Thoughts On Top 15 Most Popular Spotify Podcasts

Last month, Spotify added a test feature that displays how many users "follow" a specific podcast. 

The podcast industry has always been rather ambiguous. Podcasts are not part of a central aggregator that measures success, as Nielsen does for most major television channels. 

Podcast networks primarily self-report their ratings to the public. Downloads are only part of the metric that podcast charts use to display their rankings, deferring to opaque algorithms.

Suffice it to say the new Spotify metric is the most transparent measurement yet.

Here are the current metrics, view Bloomberg:

Here are some of my thoughts on the chart:

Joe Rogan is No. 1. No surprise. However, the numbers above mislead readers about his dominance over the rest of the market.

Remember, followers are a distinction from listeners. While 14.5 million people follow Rogan on Spotify, that does not mean 14.5 million people listen to each of his episodes.

Why is that important? 

Rogan leads the industry in "occasional" listeners. They come and go, depending on the guest. 

The total number of people who listen to a single episode of Rogan's podcast in a year laps the field. But the number of listeners who consume each of his episodes is closer to the numbers for other podcasts – like "Call Her Daddy," known for having the most loyal listeners in the space.

Plus, Rogan's podcast aired exclusively on the Spotify app for the past three and a half years. Spotify just added "The Joe Rogan Experience" back to YouTube and Apple this month. The chart obviously does not take into account followers on Apple, where shows like "The Daily and "The Ben Shapiro Show" are uber popular. 

All in all, Joe Rogan is the Podcast King. We concur. But let's add some context to his reign…

Joe Rogan, Alex Cooper, Bill Simmons.

Secondly, Spotify purchased The Ringer from Bill Simmons in 2020 for $250 million. Simmons is supposed to be the Joe Rogan of sports.

He's not that. At least not anymore. 

Simmons' numbers are fine. He has 415,000 followers, third in sports behind "New Heights" (938,000) and "Pardon My Take" (465,000). 

Further, the numbers for the rest of The Ringer brand are notably mehh. "The Ryen Russillo Podcast" (151,000) and "The NFL Show) are objectively disappointing.

It seems as if The Ringer lost novelty in the sports podcasting space following the advents of Colin Cowherd's The Volume and Dan Le Batard's Meadowlark Media.

Plus, "The Pat McAfee Show" is creeping up on Simmons with a follower count of 365,000, despite being best known on YouTube and ESPN. 

Finally, no – the new "follower" chart doesn't signal you should start a podcast yourself. 

There are enough. Seriously, it's exhausting. 

Tweet me, @burackbobby_, and let me know which podcasts you listen to daily and recommend.