Triton Digital says the iHeartPodcast Audience Network held onto the top spot on its ranker of the biggest sales networks during October. iHeart had 68.7 million average weekly downloads last month and 19.3 million average weekly users for its network of more than 500 shows. The iHeart Audience Network includes not only shows published by iHeartPodcasts, but also other publishers’ shows for which it sells advertising.
Beyond the top spot, there was plenty of movement in October as the SiriusXM Podcast Network, which had been in second place ever since iHeart joined the Triton ranker in May, is no longer being tracked by Triton in the U.S. and Canada.
The change means NPR and Wondery will now split second place. NPR has the second-biggest sales network in the U.S. based on Triton data, which says the public radio network averaged 25.3 million weekly downloads during October. That is more than Wondery’s 20.2 million average. But in terms of average weekly users, it is Wondery that wins. Triton says it had an average of 7 million listeners each week during October vs. 6.7 million for NPR.
There was also a split decision at fourth place. In terms of downloads, Audacy Podcast Network ranks No. 4, according to Triton, with 13.4 million compared to 13 million for Audioboom. But ranked by audience size, Audioboom comes out on top, with 5.2 million average weekly listeners last month vs. 4.9 million for Audacy.
Sixth place is a lot more straightforward, however. Cumulus Podcast Network holds that spot by itself with 8.3 million average weekly downloads and 3.3 million average weekly listeners.
Triton may have lost SiriusXM, but its monthly ranker picked up a new publisher in October with the addition of Lemonada Media. It had an average of 789,278 weekly downloads to its 70 active podcasts, and an average weekly audience of 524,122 last month.
“Triton Digital’s Podcast Rankers rank podcasts based on data from publishers who opt-in and choose to make their listenership insights available to the public, and the rankings are determined in accordance with the IAB Tech Lab's Podcast Technical Measurement Guidelines,” said Daryl Battaglia, SVP of Measurement from Triton Digital in a statement. “Publishers' preference to participate is up to their organization, and we welcome any and all publishers who choose to participate.”
The exit of SiriusXM also has an impact on the ranking of the top podcasts, but Triton says during October the top two podcasts based on downloads remained the same as a month earlier. The list is led by NPR News Now, which again ranked No. 1 among the publishers it measures, followed by NPR’s Up First. The Cumulus Podcast Network’s The Dan Bongino Show rose to third, followed by Wondery’s Morbid and iHeart’s Stuff You Should Know.
The order was slightly different based on the number of unique listeners. The top three podcasts in October based on the publishers measured by Triton were NPR News Now, again at No. 1, followed by NPR’s Up First, Wondery’s Morbid, The Dan Bongino Show, and Wondery’s Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard.
Triton says there were several debuts for the month of October, including Kill List (Wondery), Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Lemonada Media), The Colin Cowherd Podcast (iHeart Audience Network), Two Girls One Ghost (Audioboom), and The Political Scene | The New Yorker (Soundrise/PRX).
Download Triton Digital’s U.S. Podcast Ranker HERE.
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