APPLE PODCASTS HITS ITS HIGHEST AUDIENCE LEVEL TO DATE

Apple says Apple Podcasts reached its largest audience ever during 2025, according to newly published performance updates across the company’s services business.

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The milestone comes nearly two decades after Apple helped bring podcasting into the mainstream, and it arrives at a moment when the audio medium is both more competitive and more diversified than at any point in its history.

Apple did not release absolute listener figures, but it confirmed that active devices, listening time, and overall engagement all increased year over year. The company also indicated that growth was geographically broad, with gains recorded across multiple international markets rather than being concentrated primarily in the United States.

FROM ITUNES EXPERIMENT TO GLOBAL PODCAST PLATFORM

Apple's relationship with podcasting dates back to 2005, when the company added podcast support to iTunes. At the time, podcasts were a niche format driven largely by independent creators distributing RSS feeds. Apple's decision to integrate podcasts directly into iTunes gave the medium unprecedented exposure, making it easier for users to discover, subscribe to, and automatically download episodes.