After a few down weeks, podcast listening bounced back last week. Podtrac reports downloads for the week of February 22-28 were up seven percent compared to the prior week among shows and publishers it measures. They were also up three percent compared to a year earlier.
The True Crime category showed the strongest week-over-week download performance. Downloads increased 15%.
Higher download numbers were also notched in the Comedy genre, it was up 13%, with gains also for the Society & Culture and Science categories – both were up 10%. Podtrac also said other growth categories included Arts (+7%), Business (+7%), Sports (+7%), History (+4%), News (+4%), Education (+2%).
Podtrac earlier reported 18 of the top 20 podcast publishers it measures had download growth during January. Among the top 20, downloads were up an average five percent between December and January. And downloads were up 12% last month compared to a year ago.
The leader remained iHeartMedia with more than 29 million unique listeners in the U.S. last month, followed by NPR with more than 24 million. Among the top ten publishers Podtrac reported the average month-to-month growth rate in unique U.S. audience was 11% during January.
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