YouTube surpasses Spotify in Canadian platform share, says Triton report

Podcasts are now reaching 39% of Canadians, a three-point year-over-year increase, according to the 2025 Canadian Podcast Trends Report from Triton Digital.

The report, released last week, analyzed listener behaviour from April 2024 through March 2025, incorporating findings from the Canadian Podcast Listener study by Signal Hill Insights and Ulster Media. 

According to the report, podcast listening in Canada continued its upward trajectory driven primarily by English-speaking audiences, whose monthly listening rose four points to 42%, from 38% the previous year. Monthly listening among Francophones declined slightly from 28% to 24%. The average number of podcasts consumed weekly is up from 3.5 to 3.9, with average weekly episodes listened to rising from 8.2 to 8.4.

Over 90% (92.6%) of all podcast downloads in Canada occurred on a mobile device. In a major platform shift, YouTube overtook Spotify as the most-used app for podcast listening (35%), up from 29% last year. Spotify fell to 28%, down from 31% in 2024, while Apple Podcasts’ share of listening fell one point to 15%.

By demographic, the report indicates that Spotify attracts the youngest listeners, dominating the 18-34 age group with 58% share. Meanwhile, YouTube accounts for 48% of listening among those 35-54. Men are also more likely to consume podcasts on YouTube (55%).

Top Genres, Networks and Shows

News was the most downloaded podcast genre (21%), with True Crime (19%) and Comedy (14%) rounding out the top three. Society & Culture (12%) and Sports (7%) remained stable year-over-year, while the Business genre saw a slight decline, dropping from 4% to 3%.

Among sales networks, SiriusXM Podcast Network led in average weekly downloads (3.57M), followed by Wondery Network (1.81M) and CBC/Radio-Canada (1.78M).

The most downloaded podcast in Canada in 2024 was Dateline NBC, followed by Smartless and Crime Junkie. However, the report indicates Canadian content continues to perform well led by CBC News daily podcast, Front Burner, which ranks as the top Canadian-made English-language podcast and fourth most downloaded in Canada overall, followed by The World This Hour, The Current, World Report, and Your World Tonight. Radio-Canada’s Le Radiojournal led French-language downloads, followed by Cogeco Media’s La revue de presse de Paul Arcand, and QUB shows from Mario Dumont, Richard Martineau, and Benoit Dutrizac.

Download the full Canadian Podcast Trends Report, here.