August Podcast Industry Rankings

Podtrac has unveiled its August 2025 podcast industry rankings, highlighting gains for several long-running shows and steady dominance among major networks. Fourteen of the participating podcasts saw a rise in unique monthly audience (UMA), while six publishers saw growth in U.S. downloads.

NPR’s “NPR News Now” held firm at the top of the rankings, followed by The New York Times’ “The Daily” at number 2 and NPR’s “Up First” at number 3. The biggest movers in the Top 20 included:

• “Radiolab” (WNYC Studios), jumping 15 spots to land at number 20.
• “Hidden Brain” (Hidden Brain Media), up 10 positions to number 19.
• “The Ben Shapiro Show” (DailyWire), climbing 5 spots to number 8.
• “48 Hours” (Paramount) and NPR’s “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!” each rose 2 places.

Meanwhile, “Fox News Hourly Update” and “Today, Explained” dropped slightly, while “This American Life” slipped three positions to number 13.

August saw continued strong performance from diverse publishers including NPR, NBC News, Cumulus Podcast Network, Barstool Sports, iHeartPodcasts, and others. The iHeart Audience Network remained the undisputed leader, reaching 68.9 million unique monthly listeners and posting 336.9 million streams/downloads across nearly 20,000 active shows.

According to Podtrac 14 U.S. ranking participants saw their Unique Monthly Audience increase from July. 6 networks saw gains in total downloads, while two of the Top Global Networks also experienced increases in global streaming and viewing metrics.