Podcasting Is a Multi-Billion Global Business, and It’s Bigger Than We Thought
For years, the podcast industry has had a numbers problem.
Everyone knew podcasting was growing. Millions of people were listening, advertising dollars were pouring into the medium, and major technology and media companies were investing heavily in podcasts. But when it came to answering a seemingly simple question, How big is the podcast industry?, the answer depended heavily on what you counted.
That changed dramatically with research from Owl & Co.
In 2025, Owl & Co. estimated that the global podcast economy generated $7.3 billion in revenue in 2024, a figure that was more than double many previous estimates of the size of the industry. The number attracted widespread attention because it suggested that podcasting had been substantially underestimated for years.
And now, the picture is even bigger.
According to Owl & Co.’s latest Global Podcast Economy Report, global podcast revenue reached $9.2 billion in 2025, representing 23% growth from the previous year.
Why Were Previous Estimates So Much Smaller?
The biggest reason is that there has never been a universally agreed definition of what constitutes podcast revenue.
Traditional industry measurements have tended to focus heavily on podcast advertising, particularly advertising attached to audio podcasts. For example, U.S. podcast advertising estimates have historically been used as a proxy for the health of the entire industry.
Owl & Co. took a much broader approach.
Its analysis included advertising, subscriptions, consumer-supported revenue and other forms of monetization. Crucially, it also accounted for revenue generated by video podcasting, including activity on YouTube. The company also incorporated podcast-related revenue from markets outside the United States, including China.
That broader definition changes the calculation considerably.
Owl & Co.'s 2024 estimate broke the $7.3 billion market into several major revenue streams. Direct advertising accounted for approximately $4.6 billion, while programmatic advertising contributed another $1.6 billion. Consumer revenue represented roughly $1.3 billion and included services such as Patreon, Apple Podcasts subscriptions and YouTube Premium.
In other words, podcasting isn't simply an advertising business anymore.
YouTube Has Changed the Podcast Revenue Equation
One of the most significant developments behind the larger numbers is the rise of video podcasting.
For years, podcasting was largely treated as an audio medium. A microphone, an RSS feed and an audio player were essentially the basic ingredients.
That model has changed.
YouTube has become a major destination for podcast consumption, and podcasts increasingly exist simultaneously as audio programs and video productions. That means revenue generated from video advertising can become part of the podcast economy, something older industry measurements often did not capture.
Owl & Co. specifically included YouTube-related revenue in its calculations, helping explain why its estimates are considerably higher than measurements based primarily on traditional podcast advertising.
And the shift is continuing.
Owl & Co.'s 2026 report says that video accounted for an increasingly important portion of the business, with video now changing the economics of podcasting and helping drive growth among publishers that have embraced it as a monetization layer rather than simply a promotional tool.
Podcasting Is Becoming a Multi-Revenue Business
Perhaps the most important takeaway from the $7.3 billion figure, and the subsequent $9.2 billion figure, is that podcasting can no longer be viewed simply as a place to sell commercials.
Advertising remains enormously important. But podcasters and publishers now have a growing menu of ways to generate revenue.
There are host-read advertisements, programmatic advertising, branded content, subscriptions, memberships, premium feeds, listener donations, video advertising, platform payments and other forms of direct consumer revenue.
Some podcasts also generate money indirectly by becoming intellectual-property engines. A successful show can lead to books, television adaptations, live events, merchandise, licensing opportunities and other extensions.
That makes podcasting increasingly resemble a broader media business rather than a single advertising format.
The Numbers Also Come With an Important Caveat
The $7.3 billion figure generated plenty of excitement, but it also sparked debate.
The reason is simple: different studies are measuring different things.
If one report counts only audio podcast advertising in the United States, while another includes global advertising, video revenue, subscriptions and consumer payments, the numbers are naturally going to be very different.
That doesn't necessarily mean one number is wrong.
It means the industry needs to be much clearer about what it means when it talks about "podcast revenue."
This distinction is particularly important for advertisers and marketers. A company deciding how much money to allocate to podcasting needs to know whether it is comparing podcast advertising with other advertising categories or looking at the entire economic ecosystem surrounding podcasts.
The difference can be enormous.
$7.3 Billion Was Only the Beginning
Perhaps the most interesting part of the Owl & Co. research is what happened after the original $7.3 billion estimate.
The 2024 figure suggested that podcasting was already a much larger business than conventional measurements indicated.
Then came 2025.
Owl & Co. now estimates that the global podcast economy reached $9.2 billion, up 23% from 2024. The latest research was built from more than 300,000 data points covering more than 1,600 publishers, along with conversations with more than 100 podcast publishers and industry experts.
That makes the original $7.3 billion figure look less like an inflated outlier and more like an early indication that the industry was being measured too narrowly.
Podcasting wasn't suddenly becoming a $7.3 billion business.
We were simply getting better at seeing the business that was already there.
What This Means for Independent Podcasters
For independent creators, these numbers shouldn't be interpreted as a guarantee that every podcast is suddenly a lucrative business. The vast majority of podcasts still face the familiar challenges of building an audience, producing consistently and finding sustainable monetization.
But the expanding size of the overall market is significant.
It means there are more companies competing for podcast audiences, more platforms willing to invest in podcast content and more potential revenue streams available to creators.
It also reinforces the value of treating a podcast as a professional media property.
Good audio still matters. Strong storytelling still matters. Consistent publishing still matters. But successful podcasting increasingly involves thinking beyond the RSS feed.
A podcast can be an audio show, a YouTube channel, a community, a subscription product, a marketing platform and a piece of intellectual property, sometimes all at the same time.
The Podcast Economy Is Bigger Because Podcasting Is Bigger
The $7.3 billion figure was a wake-up call for an industry that had spent years measuring itself primarily through advertising.
The $9.2 billion figure takes that argument a step further.
Podcasting is no longer a small corner of digital audio. It has become part of a much larger creator and media economy, with audiences moving fluidly between audio and video and between free and paid content.
The real story isn't simply that podcasting generated billions of dollars.
It's that the definition of podcasting has expanded, and the business surrounding it has expanded with it.
For creators, advertisers, publishers and production companies, that's probably the most important number of all.
The podcast industry may not have suddenly become bigger than everyone thought.
We may finally be counting it properly.