Podtrac: Podcast Listening Continued To Grow In April.

Podcast listening continued to climb in April, with Podtrac’s latest publisher rankings showing gains for many of the industry’s largest networks as iHeartMedia tightened its grip atop the chart.

The iHeart Audience Network remained the largest podcast publisher measured by Podtrac, reaching 62.9 million U.S. monthly listeners and 343 million downloads and streams in April. Compared with March, the network’s audience increased roughly 4%, while downloads and streams climbed about 7%.

Podtrac says iHeartPodcasts also posted another month of growth, rising to 31 million U.S. listeners and 170.9 million downloads and streams. That represented an increase of approximately 6% in audience and 9% in downloads month-to-month.

Behind the iHeart pair, the rest of the leaderboard remained largely stable. Acast held the No. 3 position with 24.1 million listeners and 88.2 million downloads and streams, while the NPR Sales Network stayed fourth with 19.6 million listeners and 112.1 million downloads. Libsyn rounded out the top five, growing to 18.8 million listeners and 85.9 million downloads and streams.

One of the few shifts inside the top 10 came from PodcastOne, which moved ahead of DailyWire+ to claim the No. 9 position. PodcastOne grew to 6.1 million U.S. listeners and 21.4 million downloads and streams in April.

Podtrac also added “The Volume” to its publisher rankings in April, giving the sports-focused podcast network founded by Colin Cowherd its first appearance on the monthly chart. The network debuted at No. 18 with 1.6 million U.S. monthly listeners and 6.7 million downloads and streams, expanding the list of podcast publishers participating.

Podtrac’s rankings showed “NPR News Now” remained the No. 1 podcast in April, followed again by “The Daily” from The New York Times at No. 2 and NPR’s “Up First from NPR” at No. 3. “Dateline NBC” held onto the No. 4 position, while “Fox News Hourly Update” stayed fifth.

The first movement in the rankings came just below the top tier. “Pod Save America” climbed one spot to No. 6, swapping places with “The Ben Shapiro Show,” which slipped to No. 7. “Pardon My Take” remained steady at No. 8, while Paramount’s “48 Hours” held the No. 9 position for a second consecutive month. iHeartPodcasts’ “Stuff You Should Know” rounded out the top 10 unchanged at No. 10.

Further down the chart, several podcasts posted notable gains. “The Tim Dillon Show” recorded the largest jump in April, climbing six spots to No. 19. ABC News’ “20/20” also moved higher, rising three places to No. 20.

Not every show moved upward. “The Shawn Ryan Show” posted the largest decline in the rankings, falling three spots to No. 17, while “The Dan Bongino Show” slipped one position to No. 12 after reentering the upper tier of the chart earlier this year.

Podtrac’s April global delivery rankings show YouTube continuing to play a major role in podcast distribution, with several of the industry’s largest networks generating hundreds of millions of video views alongside traditional audio downloads.

The iHeart Audience Network remained the world’s largest podcast network measured by Podtrac, generating 824.3 million global streams, downloads and views during April. Of that total, 286.3 million came from YouTube, while another 538 million were delivered through RSS audio feeds. The network’s footprint now spans nearly 31,000 RSS shows and 75 YouTube shows, underscoring how large publishers are increasingly operating across both audio and video platforms.

Acast again ranked No. 2 globally with 439.8 million streams and downloads, though the company’s totals remain entirely RSS-based because YouTube data was not included in Podtrac’s report.

Meanwhile, Libsyn continued to demonstrate the growing impact of video distribution. The company ranked third globally with 328.8 million total deliveries, including 220.8 million YouTube views compared with 108 million RSS downloads. That means roughly two-thirds of Libsyn’s global consumption in April came through YouTube rather than traditional podcast listening apps.

Among the biggest movers into video-heavy distribution was Paramount, which ranked fourth globally with 57.1 million total deliveries. More than half of that activity — 33.1 million views — came from YouTube, compared with 24 million RSS downloads and streams.

Overall, Podtrac says six of the U.S. ranking participants posted increases in downloads during April compared with March, while seven publishers recorded gains in unique monthly audience. On the global side, four ranking participants posted audience increases month-to-month, while two global participants were up in U.S. downloads during April.

The rankings are based on Podtrac measurement data for U.S. unique monthly audience for any show that was measured for the entire month. 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 and Spotify are not included.