Apple Podcasts is no longer the number 1 app for podcast listeners, overtaken by YouTube and Spotify

Apple Podcast held the position of the most popular podcast app for years. However, it’s now dropped from its number 1 place to number 3. The percentage of weekly podcast listeners on Apple’s app has fallen from 30% in July 2019, to a little bit of over 10% now.

In case you don’t know, Apple has been into the podcast game since basically the beginning. The word “podcast” itself comes from “iPod broadcast”. The concept was invented in the year 2000 by an mp3 player manufacturer i2Go, which had an online service to download audio stories and news. However, Apple made it mainstream via the iPod.

Now, the most recent study indicates that Apple is no longer king in the podcasting app world. Its app was overtaken by YouTube and Spotify. The study from Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights shows that YouTube has now become the most popular podcast-listening platform in the US. 31% of the survey participants say they use YouTube, and 21% use Spotify. Only 12% reported using Apple Podcasts.

However, Apple is still leading when you count “downloads” instead of “listeners”.

I went from Apple Podcasts to Spotify a couple of years ago, but now I’m enjoying most of my podcasts on YouTube. I feel like having a video to watch with the podcast (as I’m going around and cleaning, for example) is a nice addition to the experience, as I can glance at the people talking in between tasks. Also, I feel like I find new podcasts to listen to more easily on YouTube.