PodHood Insights

The podcast ecosystem, counted every week.

Podcast Index publishes only this week’s snapshot. We archive every one, forever, and publish what they add up to — each figure stamped with the Vintage it came from, so a number you cite stays true to its date.

Current Vintage2026-08-17
live
5 Vintages archived4,711,475 feeds counted
ToolsLiving pages. Always the latest Vintage, stamped on the page.

How many podcasts are there?

The most asked number in the space, with its definition stated — listed, ever listed, or actively publishing — and filterable by language.

2026-08-17Open tool →
4,711,475listed right now
7,957,219ever listed
436,068actively publishing

Hosting market share

Which companies host the world’s feeds, attributed through our own published Host mapping — never the dataset’s opaque host column.

Spotify40.4%
Spreaker12.0%
Buzzsprout5.5%
SoundCloud4.1%
2026-08-17Open tool →

Stats explorer

Count any slice of the index — language, category, activity, host — and take the citation with you. Aggregates only, never feed rows.

English2.61MSpanish697KActive436KDormant4.28MSpotify1.90MSpreaker564K
2026-08-17Open tool →

Podcasts by language

Every declared language ranked with its activity rate — Simplified and Traditional Chinese counted separately.

English55.4%
Spanish14.8%
Portuguese5.6%
French2.6%
2026-08-17Open tool →

The podfade census

Do 90% of podcasts really quit after three episodes? Every living feed’s episode count, checked against the folklore.

38.9%stopped at ≤3 episodes
23.7%made it past 20
2026-08-17Open census →
ReportsDated and frozen. Every figure pinned to its publication Vintage, forever.

The State of Podcasting, August 2026

How many podcasts exist, when they were made, what language they speak, who hosts them, and how many episodes they survive. The inaugural monthly edition, on a single Vintage; month-over-month deltas begin with the next edition.

Pinned to2026-08-17
frozen
Read report →

Every figure carries a Vintage

Nothing here is real-time, and we never say it is. A Tool shows the latest Vintage; a Report keeps the one it was published from.

Hosts are attributed, not inherited

A versioned mapping of domain patterns, acquisitions attributed explicitly, published as the methodology. The dataset’s own host column is a cross-check, never the source.

Aggregates, not feed rows

We serve counts and trends. For a single feed, Podcast Index’s own API is fresher than ours could ever be — so we send you there.