Triton Digital Debuts 200-Show Podcast Ranker With Deeper Demographic Data.

Comedy podcasts reached 42% of listeners during the second quarter, while News podcasts were consumed by 27%. While 18- to 34-year-olds over-index on Comedy shows, listeners 55+ were 62% more likely to listen to a News genre show than listeners overall. And listeners in the market for a new car were 26% more likely to listen to a Music genre podcast during Q2.

Those are some of the types of data that Triton Digital is offering in its newly expanded podcast ranker. The quarterly update still offers a ranking of which publishers and series did the best, but it also adds new insights by show, genre, and audience profile, including more than 40 demographic and purchase intent segments.

What Triton is calling its next-gen ranker includes newly published data sourced from the Demos+ survey and audience profiles collected and assembled by Triton in collaboration with Signal Hill Insights. The result is the most comprehensive and transparent podcast ranker available, delivering insights for advertisers and agencies to publishers and creators.

“We built Demos+ to surface the types of insights advertisers need, but haven’t had consistent access to in audio,” Triton Senior VP Daryl Battaglia says. “It’s about who listeners are, what motivates them, and why they tune in. That level of context drives better decisions, smarter investments, and more inclusive planning across the board.”

For advertisers and agencies, the new quarterly audience-based insights offer what Triton says is a smarter, more strategic approach to media planning. With show-level insights on listener demographics, interests, and purchase intent, it says marketers can easily identify the podcasts that align with their target audiences. The list of 44 characteristics includes demos based on age and gender, household income, moms, big box retail shoppers, fast food restaurant patrons, and purchase intent of cars, wireless providers, insurance and travel, among many others.

Triton says the data also allows planners to understand audience composition at the genre level, adding another layer of insight to reach-focused campaign targeting. It is also useful for publishers and creators looking to pitch their show to buyers.

The Triton alliance with Signal Hill Insights also allows for the creation of a new quarterly ranking of the most listened to podcasts. Using survey data, it will feature the top 200 shows based on how many people report listening or watching a show in the past 30 days.

Triton says that approach delivers the largest available full-market view of true listener reach. And by listing 200 shows, the largest ranker of its kind currently released, it also better reflects the diversity of content and audiences in podcasting. By leveraging a survey methodology, it also allows Triton to publish a ranker of all shows regardless of whether their publishers have opted-in.

The first quarterly ranking shows The Joe Rogan Experience at No. 1, followed by the New York Times’ The Daily, Audiochuck’s Crime Junkie, SiriusXM’s Call Her Daddy and SiriusXM’s SmartLess. (See the full 200 HERE.)

The list of the top series may be familiar. But by offering an expanded ranking, Triton hopes to bring exposure to the wider array of content that is available. It points out the top 50 shows only reach just under half (49%) of podcast listeners. But when a marketer puts advertising dollars more deeply into the medium it unlocks the ability to reach the vast majority (84%) of the monthly podcast audience who indicate they consumed at least one podcast somewhere beyond the top 50 in the past month.

“This demonstrates why a broader view matters: the extended ranker along with the demographic and consumer profiles of Demos+ give advertisers more options to connect with diverse and often underserved audiences that live further out on the long tail of podcast consumption,” Triton says in the announcement. The new data also gives key audience characteristics of each podcast.

Triton’s new planning tools will be published and updated quarterly. The Demos+ survey is conducted by Signal Hill throughout each quarter. Triton believes that allows for a consistent snapshot of recent listening behavior by combining the opt-in, download-based ranker, which reflects listening frequency, and survey-based measurement, which captures reach across the entire industry.

Triton will also maintain its existing monthly download ranker, a measure of the total volume of episodes consumed. Supplemented by the Top 200 Podcasts, the combined ranker is a first-to-market blend of download and survey data, including key demographic insights.

The latest release features server-side measurement from July and includes only sales networks directly measured by Triton Digital. It says the iHeart Audience Network was again the top sales network last month, with 66.3 million average weekly downloads and 19.2 million average weekly users. It was followed once again by NPR, which ranked second with 26.6 million average weekly downloads and 7.2 million average weekly users. Audacy ranked third, with 14.5 million average weekly downloads and 5.5 million average weekly users.

Triton also reports the top podcasts in July were the same for a fourth consecutive month based on average weekly downloads of publishers it measures were NPR News Now and NPR’s Up First, followed by iHeart’s Stuff You Should Know holding the top spots.

View the full Q2 2025 U.S. Podcast Ranker HERE.