How Many Downloads Does A Podcast Need To Make Money

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Average Podcast Downloads

Summary

Podcasting is long-form content. Don't compare podcast download numbers with things like YouTube plays, or social media follower counts.
Potential audience sizes are totally dependent on bear witness topics. There's no 1 unmarried podcast download numbers gauge here.
However, statistically, if you get over 26 downloads for a new episode in the kickoff week of its release, you're doing pretty well.
Read on to detect out more…

Download numbers are one of the near obvious metrics for measuring the success of your podcast.

Download stats are immediately accessible to you lot, from the infinitesimal you launch your first episode. Watching the numbers climb tin can be rewarding. Some might even say addictive.

Only later on the initial novelty has worn off, it'due south natural for podcasters to begin asking the question, "are my average podcast downloads good?".

And so, are your podcast download numbers "skillful"? Let's take a look.

Our 'Average Podcast Downloads' guide was originally written in 2018. Nosotros update this post periodically to reflect changes in the data, and because nosotros're always learning new things!

How Many Podcast Downloads Should I Be Getting?

In a world of YouTube views and Twitter followers, nosotros've become accustomed to figures in the hundreds of thousands, and fifty-fifty millions.

It'southward important to realise though, these numbers are completely irrelevant to podcasting. The time and attempt it takes for someone to click 'Follow' on Twitter, or watch a few seconds of a Youtube video, should never exist compared to podcast listening.

Podcast listening is a commitment and an investment. It's long-form content that isn't immediately attainable via shiny sidebars and viral social media clickbait.

So comparing your boilerplate podcast downloads to someone else'due south Instagram followers is like comparison the number of rooms in your firm, to the number of copse in the Amazon. It's completely irrelevant and utterly pointless.

Does it (equally usual) Just Depend?

Of grade information technology does.

Could a show about breeding Russian white dwarf hamsters realistically await to meet the same boilerplate podcast downloads as a bear witness nearly Game of Thrones? Absolutely non.

Does this mean that the podcast with more downloads is the more successful one? Again, absolutely not.

If you ran a podcast most a topic that was only interesting to literally ten people in the world, and you lot were getting 7 downloads an episode, statistically, you lot'd exist running the most pop bear witness in history.

It's the size of your potential audition that'due south the big factor. Here are a couple of things to consider.

Firstly, how many folks out there are interested enough in your topic to actually want to consume content about it?

Secondly, how many of those people are current podcast listeners?

Thinking along these lines will help bring you closer to seeing what those common cold hard download stats tell you. They can help you prepare realistic goals, that don't involve drawing comparisons with viral videos and glory social media accounts.

Audience Quality & Engagement

An audience might seem "small" in a numerical sense. Merely with long-form content like podcasting, it's ofttimes shows with smaller, but more niche hyper-targeted shows that are considered the more successful.

I've given this instance before. If you ran a podcast almost the technology needed to wing people to Mars, and your merely listener was Elon Musk, would you consider this a successful show?

Granted, information technology's a far-fetched example. Merely it'southward always more about exactly who is listening, than how many of them there are.

And, it's about the appointment. This isn't something that tin be achieved overnight. But, if you're creating good content, over time, you'll begin to hear from your listeners.

This could exist considering you've asked them a question or recommended they cheque something out. It could be purely considering y'all've talked about a subject that resonated with them so much, that they felt compelled to achieve out.

Measuring engagement requires a little more than digging than simply staring at your download stats dashboard. But frequently, they can tell yous a lot more than nearly the touch your evidence is having.

If your podcast host provides this data, accept a expect at the geography of your podcast downloads. Are you all of a sudden getting a burst of downloads in a particular region or country? Check the news and observe out what'southward happening there.

For more than on this, check out our guide to encouraging audience engagement, and 8 ways to measure your podcast date.

a cat getting podcast downloads from an audience of dogs

I Still Want a Gauge on Average Podcast Downloads

Buzzsprout are one of the biggest podcast hosting platforms in the world. In fact, with well over 85,000 active shows on their platform, they are arguably the biggest.

Hosting tens of thousands of podcasts means Buzzsprout have a lot of useful information to analyse. This gives them an accurate snapshot of podcast downloads on an industry-wide level. The proficient news is that Buzzsprout makes their global information bachelor to everyone on their Platform Stats page.

Here'south i of the key sections that'll be interesting to any podcaster.

If your new episode gets, inside 7 days of its release:

more than than 26 downloads, you lot're in the top 50% of podcasts.
more 72 downloads, you're in the top 25% of podcasts.
more than 231 downloads, you're in the top ten% of podcasts.
more than than 539 downloads, you're in the meridian 5% of podcasts.
more than 3062 downloads, you lot're in the top 1% of podcasts.

And here are some other interesting stats from this page, at the time of writing.

30.3% of listening takes identify on Apple tree Podcasts, with 26.4% on Spotify. Google Podcasts are a distant 3rd at 2.7%.
51% of downloads come from the Us, with vi.viii% from the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland, and 5.2% from Canada.
Mobile accounts for 88.eight% of all podcast downloads, with 63.ane% of those coming via the Apple iPhone.

It'due south worth pointing out, too, that podcast hosting platforms are non responsible for your testify's growth or download numbers. In our commodity on irresolute podcast host, we talk about how these services give you the tools and report the facts, only the residuum is up to you.

What About Monthly Podcast Downloads?

You might hear some creators saying "oh, I get 10,000 downloads a month", but that doesn't really tell you anything almost their average podcast download numbers. Instead, it suggests that they've published a lot of episodes to date.

For example, we run a daily show called Modest Podcastingwhich has a lot of published episodes. Subscribers get one quick 'how-to podcast' tip each solar day, from Monday through to Friday. When new listeners notice the show, they tend to rampage through the back catalogue. This ways our total monthly downloads can get pretty high, even if the new episode downloads are in the "modest" range.

Summary: Average Podcast Downloads

Ultimately, asking the question "what'southward a good number of downloads for a podcast?" is like to asking "how long is a piece of string?". Every case is unique. No ii podcasts are exactly the same.

By all means, keep track of your download stats. Just this isn't going to help grow your show.

Instead, spend your time on the things that do motion the needle. Here are some resources for you, going forwards.

Identify your USP – what makes your podcast unique?
Create a value suggestion for your podcast
Remember about who you want to reach, and create your platonic listener avatar
Don't exist slow
Encourage audience engagement
Requite your listeners a reason to proceed coming back
If you run an interview show, encourage your guests to share your episodes
And, empathize the most common ways that listeners discover podcasts

Utilize these guides as a framework, and you'll inevitably beginning to tap into your potential audition.

And, if you'd like even more than help with growing your evidence, cheque out The Podcast Host University. That'southward where you'll get all our downloadable resources, checklists, and courses. On height of that, nosotros can work directly with you in our weekly live Q&A sessions to answer your questions, give you advice and guidance, and keep you accountable.

You'll discover everything you need in there to abound a successful podcast!