Edison: Comedy is Top Podcast Genre
Edison Research reports that according to its Edison Podcast Metrics for the first quarter of 2024,
Comedy is the top genre among weekly podcast listeners age 13+. Edison says 19 genres have been identified as having at least one percent reach among weekly podcast listeners aged 13 and older in Q1 2024. Edison defines a podcast’s genre using its primary genre in Apple Podcasts. Society & Culture (#2) moved ahead of News (#3) while True Crime followed at #4 and Sports came in at #5. See the complete chart here.
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, “quantifies annual podcast advertising revenues generated over the past year, analyzes revenue share by ad category and content genre, and forecasts future revenues through 2025.” The study says the top revenue-generating content genres are Sports (15%), Society & Culture (14%), and Comedy (14%) and have taken the lead from News and Political Opinion content (down from 19% to 12%). IAB VP, media center Eric John says, “In-person sports, lifestyle events, and in-store shopping have come back in a big way, taking the lead from news which held the top revenue genre spot since 2018. Podcasting revenue naturally reflects that shift in consumer behavior and it will be interesting to watch how the balance changes going forward.” He adds, “Both mass and niche advertisers like the audiences, targeting, and ROI along with the brand-safe and suitable environments that podcasting offers.” 
indicates that #2 genre was Society & Culture (up from #3 in Q2 2022); #3 was News (down from #2 in Q2 2022), followed by True Crime at #4, Sports at #5, Business at #6, Arts at #7, History at #8 (up from #11 in Q2 2022), Religion & Spirituality at #9 (up from #10 in Q2 2022) and Education at #10 (down from #9 in Q2 2022). Podcasts are classified according to the self-identified genre submitted by the podcast to Apple Podcast API. Nineteen genres are identified as having at least one percent reach among those in the U.S. age 18+ for Q3 2022.