Podcasts are big business, generating $7.3bn in revenue globally in 2024, according to the media and entertainment consultancy Owl & Co.
The industry is still a fraction of the size of the radio sector, valued at more than $111bn in 2024, but listenership and revenue is continually growing.
Across the major global platforms (Patreon, Apple, YouTube and Spotify), the bulk of podcast revenue ($4.6bn) was generated from direct advertising while programmatic advertising accounted for $1.6bn.
Revenue generated directly from consumers (for subscriptions, merchandise, etc.) made up $1.3bn and branded content and work-for-hire for podcasters contributed $300m.
Many of the world’s most listened to podcasters have signed exclusivity deals with these platforms, while others, such as The Diary of a CEO’s Steven Bartlett, have opted to remain independent and take a greater share of the profits.
Here are the world’s most lucrative podcasts, according to available data:
Joe Rogan was credited with helping swing the 2024 US presidential election in Donald Trump‘s favour with his immensely popular podcast, which publishes three or four episodes per week, typically free-wheeling discussions with famous guests.
Rogan’s interviews with Trump and JD Vance in the run up to the election are widely credited with helping to secure younger male voters, and more generally, the former Fear Factor presenter is often said to uncritically platform fringe views.
His podcasts average around 11m listeners, and in May 2020 Spotify signed him to an exclusive multi-year deal worth an estimated $200m, during which podcast consumption on the platform rose 232%.
Rogan signed a new multi-year contract with Spotify worth $250m in February 2024 without the exclusivity clause, allowing him to publish episodes on YouTube and other platforms.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the agreement involved an upfront minimum guarantee and a revenue sharing agreement based on advertising sales.
After building his audience with humorous columns for ESPN in the 2000s, Bill Simmons was given control of his own site, Grantland, to further his brand of sports and pop culture commentary in 2011.
He had moved into podcasting in 2007 with The BS Report, discussing American sports as well as film and television several times per week.
After falling out with ESPN, Simmons founded a similar site and podcast network called The Ringer in 2015 and relaunched his show as The Bill Simmons Podcast.
The Ringer was initially backed by HBO, and Simmons made a short-lived move into television before Spotify bought the company for $250m as part of its push into podcasts in 2020.
Netflix, seeking to combat YouTube’s dominance in video podcasts, recently agreed a deal with Spotify to air 16 Ringer sports, culture and true crime podcasts on its US platform from early 2026.
According to Bloomberg, Crime Junkie is the second most popular in the US after Joe Rogan, with a weekly audience of around 6m.
Running since 2017, the true crime podcast features discussions of murder, missing persons and serial killer cases between hosts Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat
Flowers recently raised $40m from the Chernin Group, which valued her company Audiochuck at $250m
The podcast itself is reported to have turned a $45m profit in 2024.
Long-time chat show host Conan O’Brien launched his podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, in 2018. Weekly episodes feature O’Brien, his assistant Sona Movsesian and producer Matt Gourley talking with comedians, actors, politicians and other notable figures.
SiriusXM acquired Team Coco, O’Brien’s podcast network and digital media business, for a reported $150m in 2022.
As part of the deal, O’Brien agreed to continue hosting the show for five years as well as to create and produce more programming for SiriusXM subscribers.
At the time, Team Coco averaged 180m podcast downloads per year and had garnered more than 1bn annual video views across YouTube and Facebook.
Alex Cooper ended her own deal with Spotify to sign a contract with the US satellite radio company SiriusXM worth up to $125m in 2024.
As host of Call Her Daddy, Cooper has attracted an average audience of 10m predominantly younger female listeners per episode, discussing dating, sex, mental health, self-care and other topics.
In 2021, Cooper signed an exclusive three-year deal with Spotify worth about $60m for Call Her Daddy, which originated with the sports and pop culture website Barstool Sports.
One of the biggest podcasts in the evergreen true crime genre, My Favourite Murder, agreed an exclusive advertising sales and distribution deal worth $100m with Amazon in 2022.
The show has been going since 2016 and consistently appears high in the podcast charts with around 35m monthly downloads, and founders Georgia Hardstark and Karen Kilgariff have launched spin-offs through their podcast network, Exactly Right.
The pair severed ties with Amazon in early 2024 and recently agreed an exclusive deal with Netflix.
Hollywood actors Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes launched their podcast, SmartLess, during the pandemic.
To date, the trio have done nearly 300 episodes, each following a format whereby one of the hosts brings in a mystery celebrity guest for them to interview.
SmartLess was acquired by Amazon for $80m in mid-2021, less than a year after launching, before SiriusXM bought the podcast for a reported $100m in 2024.
Another beneficiary of the celebrity podcast boom, Jason and Travis Kelce’s New Heights podcast signed a three-year distribution deal with Amazon worth over $100m in 2024.
Every week, the Kelce brothers discuss sports and their personal lives, and they occasionally interview celebrity guests.
The brothers both played American football in the NFL for more than a decade, with former Philadelphia Eagle Jason having retired a couple of years ago, while Travis remains active with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Both of them have won Super Bowls during their distinguished careers, and their fame has been boosted by Travis’ relationship with pop superstar Taylor Swift, with New Heights now boasting more than 3m subscribers.
Hosted by actor Dax Shepard, the weekly Armchair Expert has been running since 2018 and features interviews with celebrities, artists, authors, scientists and global thought leaders.
Shepard struck a deal with Spotify in 2021 before agreeing an $80m distribution and ad sales deal with Amazon in 2024.
As part of the deal, he agreed to develop and produce two new podcasts and one livestream per year.
Launched in 2017, The Diary of a CEO now has more than 12m YouTube subscribers and 25m social media followers. Hosted by entrepreneur Steven Bartlett, the show features discussions with businesspeople, actors and politicians.
The show ranks as the fifth most popular show on Spotify globally in 2024, and Bartlett was seemingly primed for a nine-figure deal from one of the major platforms.
Speaking to Forbes last year, Bartlett said The Diary of a CEO has generated $20m in revenue from brands like LinkedIn, Oracle, and Shopify, along with speaking engagements and merchandise.
Asked why he turned down a big-money partnership, he said: “We looked at what they did in terms of testing, experimentation, innovation, and I felt like I was looking at the past.”
As you might imagine, Irish podcasts don’t attract the same external funding as shows that have gained global audiences, but the biggest ones still generate significant interest and revenue.
Vogue Williams and Joanne McNally have been hosting My Therapist Ghosted Me since 2021 and now have 3.5m listeners per month.
Accounts for McNally’s company, Prosecco Pig Ltd, show profits of €674,800 to the end of 2023 while Williams’ Howth Media Ltd had cash reserves of £3.22m (€3.75m) in July 2024.
Furthermore, figures from industry journal Pollstar show My Therapist Ghosted Me live shows at the 3Arena generated €2.36 million at the box office.
(Pic: Getty Images)