Every month we publish what we see across the podcasts hosted on RSS.com: where listeners are, which apps and devices they use, and when they press play. All figures are shares of IAB-compliant downloads, with bots and data-center traffic removed. No absolute numbers, no personal data, just the shape of listening.
241
countries and territories listened last month
98.5%
of plays happen in podcast apps, not on our website. Open ecosystem by design.
83%
of downloads on a phone or tablet
40%
of downloads happen in an episode's first week
Where listeners are
Share of downloads by country. 241 countries and territories in total; the ten below account for 73.6% of listening.
Top countries
Share of all downloads · the other 231 countries add up to 26.4%
Top cities outside the US
Share of all downloads
Top US cities
Share of all downloads · data-center locations excluded
How old is an episode when it gets played?
Share of downloads by episode age at download
39%
of all downloads go to episodes older than 90 days. Your back catalog keeps working long after publishing day.
How people listen
Apps and devices behind the downloads.
Podcast apps, United States
Share of US downloads · top 10, the rest add up to 5.4%
Devices
Share of all downloads · top 8
Device types
Share of all downloads
iOS vs Android
Share of mobile downloads
When people listen
US downloads by hour of the day, US Eastern time. Peak at 8am.
Downloads by hour
Share of US downloads, Eastern time (converted from UTC)
Where the play button lives
App or web page?
Downloads that arrive from a web page (with a referrer) vs directly from an app
Why we publish this
Podcasting is an open ecosystem: shows hosted on RSS.com are listened to in hundreds of apps we don't control. These numbers show what that openness looks like in practice, and help creators decide where to focus. New edition every month.