Apple Podcasts Now Lists 2 Million Shows, But Almost Half of Those Titles Have Only Three or Fewer Episodes

According to the latest podcast analytics, Apple's Podcasts platform recently surpassed 2 million titles, however almost a quarter of those shows have only published one episode, suggesting the numbers are inflated by so-called "once-and-done" podcasts.

Amplifipodcastpyramid V5
Breaking down the latest statistics provided by Podcast Industry Insights, industry advisor Amplifi Media found that 26% of listed podcasts have published just one episode, suggesting that many content creators immediately went out of business or else never intended to continue creating beyond their opening act.

Adjusting the mark, Amplifi found that 44% of podcasts have published three or fewer episodes, meaning if the arbitrary benchmark of a "real podcast" is set as a series of at least four episodes, then the total number of shows on Apple Podcasts is closer to 880,000.

Looking at podcasts offering ten or more episodes, a little more than a third of all titles have achieved this number (around 36%), which places around 720,000 podcasts at the ten-episode level.

The statistical breakdown suggests that "once-and-done" podcasts clutter up the ‌Apple Podcasts‌ library with what might be considered "dead-end" content. Indeed, according to Podnews.net's James Cridland, 63% of single episode podcasts came via Spotify's Anchor and another 16% came from iHeart's Spreaker, both of which are free-to-use hosting providers that appeal to new podcasters who are still experimenting with the medium.

Amplifi suggests that the way single-act runs inflate the 2 million number is equivalent to including TV shows that produced a pilot but never became a series in a list of all-time TV shows. Despite that assessment, however, Amplifi noted that not all podcasts are suited to multiple episodes:

Not all podcasts are meant to be unending series. You can find plenty of great and evergreen content designed to run for just a handful of episodes. That’s part of the beauty of podcasting, but the one-and-done titles unfairly inflate the overall number of podcasts, and it is revealing that 44% have three or fewer episodes.

Right now, the Podcasts app is free and Apple has no paid podcast content, but rumors have suggested that Apple is working on a paid podcast subscription service that would charge people to listen to podcasts.

With a paid subscription service, Apple could potentially lure high-profile creators with the promise of more money, stealing them away from other platforms like Spotify.

In perhaps a related move, Apple is making a small but notable change to the way listeners can sign up to get updates on new podcast content, with the company changing the word "Subscribe" to "Follow" in the Podcasts app in iOS 14.5.

The word "Subscribe" may have misled Podcasts users into thinking that the podcasts cost money to listen to, in which case the change in language could facilitates the later introduction of a podcasting subscription service and will prevent confusion in the future.

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
iOS 18

iOS 18.4 Expected Next Week - Here Are the Release Notes

Friday March 28, 2025 2:01 pm PDT by
With the second release candidate of iOS 18.4 that Apple seeded out today, the company finally provided us with release notes that give a full rundown on what to expect. There's an Apple Vision Pro app, new Apple Intelligence features for notifications and additional language support, plus an Apple News Food feature for Apple News+ subscribers, and several updates that should improve the...
Magic Mouse Green

What to Expect From the Magic Mouse 3

Saturday March 29, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple is reportedly working on a new Magic Mouse. Below, we recap what to expect. The two key rumors for the Magic Mouse 3 so far include a relocated charging port, along with a more ergonomic design. It was briefly rumored that the Magic Mouse 3 would also feature voice control, but that was misinterpreted information. Relocated Charging Port While the Magic Mouse switched from...
top stories 2025 03 29

Top Stories: WWDC 2025 Announced, iPhone 17 Pro and iOS 19 Rumors, and More

Saturday March 29, 2025 6:00 am PDT by
Apple's big developer event is a little over two months away, and rumors about what we can expect to see in Apple's next major operating system updates are becoming increasingly frequent. A public release of iOS 18.4 is also imminent with a number of updates and improvements, although we won't be getting the major Apple Intelligence Siri upgrades that had reportedly been planned for this...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature Homescreen

Six Things to Know About Apple's Upcoming Foldable iPhone

Friday March 28, 2025 3:54 pm PDT by
We've been hearing rumors about a foldable iPhone for almost a decade now, but it looks like we might finally see the device come to fruition in 2026. We're going to be waiting many more months for the foldable iPhone, but so far we're hearing good things. Apple wants to make it creaseless. It's taken Apple multiple years to design a foldable iPhone that it's satisfied with because Apple ...
iOS 19 visionOS UI Elements

Apple Codename Provides Clue About iOS 19's Rumored New Design

Sunday March 30, 2025 6:40 am PDT by
Multiple sources have claimed that iOS 19 will introduce a new design with more translucent buttons, menus, notification banners, and more, and there is now another clue that points towards this glass-like appearance. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said the new design project is codenamed "Solarium" internally. A solarium is a room with glass walls that allow in plenty of sunlight, so this...
maxresdefault

Apple Releases iOS 18.4 With Priority Notifications, Ambient Music, New Emoji and More

Monday March 31, 2025 10:03 am PDT by
Apple today released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, the fourth major updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating system updates that came out last year. iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 come two months after Apple released iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to...
ipad pro 2024

Gurman: New iPad Pro and MacBook Pro Models With M5 Chips to Launch Later This Year

Sunday March 30, 2025 6:06 am PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPad Pro models with the M5 chip will "launch this year," according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In his Power On newsletter today, Gurman said the new iPad Pro models have progressed to an "advanced testing" stage, and he expects mass production of the devices to begin in the second half of this year. If that timeframe is met, the new iPad Pro models could launch...
Facebook Feature

Facebook's New iPhone App Feature Turns the Clock Back to 2007

Thursday March 27, 2025 1:59 pm PDT by
In the mid-to-late 2000s, Facebook was all about staying connected with friends and family. However, as the social media platform added new features and grew over time, that core experience began to get drowned out. That changes starting now, according to Meta, which today introduced a new feature that will "bring back the joy" of classic Facebook. Specifically, Meta has redesigned the...

Top Rated Comments

Michael Scrip Avatar
52 months ago

"I'm producing a podcast" is 2021's "I have a web series"
Reminds me of the early 2000's... "I have a blog"

:p
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
thisisnotmyname Avatar
52 months ago
breaking news, medium with almost zero barrier to entry produces lots of failed attempts.

(yes, I know some single episode podcasts can have valid well produced content)


"I'm producing a podcast" is 2021's "I have a web series"
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dirkprimbs Avatar
52 months ago
Well... statistics is a b*tch.
[LIST=1]
* For starters: I did a crawl myself over the Apple podcast directory and found "only" 1.5m shows. May be my crawler though... of those 680k have 3 or less episodes.
* Turns out of those over 157k just released episodes in 2021 which means they are relatively new. Let's give them some time to establish themselves, shall we? ;-)
* btw, in case you wonder: over 550k of all podcasts I found released episodes in 2021.
* Some shows only release 3 episodes in their feed as teasers and point you to some walled-garden for the full show. The reason is monetization, so I guess having 3 episodes or less online in Apple's directory could also be a sign of a successful show...
* There are publishers releasing audiobooks as "podcasts". Chances are you'll find a 4 hour long file and that's it. Remember: Podcasts do not necessarily require you to run serialized content. For some it is enough to know that their content shows up in clients and directories and it may very well be evergreen content we're talking about.
* While we're at it: podcast concepts vary widely. It makes a difference if you release 5 minute long episodes daily of 4 hour long shows monthly.
* Apple "caps" their directory listings at 300 episodes. If you like to know how many episodes a podcast has you'll need to look into their feed, not at Apple's data.
* Some podcasters cap their feeds as well. That is why over 15k shows seem to have "only" 100 episodes in Apple...

From top of my mind these are only the first 8 reasons why I think this article is mildly interesting but largely useless. Things are usually more complex than they look on first sight ;-)

//D
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mrsmith1 Avatar
52 months ago
As someone who listens to a lot of podcasts, I find this interesting.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Macintosh IIvx Avatar
52 months ago
Podcasts are the new brewery. Every old white man with a beard is starting one.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jinx.pt Avatar
52 months ago
That's one way to look at it...or you can spin it the other way around: 1/3 of published podcasts massively successful, with at least 10 or more published episodes! This shows how easy it is to start publishing continuous content in this platform.

...feel free to add whatever spin you want, really. These statistics don't tell us much, except that it's a really really easy platform to get into, and to keep churning out content!
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)