The most popular podcast in the world

Underlying our efforts to improve podcast sponsorship is our analytics engine. This is what powers our search and charts. We use this engine constantly to process millions of data points to try to learn something new about podcasting.

Over the past few weeks we have been trying to answer this question: What is the most popular podcast in the world?

Because of the wonderfully distributed nature of podcasting this is a difficult question to answer. On a network like YouTube determining the most popular video might be easier. YouTube counts each time a video is requested for playback. Podcasting is unusual because each show creator can choose how their show is hosted. Podcasters have more ownership of their show because they often they pay for hosting and storage. Unless they publish these figures, only they know how many downloads they have. To make things more complex listeners use many different tools to find and tune into podcasts. Sometimes these tools download subscribed shows automatically even if nobody is listening. Finally, the only large publisher of podcast data is iTunes. Apple publishes charts that rank how popular shows are but do not describe how they come up with these numbers.

There are still lots of exciting mysteries around podcasting. However we thought we would take what we know, and find the most popular podcasts in the whole world.

To determine this we took all of the iTunes popularity data from every country and compiled it. We weighted chart positions in a particular country by how many people lived there. We weighted genres by how they related to the overall charts.

The results were surprising at first...but they make sense. Many of the most popular podcasts in the world are language learning, music and world news. Talk about a global perspective!

Here they are, our first attempt, measured over the last 7 days. We include a score that represents their total global popularity (higher is better). Click on a few and notice how their content and popularity applies to the world.

(1) Global News (20902056)
(2) TEDTalks (video) (20657301)
(3) English as a Second Language (ESL) Podcast - Learn English Online (20647146)
(4) Clublife by Tiësto (20438173)
(5) The English We Speak (20375917)
(6) The Economist: All audio (20223205)
(7) Stuff You Should Know (20014745)
(8) Documentaries (19994124)
(9) Coffee Break French (19695054)
(10) A State of Trance Official Podcast (19681151)
(11) 6 Minute English Podcast (19584881)
(12) TEDTalks (audio) (19570477)
(13) Comedy Central Stand-Up (19499142)
(14) Apple Keynotes (19465043)
(15) Learn French with daily podcasts (19384669)
(16) Business English Pod :: Learn Business English Online (19350627)
(17) Hardwell On Air Official Podcast (19339099)
(18) Learn French by Podcast (19332956)
(19) This American Life (19142566)
(20) AVICII - LEVELS PODCAST (19127761)
(21) Best of YouTube (video) (19115036)
(22) Apple Keynotes (HD) (19047269)
(23) The Art of Photography (19032755)
(24) HBR IdeaCast (18807593)
(25) TED Radio Hour (18803518)
(26) Serial (18694944)
(27) Learn German | GermanPod101.com (18682238)
(28) French for Beginners (18675246)
(29) TEDTalks (hd) (18555018)
(30) Radiolab from WNYC (18386719)
(31) Welcome to Night Vale (18306614)
(32) Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing (18154615)
(33) TEDTalks Business (17963342)
(34) Learn French | FrenchPod101.com (17881171)
(35) Learn English | EnglishClass101.com (17686115)
(36) Discovery (17654445)
(37) DiveFilm HD Video (17635563)
(38) Listen to English - learn English! : podcasts (17558184)
(39) Learn German for free with German-Podcast.de (17417513)
(40) Happy Tree Friends (17417264)
(41) Learn Italian | ItalianPod101.com (17330642)
(42) Dilbert Animated Cartoons (17274692)
(43) Coffee Break Spanish (17260765)
(44) Freakonomics Radio (17160451)
(45) Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4 (17130586)
(46) Stuff You Missed in History Class (17014175)
(47) The Economist: The week ahead (16883723)
(48) Let's Speak Italian! (16795257)
(49) The McKinsey Podcast (16609179)
(50) Ear Biscuits (16595686)
(51) 60 Minutes (16502729)
(52) The Ellen Show (video) (16486412)
(53) Effortless English Podcast (16428525)
(54) iPhone Quick Tips (16299943)
(55) Slow German (16250101)
(56) Above & Beyond: Group Therapy (16180114)
(57) Psychobabble with Tyler Oakley & Korey Kuhl (16084823)
(58) Paul van Dyk's VONYC Sessions Podcast (16042350)
(59) Learn Japanese | JapanesePod101.com (16028322)
(60) Dan Carlin's Hardcore History (15907965)
(61) HD - NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (15823877)
(62) Comedy of the Week (15821571)
(63) Hidden Brain (15799924)
(64) Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! (15784381)
(65) The Tim Ferriss Show (15776048)
(66) Learn Spanish | SpanishPod101.com (15775595)
(67) Sesame Street Podcast (15768159)
(68) Steve Jobs at the D: All Things Digital Conference (Video) (15733001)
(69) WTF with Marc Maron Podcast (15712419)
(70) StarTalk Radio (15636067)
(71) The Ricky Gervais Podcast (15530249)
(72) The Joe Rogan Experience (15496313)
(73) Driving Sports TV: Official HD (15474429)
(74) American English Pronunciation Podcast (15470581)
(75) Deutsch - warum nicht? Series 1 | Learning German | Deutsche Welle (15462118)
(76) CNN Student News (video) (15354156)
(77) Victorious (15336436)
(78) ESL Podcast - Previous Episodes (15322094)
(79) Business Daily (15321440)
(80) The HBR Channel (15275526)
(81) DNews (HD MP4 - 30fps) (15232810)
(82) Very Vocabulary: Learn English Words Podcast (15225125)
(83) TEDTalks Education (15214296)
(84) Stuff To Blow Your Mind (15062355)
(85) 99% Invisible (15036756)
(86) Fast Five (14938901)
(87) Spinnin' Sessions (14836817)
(88) The Bugle (14766521)
(89) The Nerdist (14764890)
(90) Not Too Deep with Grace Helbig (14742964)
(91) Planet Money (14681568)
(92) A History of the World in 100 Objects (14653250)
(93) Defected In The House (14652421)
(94) Protocol Radio (14642967)
(95) Shane And Friends (14551892)
(96) Splendid Speaking (14491464)
(97) NYT's World News (Video) (14477627)
(98) The Infinite Monkey Cage (14441050)
(99) Apple Keynotes (1080p) (14437236)
(100) All Ears English Podcast | Real English Vocabulary | Conversation | American Culture (14345224)

Congrats to all these global shows!