Triton Q3 Ranker Shows Key Podcast Trends
Triton Digital has published its Q3 2025 U.S. Podcast Ranker, offering an in-depth look at listener behavior, genre growth, and emerging purchase-intent indicators as brands gear up for the Black Friday and Cyber Monday rush. The report is the second quarterly installment since the company launched its revamped Ranker series alongside its next-generation planning suite powered by Demos+.
A central takeaway from Triton's Q3 data is a clearer connection between podcast genres and specific shopper profiles, providing advertisers with fresh intelligence on where retail-minded audiences spend their time -- and money. The company's Demos+ Top Indexing Programs list further breaks down the Top 50 shows across more than 40 audience segments, allowing marketers to pinpoint retail-intent customers at the program level rather than relying solely on genre averages.
The quarter also showed robust growth in news and sports listening, as breaking stories, cultural moments, and personality-driven programming continued to draw high engagement. According to Triton, these trends reflect new opportunities for advertisers to reach motivated listeners in highly contextual environments.
"Podcasts reflect consumers' broader lifestyles and interests, making them one of the most powerful drivers of both discovery and decision-making for brands," said Daryl Battaglia, SVP of Measurement Products & Strategy at Triton Digital. "As brands ramp up campaigns for the holiday shopping frenzy, our data continues to help them better understand their audiences and align content with intent in a meaningful way."
Triiton's findings highlight how podcast genres align closely with preferred retailers:
- Big-Box retail fans gravitated toward true crime (87.6%), comedy (86.6%), sports (86.3%), history (85.3%) and news (84.1%).
- Department store shoppers were most common among listeners of technology, kids & family, education, music and business podcasts.
- Fast fashion listeners leaned toward kids & family, music, education, technology and business content.
- Luxury boutique shoppers were most concentrated among technology, kids & family, business, music and education genres.
The Ranker also showed a divide between online and in-person shopping preferences. Online shoppers favored technology, kids & family, health & fitness, business and music programming, while in-person shoppers turned to news, science, sports, fiction and comedy.
Top 10 Podcasts by Unique Audience (Q3 2025):
- The Joe Rogan Experience
- The Daily
- Crime Junkie
- Call Her Daddy
- New Heights
- SmartLess
- Dateline NBC
- Stuff You Should Know
- This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von
- The Breakfast Club
Top Categories by Reach:
- Comedy (41.0%)
- News (29.1%)
- Society & Culture (24.5%)
Triton also welcomed the Washington Post Podcast Network to its measured U.S. Podcast Ranker this month. Among measured sales networks, iHeart Audience Network, NPR and the Audacy Podcast Network led in average weekly downloads. NPR News Now topped the list of individual shows.
News podcast listening climbed from 27.3% to 29.1% -- a 7% increase -- driven by heightened interest in political and cultural commentary. Major movers included The Charlie Kirk Show (+68 spots), The Ben Shapiro Show, and Candace, helping push 40 news shows into the Top 200.
Sports also had a standout quarter, up 9% from 18.2% to 19.8%, buoyed by the start of the 2025-2026 NFL season. New Heights cracked the Top 10 at #5, while The Bill Simmons Podcast and The Dan Patrick Show saw significant jumps.
"This quarter's podcasting data proves that the medium is maturing in ways that mirror other forms of premium content," added Battaglia. "The insights here help marketers unlock smarter, more inclusive strategies to connect with those audiences across the full audio and video spectrum."
Triton says its enhanced Ranker, fueled by audience reach, behavioral signals, and the Demos framework developed with Signal Hill Insights, offers the most comprehensive view of U.S. podcast consumption to date -- highlighting what listeners engage with, what motivates them, and where advertisers can find their next opportunity.
