Breaking Down Top 20 Podcasts of May

Podtrac released its May list of the 20 most listened to podcasts in the U.S. The list only includes shows that participate in the company’s measurements. This is why the Joe Rogan Experience, the most popular podcast, was not included. Though, most of the notable shows were measured last month.

The biggest jump from April comes from Barstool’s Call Her Daddy, which jumped 11 spots to No. 4. What’s more, the show did so by only releasing two shows in May. One included the widely discussed tell-all from Dave Portnoy (you can read about that here). Not shockingly, the drama that surrounded the unknown future of the show elevated it. The attention it received likely didn't just help for one month, either. I'm looking for Call Her Daddy to continue to grow.

Pardon My Take, Barstool’s other listed show, has pulled away from the sports pack and has stayed there. The podcast has built stability with its audience where it doesn’t need juicy topics to stay relevant. During another month absent of sports, when channels like ESPN saw significant declines, Big Cat and PFT Commenter managed to stay in the top 10. 

If the cable news channels are any indicator of what is of interest right now, the political podcasts will see large gains in June.

I also predict the Breakfast Club will once again increase month-over-month. Earlier in June, Rush Limbaugh appeared on the show and got into a heated debate with Charlamagne Tha God that ignited a fire across the industry.

While 40% of the podcasts in the top 20 came from NPR, it still trailed iHeart overall. iHeart once again topped the competition as the top podcast publisher with 216 million downloads and streams, per Podtrac metrics. NPR came in second at 208 million. There was a steep drop after that; the New York Times ranked third at 130 million.

As I’ve previously said, iHeart can change the trajectory of the looming podcast wars if it were to take its shows off Apple and Spotify to offer exclusively on its app/website. 

Disclosure: Outkick’s founder Clay Travis is an on-air talent for iHeart on Fox Sports Radio.