What you might want to know
- YouTube surpassed one billion month-to-month lively podcast viewers, a key threshold for the platform.
- Google goes all-in on YouTube and YouTube Music for podcasts after shutting down Google Podcasts final 12 months.
- In line with an unbiased report, YouTube can be now essentially the most steadily used podcast shopper within the U.S.
Practically a 12 months after Google made the shocking choice to shutter Google Podcasts, it seems that YouTube has efficiently emerged as its alternative. The corporate just lately shared its “large bets” for YouTube in 2025, and certainly one of them appears to be paying off early. In a weblog publish in the present day, Feb. 26, YouTube shared that it eclipsed one billion month-to-month podcast viewers — an essential achievement for the platform.
“This milestone underscores how YouTube has come to play a necessary function in podcasting for creators and audiences, and the way our investments to enhance the podcast expertise on YouTube are paying off,” writes Tim Katz, the VP of partnerships and podcasts at YouTube. “Podcasts with video are greater than only a pattern, they meet audiences the place they’re: on YouTube.”
The month-to-month lively viewer threshold is simply a part of the explanation YouTube is taking a victory lap for its podcast supply efforts. The platform claims that it’s “essentially the most steadily used service for listening to podcasts within the U.S. and sometimes the primary place individuals go when searching for a brand new podcast,” citing an Edison Analysis report from October 2024. The report discovered that YouTube is extra widespread amongst podcast listeners than each Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
When it comes to market share, Edison stories that YouTube Music is the preferred podcast supply service amongst weekly podcast listeners ages 13 and up. It has 31% of the market, in comparison with 27% for Spotify and 15% for Apple Podcasts. Edison’s metrics measure “listening, not downloads, throughout all networks, exhibits, and platforms,” per the report.
Final 12 months, YouTube says viewers consumed over 400 million hours of podcasts on its platforms — each audio and video podcasts. The transfer comes as Google embraces YouTube and YouTube Music for podcast supply. It is persevering with to develop YouTube’s podcast performance. On the finish of final 12 months, the corporate added shareable hyperlinks that allow listeners begin shared podcasts at a particular timestamp.
