Industry Rankings May 2025: Crime Junkie and Spotify lead the way
The latest podcast, publisher, and—for the first time ever—advertiser rankings are in for May 2025. This month’s data reveals big shakeups and emerging leaders across the board. From high-performing shows to fast-climbing advertisers, the podcasting landscape continues to evolve with energy, innovation, and strategy.
Top Podcast Shows
Top shows continue to shine, but several newer or fast-growing podcasts made bold moves this month:
Crime Junkie takes the #1 spot in monthly audio reach with ~8.2M listeners, narrowly beating The Joe Rogan Experience (~5.5M).
Rotten Mango maintains its lead in downloads/views per episode, averaging ~3.8M—well ahead of JRE and The Why Files (~2.7M).
Murder, Mystery & Makeup jumps +18% into the Top 5, with ~2.2M downloads/views per episode, overtaking several long-time chart fixtures.
Top Podcasts by Audio Reach
Top Publishers
While some leaders held firm, others climbed quickly, signaling continued shifts in network power:
Spotify remains the top publisher in both audio reach (64.0M) and monthly downloads and views (252.9M), despite a slight dip (-1%).
The top five publishers in audio reach remain the same this month.
Audioboom rises to the #2 position in monthly downloads and views with 142.2M, surpassing major networks like Wondery and SXM Media.
Acast grows +11% in reach (34.2M), and QCode breaks into the top 10 with 59.2M downloads, up +30%.
Top Publishers by Audio Reach
Top Advertisers
In our first-ever advertiser rankings, a mix of established brands and aggressive newcomers shook things up:
BetterHelp tops the chart with $6.7M in estimated spend across 706 shows and an impressive 90% host-read rate.
Uber Eats rockets into the Top 10 with a +709% increase, reaching $4.3M in spend—despite a low 23% host-read ratio.
Hyundai enters at #10 with $3.9M (+290%), while Toyota holds strong at #3 even after a 15% dip.
Top Advertisers by Estimated Spend
About Podscribe’s Ranker
The Podscribe Ranker is the industry's most comprehensive podcast ranker, offering a complete view of show, publisher and advertiser performance. Unlike traditional rankers, we go beyond RSS data—tracking podcast downloads, YouTube views, Spotify Video, and more—to reflect how audiences consume podcasts today.
We also include every known show and publisher in the rankings, to always ensure a complete industry view.
Rather than a static snapshot, Podscribe provides live growth trends, helping buyers and publishers spot rising shows early. With cross-platform tracking and direct data from major shows, it delivers the most accurate rankings available, even for podcasts without a prefix.
