Youtube rockets as a podcast listening platform, Apple falls behind
Australians are increasingly using platforms designed primarily for other experiences to listen to podcasts, according to new survey research.
Podpoll 25 is an annual survey of Australian listening habits, delivered by podcast house Deadset Studios and analytics firm Insightfully.
The survey took a nationally representative poll of 3,768 participants aged 15 and over and asked 33 questions about their podcast habits, via online questionnaire. This is the third year they have conducted the survey.
The topline results show that overall listenership has risen by 1.47 million in the past 12 months, to 9.6 million Australians over 15. More than half (54%) of these listeners consume 1-3 hours per week, while around 2.8 million listen daily.
Comedy, news and current affairs, and crime are the three most listened-to categories, with health and wellbeing, sport, and society/culture categories also drawing listeners.
Podcast listener habits by genre.
Millennials and Gen Z have the largest percentage of regular listeners — at 66% and 58% of the demographics, respectively — and are also the fastest growing sectors, up 10% and 8% from 2024. Less than half of Gen X listen to podcasts (44%) with just 27% of Boomers.
While the sweet spot for running time remains between 15 minutes and an hour for the majority of listeners, podcasts that run for less than 15 minutes or longer than an hour have both seen increased listenership over the past 12 months.
However, it’s the platforms Australians are listening on that are the most interesting.
Apple Podcasts has fallen from favour as the premier podcast channel, with just one-fifth of Australians using the platform to listen to podcasts.
In contrast, 58% of respondents use Spotify to listen, and 44% use Youtube. (The respondents could select multiple listening platforms).
It’s worth noting that podcasting is not the original primary function of either of these platforms.
Furthermore, unless watching a video podcast — a format that has rocketed with younger audiences over the past few years — Youtube’s mobile functionality actually works against listening to podcasts on its platform, as it disables the sound whenever the app or browser window is minimised.
Despite that, more Australians are turning to Youtube for podcasting then before – up from 30% in 2024, to 44% in 2025.
Where are people listening?
The report suggests this spike may be mirroring “the consumption of vodcast/podcasts” instead of audio-only podcasts.
Deadset Studios Director Kellie Riordan says in the report, the trend towards Youtube “doesn’t necessarily mean people are watching an episode on YouTube, although it could mean that.”
“Some people discover podcast episodes on YouTube thanks to its search engine functionality, but then they’re actually just listening to the episode.
“So in this way they’re often using YouTube like they did a radio.”
Spotify’s increasing dominance makes sense. The Swedish company famously made a land grab for the podcasting world in 2020, paying over US$1 billion combined to secure shows by Joe Rogan, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, Kim Kardashian, Bill Simmons, Dax Shepard, and the Obamas — tying each of them exclusively to its platform in a bid to encourage listeners to consider Spotify as their new go-to podcasting hub.
It has since wound back the exclusivity of these deals — reasoning that selling ad impressions across multiple platforms is a savvier business model than locking its own talent to one subscriber-based platform. It has become the market leader, at least in Australia.
A US survey of listening habits conducted last year by Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights shows this pull away from Apple is not just a geographical trend, although the rise of Youtube to become the biggest podcasting platform has happened more rapidly in the US.
In July 2019, 29% of weekly podcast listeners used Apple, compared to 16% through Spotify, and 15% through Youtube.
By 2024, 31% were listening through Youtube, 21% through Spotify, and just 12% through Apple.
It’s a huge fall from grace, especially considering the name ‘podcast’ refers to one of the first mobile digital listening devices: the Apple iPod.
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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