Podcast Industry Growing 23% YOY
If you're going to measure the podcast industry, this is probably as close as anyone has come. Owl & Co.'s Global Podcast Economy Report pulls together more than 300,000 data points, information from more than 1,600 publishers, and interviews with more than 100 publishers and industry experts. It offers one of the most comprehensive analyses of the podcast business to date.
The headline numbers are impressive. Owl & Co. estimates that the global podcast industry generated $9.2 billion in revenue in 2025, growing 23% year over year. Direct advertising remained the largest revenue source at $5.3 billion, followed by $1.4 billion in programmatic advertising. Consumer revenue, including subscriptions, memberships, and other listener-supported purchases, reached $2.2 billion, a 22% increase from the previous year. The U.S. market alone accounted for $6 billion of that total and grew 27%, outpacing the global rate.
According to Bloomberg's reporting on the study, 73% of podcast industry growth in the United States in 2025 came from video-related revenue.
Video Has Not Replaced Audio
That's the number everyone is going to quote. It's easy to read that and assume video is replacing audio, audio is on the way out, and every podcast suddenly needs a camera.
That's where I think people could get it wrong. The statistic doesn't say video has replaced audio. It says podcast companies are finding more ways to grow around the same creators, the same audiences, and the same content.
For years, YouTube has been helping people discover podcasts. Now it's helping more creators build bigger podcast businesses. Shows are reaching audiences that watch as well as listen, creating new sponsorship opportunities without taking anything away from the audio experience.
YouTube Helps People Discover Podcasts
YouTube has a knack for discovery: from always returning a video on page 1 of any Google search to having some of the best SEO in-platform of any search engine, it's no surprise this is how podcasters are getting discovered. Any topic you search for now surfaces relevant podcast episodes, leaving iTunes and Spotify in the dust. I like to think of them as the Outlook of the SEO world: you can't type a keyword in and get a single relevant result.
Creators Aren't Choosing One or the Other
Owl & Co. founder Hernan Lopez said the companies that grew the fastest didn't simply add video. They turned it into both a marketing engine and a monetization engine while continuing to grow their audio businesses. Both, not either.
I buy YouTube campaigns, and I don't look at this report and think, "Everyone needs to be on video." I look at it and think, "The best creators are building bigger businesses because they aren't choosing one or the other."
More Ways To Meet Your Audience
Some creators will always be audio-first. Others naturally lend themselves to video. Many of today's fastest-growing shows are building across both, and they aren't asking their audiences to choose.
So what does that mean if you're buying? More opportunities to work with creators that audiences already know and trust. More ways to meet people where they already choose to watch and listen. The audience is still the asset. Video simply gives that audience another place to engage.
Elsie Kaplan
Elsie Kaplan is VP of Partnerships at ADOPTER Media and one of the industry's most experienced YouTube sponsorship buyers, having negotiated creator partnerships across thousands of campaigns since 2020. She specializes in DTC growth across audio and video, with a focus on performance-driven brand strategy.
