The Charlie Kirk Show” continues to slide following the host’s September murder. Salem Podcast Network has been leaning into fill-ins, and it remains a top 20 show. But Podtrac says the series slid eight spots to No. 19 in November after a No. 7 peak two months earlier.

The big mover for the month on the upward direction was NPR’s “Wait Wait... Don’t Tell Me,” which rose four to No. 14 in November. Several other shows advanced, including Cumulus Podcast Network’s “The Shawn Ryan Show,” which became a top five podcast last month, while Vox Media’s “Today, Explained” entered the top 10.

Even as November did bring some minor moves up and down Podtrac’s top 20, it says the top three remained the same vs. October. It reports “NPR News Now,” the on-demand hourly newscast from the public radio network, remained in first place in September. That kept it in front of The New York Times morning news podcast “The Daily,” which ranked second, edging out NPR’s morning news podcast Up First, which remained in third place last month.

Beyond the shores of the U.S., Podtrac says the iHeart Audience Network again topped the company’s global ranking. It says iHeart had 738 million downloads and views — with 30% of those coming from YouTube views. That’s despite the fact that just 89 shows in the iHeart network of 30,820 podcasts were distributed on the video streaming platform.

Podtrac says three other publishers it tracks globally had more YouTube views than RSS-based audio listeners. That included Libsyn, which had 154 million YouTube views vs. 111 audio downloads and streams.

More than half of Sonoro’s consumption came via YouTube, while no publisher had a bigger reliance on YouTube than Paramount. Based on Podtrac numbers, 61% of Paramount’s global consumption last month was via YouTube views. Paramount’s stable of shows includes brands like BET, CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures, Showtime, and others.

The rankings are based on Podtrac measurement data for U.S. unique monthly audience for any show that was measured for the entire month. While measurement is free for any podcast, the ranking only includes those shows that have opted in. It means that some of the biggest podcasts, like “The Joe Rogan Experience,” and shows from companies like SiriusXM, Spotify and Wondery, are not included in the measurement.