Sounds Profitable’s latest report, The Podcast Landscape 2026, found that 65% of monthly podcast listeners in the United States regularly follow no more than three shows.
The study surveyed 5,473 U.S. adults in August. Of that group, 55% said they had listened to a podcast at least once in the past month. Within the regular-following breakdown, 24% said they keep up with three shows, 26% follow two, and 15% regularly listen to just one.
Most listeners keep a short list of regular shows
The survey suggests podcast competition is less about getting people to subscribe to more programs and more about winning a place in a listener’s top three.
If most people only maintain one to three regular shows, the key battle is not occasional sampling. It is becoming part of a user’s repeat listening routine.
34% of podcast consumers started within the past year
Sounds Profitable also found that 34% of podcast consumers began listening within the last year, up from 28% in 2025.
That indicates podcasting is not simply a mature market where existing listeners are being shuffled between incumbents. New users are still entering in meaningful numbers. For media companies, creators, and brands, that group matters because new listeners are still building their listening lists at a time when most people will only keep one to three shows in regular rotation.
Compared with long-time listeners who already have established habits, newer listeners have not yet locked in a full lineup of shows. That leaves more room for discovery.
YouTube leads distribution, and Netflix passed Apple Podcasts in year one
On platforms, the market is looking less like a purely audio business. The survey found that 63% of podcast consumers had listened to or watched podcasts on YouTube over the past year, far ahead of other services. Spotify ranked second at 33%, while Apple Podcasts was at 15%.
Barrett Media noted that Netflix reached 21% usage in its first year offering podcast content, putting it ahead of Apple Podcasts. The result points to a change in how podcast content is being distributed.
Podcasting once depended mainly on RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other dedicated or audio-first services. With large video platforms such as YouTube and Netflix now in the mix, users may not even think of themselves as using a podcast app.
For many of them, a podcast is simply another form of long-form video content on YouTube or a streaming platform. Barrett Media said this shows podcasts moving beyond dedicated podcast apps and into broader video and entertainment platforms, with YouTube still holding a sizable lead.
The definition of a podcast is shifting from format to show type
Netflix, a platform built around series and films, only recently started offering podcast content. Even so, it already exceeded Apple Podcasts’ 15% in the Sounds Profitable survey.
That does not necessarily mean Apple Podcasts is losing loyal users at scale, because the survey measured which services people had used to consume podcasts over the past year, and respondents could select more than one platform.
Still, the numbers point to a broader shift: the definition of a podcast is moving away from being strictly an audio format and toward being understood as a type of show. A program built around conversation, interviews, or news discussion may still be seen by consumers as a podcast even if it is watched mainly as video on YouTube.
For creators, that means treating a show only as an audio podcast could leave potential audiences on YouTube, Netflix, or other video platforms untapped.
For creators, loyal repeat listeners may matter more than one-off spikes
The most practical takeaway for podcast creators may still be the same one: 65% of listeners regularly follow three shows or fewer.
Short-video distribution often depends on algorithms pushing large volumes of unfamiliar content to users, allowing creators to gain broad reach from a single breakout clip. Podcasting works differently. If most users only keep two or three regular shows, the highest-value action is not getting someone to click one episode once. It is becoming part of that person’s weekly or daily routine.
In that sense, podcasts may have more in common with newsletters than with TikTok. People may scroll through hundreds of short videos a day, but the newsletters they read regularly or the podcasts they return to consistently are usually limited to a small number.
Once a show makes that list, the payoff may extend beyond one-time traffic to stronger audience loyalty, longer-term listening time, and more stable advertising and subscription monetization.