Podcasts started as a phenomenon of sound. But now Youtube – The world’s largest video platform – may be the largest podcast platform.
According to the Google-owned Violemodanten, Youtube now has more than 1 billion monthly for podcast content worldwide. In 2024, users saw more than 400 million hours podcast every month on living room devices, says the company.
“This milestone emphasizes how Youtube has come to play an important role in podcasting for creators and audiences, and how our investments to improve the podcast experience on Youtube pays off,” Youtube said in a announcement. “Podcast with video is more than just a trend, they meet the audience where they are: on Youtube.”
The growth of podcast consumption on Youtube comes after Google Podcasts was phased out in the middle of 2024. In the United States, about 31%of weekly podcast listeners choose Youtube as their preferred service, over Spotify (27%) and Apple Podcasts (15%), Per Edison Podcast Metrics Research which was released in October last year.
With 1 billion each month podcast user, Youtube would be much larger than Spotify, all of which told Had 675 million active users each month at the end of 2024. Spotify does not regularly report the size of its podcast audience; It recently said that more than 240 million users have ever streamed a Videopodcast on the Service. At the same time, Apple does not release user statistics for Apple Podcasts.
“We have long invested in the podcast experience and the creators have found that the video makes this format even more compelling,” wrote Youtube CEO Neal Mohan earlier this month in its annual letter to Youtube community. “This year we roll out more tools to support podcasters, improve revenue generation for creators and make it even easier to discover podcast.”
Marques Brownlee, known as MKBHD, is a technical reviewer and vlogger with almost 20 million subscribers on the platform. He is co-host for Weekly Tech Podcast “Wave form” (alias “WVFRM”), part of Vox Media Podcast Network, distributed on Youtube and via other platforms such as Audio-Podcasts.
“It was a no-brainer to make it a video first podcast on Youtube,” said Brownlee. “There is nothing that the content discovered on Youtube. It fits a bit together as a puzzle piece with our other channels.”
“Wave form”, which was launched in August 2019, is hosted by Brownlee, known as MKBHD, and co-hosts Andrew Manganelli and David Imel. Brownlee said that the podcast started as a place where he and collaborators could discuss weekly technical news and developments from their main Youtube channel, where his company publishes very produced videos. He estimates that a typical MKBHD video takes about 20 hours of work, compared to 2 hours (plus editing time) for a podcast.
2024 was one of the largest podcasts on Youtube Joe Rogan’s interview with Donald Trump At the end of October, which currently has more than 56 million views.
When you announced Milestone on the 1 billion viewer, Youtube called out podcasts including “Baby, This is Keke Palmer”, “Lex Fridman podcast” “Rotten Mango” and “Murder, Mystery and Makeup.”
