The December 2023 Australian Podcast Ranker has revealed Australians downloaded 1.3 billion podcasts last year, which is up 26% for the year.

Released today by Commercial Radio & Audio (CRA) and Triton Digital, the Australian Podcast Ranker, is a monthly review of the top 200 podcasts listened to in Australian.

See below the top five most popular podcasts in Australia for 2023:

  • Hamish & Andy (841,364 average monthly users).
  • Casefile True Crime (813,514 average monthly users).
  • Mamamia Out Loud (585,194 average monthly users).
  • Shameless (574,599 average monthly users).
  • The Kyle & Jackie O Show (529,073 average monthly users).

The CEO of CRA, Ford Ennals said, “The Australian Podcast Ranker has confirmed that podcast listening is a passion shared by many Australians. There were over 1 billion podcast downloads in 2023. This equates to over 2.8 million downloads every day.”

Due to podcast hosts taking holidays and fewer podcast episodes released, December is usually a quieter month for listening.

However, monthly downloads saw an increase of 29% from December 2022. The top five podcasts in December 2023 were ‘Casefile True Crime,’ ‘Mamamia Out Loud,’ ‘Hamish & Andy,’ ‘Shameless,’ and ‘The Imperfects.’

Mr. Ennals continued, “It has been an incredible year for podcasts and the Australian Podcast Ranker, with eight new publishers coming on board in 2023, including the ABC in November, which assisted with the December year-on-year increase. Underlying it all is that podcasts are now part of many Australians’ everyday lives. We are the largest consumers of podcasts globally, with 43 per cent listening every month.”

“Australian listeners are dedicated to home grown as well as the best of international content. Four out of the top five podcasts of 2023 and 15 out of the top 20 most popular podcasts in December were produced locally.”

This analysis revealed the average listener spent 2.3 hours a week listening to podcasts in 2023, downloading 3.95 podcasts a week.

“With 38 publishers from across Australia, the Australian Podcast Ranker, established in 2019, is the go-to place to discover what we are listening too. It’s the gold standard for advertisers to target dedicated listeners of quality podcast content.”

“Listener commitment to local content creates jobs across the audio industry as well as unlocking opportunities for advertisers to reach audiences that are fully engaged with podcasts they loyally listen to, engage with emotionally, and trust.”

The top five publishers were ARN/iHeart, LiSTNR( (SCA), the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, SiriusXM Podcast Network, and Audioboom, achieving 12.5 million listeners between them.

The top five most popular genres last year were Society and Culture (4.07 million average monthly listeners), Comedy (3.95 million), True Crime (3.75 million), News (3.66 million), and Sports (2.71 million).

The biggest day of the week for downloading and streaming episodes was Thursday, and 8AM was the top listening hour. 94% of listening happened on a mobile device.