Podcasts have formally overtaken AM/FM discuss radio because the extra in style medium for spoken phrase audio in america, in accordance with Edison Research’s Share of Ear survey.
The researchers have tracked these statistics during the last decade, and virtually all the time, the proportion of time folks spent listening to podcasts elevated, whereas their time with spoken radio broadcasts decreased. For the primary time this 12 months, podcasts eclipsed spoken phrase radio with 40% of listening time, versus 39% for radio.
If something, it’s stunning that it’s taken this lengthy for podcasts to overhaul radio exhibits. (Keep in mind, this doesn’t embody listening to music on the radio). However maybe that speaks extra to the sturdiness of fine, old style radio than the deserves of podcasting.
We checked with Edison to see if these statistics embody video podcasts, they usually do. However the necessity to make clear that query factors to the simple rising prevalence of video podcasts, hosted on platforms like Spotify and YouTube, which marks one other key pattern in podcasting.
Maybe an business bellwether, Netflix is inking offers with iHeartMedia and Barstool Sports activities to convey podcasts to the streaming service as a extra fashionable model of the daytime discuss present. It’s not a foul funding — in accordance with YouTube, folks watch them on TV. YouTube mentioned that viewers watched 700 million hours of podcasts every month in 2025 on front room gadgets, like TVs, up from 400 million the earlier 12 months.
However the recognition of video podcasts doesn’t appear to be detracting from audio-first podcast listening.
Triton Digital’s U.S. Podcast Report for 2025 confirmed that 80% of shoppers over 18 years of age tune into each audio and video podcasts; 13% solely take heed to audio, whereas 7% solely watch video. Listener preferences additionally seem to fluctuate enormously relying on a podcast’s style, with podcasts about matters like music, sports activities, comedy, and information skewing extra in style on video. Genres like science, historical past, arts, fiction, and true crime are extra usually consumed by way of audio.
Edison’s findings present an identical pattern within the function of video in podcasting. Eighty-five % of weekly U.S. podcast listeners above the age of 13 eat podcasts with any type of video element, up 7% from 2023. The analysis additionally confirmed that there are an estimated 115 million weekly podcast listeners within the U.S., with solely 5% of listeners reporting that they watch podcasts, however don’t take heed to them.
