Why there really aren’t 2 million podcastsWhy there really aren’t 2 million podcasts

Today’s post breaks down the numbers of how many podcasts you’re actually up against.

It seems everyone has a podcast. Or do they?

Recently Apple Podcasts rolled over the two million podcast title mark. Extraordinary, right? Daunting, even. But the “box office” number is deceiving.

1/4th Of All Podcasts Are Out Of Business, Or More Likely, Were Never Really In It.

Analyzing data from Apple Podcasts reveals how that statistic is misleading. Out of the two million titles reflected in Apple Podcasts (and similar results from Podcast Index), a remarkable 26% have produced just a single episode. One and done. That suggests many people fired up their creative juices, especially during the pandemic, and stopped after creating one episode. Roughly 1/4th of all podcasts are out of business, or more likely, were never really in it.

Sure, there might be some that only planned a single episode but for our x-ray, let’s drop the number of podcasts down by 26% — which means there are roughly 1.5 million (1.48m) podcasts with two or more episodes.

That’s a big difference.

Let’s go a bit further.

Let’s use three or fewer episodes as a mark. That rockets the number up to an astonishing 44% of all podcasts.