Summary
- As of January 2025, YouTube says it has one billion monthly viewers for podcasts.
- YouTube has changed the podcasting landscape, with many podcasts now designed for video consumption.
- YouTube’s success in podcasting is due to its discovery algorithms, ease of monetization for creators, and partnerships with celebrities.
I consume a lot of podcasts, and chances are you do too because YouTube has announced that there are more than one billion monthly active viewers of podcast content on its platform.
YouTube hasn’t verified how it calculated these figures, but it’s reasonable enough to believe. It’s one of the biggest services on the planet and loose with what it defines as a “podcast”, as you can see on the YouTube podcast page. A quick scroll reveals people sitting in rooms with microphones and talking to each other in an episodic format, like the popular Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend. But among videos like that are also explainers, reviews, talk show clips, and more. They’re conversational, but are they really podcasts? YouTube seems to think so.
Regardless, one billion monthly viewers is still an impressive statistic, and just goes to show how many people favor YouTube for podcast consumption over other services like Spotify and Amazon Music or dedicated podcast apps. Part of that comes down to how available YouTube is—the company claims over 400 million hours of podcasts were watched monthly on YouTube on TVs in 2024, for example.
YouTube is a video platform, which means that creators have adapted the way they produce podcasts and the consumption has changed too. It’s noteworthy that YouTube’s one billion proclamation is focused on “viewers”. While podcasts were traditionally audio-only, perhaps listened to while driving or hiking, many are now designed to be watched and more actively focused on.
This is further cemented by how YouTube paywalls the ability to listen to a video in the background, with your screen off or while using another app, behind its Premium membership. It’s not the same for YouTube Music, though, which does let you play most podcasts as audio-only for free without needing to stay on the app.
YouTube Premium
For $13.99 a month, you get ad-free videos, YouTube Music, and offline video downloads.
Other platforms aren’t oblivious to the importance of video, even those that traditionally prioritized audio. In July 2024, Spotify reported that it had more than 250,000 video podcast shows available, and that more than 170 million users had watched a video podcast. That said, the strategy has changed; while Spotify still plunges millions of dollars into working with podcast creators, it’s now less concerned with them being exclusive to the platform.
Speaking to Semafor, Tim Katz, YouTube’s Vice President for partnerships, cites YouTube’s improvements in podcast discovery, easy monetization for creators, and videos from public figures as some of the reasons for why the company has been so successful. But it doesn’t plan to stop there, with the intent to encourage existing video creators to become podcasters.
Personally, I prefer a balance between watching and listening to podcasts. Some of them work well on video on YouTube, where the visual element helps to follow along or watch people’s reactions, whereas others are better in the background on Spotify to keep me company while I do other things.
However you prefer to consume your podcasts, one thing is clear: YouTube is reaping the rewards from this multi-billion dollar industry.
