Deadset Studios and Insightfully’s PodPoll 24 has shown further growth in podcast listenership in Australia with Deadset Studios’ Director Kellie Riordan saying she still doesn’t think Australia has reached ‘peak podcast’ yet.
Deadset Studios’ Director Kellie Riordan
PodPoll 24 was conducted by Insightfully via an online questionnaire in June 2024 with 42 questions and answered by a representative sample of Australians aged 15 years and over. Data collection used triple-interlocking quota targets and data have been weighted by age, gender and location using the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics Census data. The survey was conducted in two parts. Part 1 was a survey of more than 4000 Australians 15+ to accurately measure podcast listenership nationwide; Part 2 reduced the sample size to 1,607 regular (monthly) podcast listeners with added questions to look deeper into their listening habits, preferences, and demographic attributes. Those habits are particularly interesting.
PodPoll 24 found of those regular listeners:
2 million Australians are listening daily and four million are listening at least once a month.
Half of those regular listeners are listening to 2-4 episodes a week. Nearly 1 in 10 are listening to more than 10!
Millennials and Gen Z do the most podcast listening with Insightfully Managing Director Leanne White saying:
“Sixty percent of listeners are between the ages of 25 and 34. Three million Millennials/Gen Y hear a podcast each month, closely followed by 2.2 million Gen Zs. Of those who don’t listen, 26% said they simply don’t have the time. It may be they are looking for short-form podcasts or more ‘snackable’ content offers.”
And Spotify is the platform of choice, double Apple podcasts.
Leanne added:
“Australian podcast listeners continue their love affair with comedy which again is the most popular genre. Thirty percent of regular listeners tuned in to a comedy podcast in the past month. News and current affairs podcasts are a new entry in the top three at second spot (29%) while true crime still rates strongly for podcast listeners coming in third (27%). Society and culture shows have a strong following (fourth most popular at 26%) while the health and wellbeing category has been bumped into fifth (24%) from its third spot last year. At the same time though, respondents said they would actually like to see even more choice in the category.”
The poll seems to show for my mind that Gen Z and millennials are loyal to a podcast and its host when they find one they like. Kellie O’Riordan said:
“The survey revealed most listeners are prepared to stick with an episode once they get started, with a remarkable 80% completing episodes all or most of the time. Podcast listeners generally consume multiple episodes per week, with nearly half of them (46%) listening to between 2 and 4 episodes.
We haven’t yet reached ‘peak podcast’ as Australians told us they’re keen for more. Anyone saying the podcast market is saturated is wrong, especially given there’s only 4.5 million podcasts out there and more than 4 billion YouTube videos.
If you’re trying to reach a particular age demographic or people interested in a specific topic, podcasts represent strong value given the number of hours spent listening. Plus, we know there’s a strong appetite for new titles, with two in five people (44%) sampling new shows each month.”
A downloadable version of PodPoll 24 is available here.