The Australian Podcast Ranker has been released by Commercial Radio & Audio (CRA) and Triton Digital and shows the average number of weekly listeners rose 3.51% in May to a record 5.9 million, the highest ever monthly listener figure recorded.

Once again, Hamish & Andy topped the podcast ranker top five for May 2024, with 918,977 monthly listeners and 1.893m downloads. It’s the 21st time the pair have taken the crown. They were followed by Casefile True Crime from Audioboom (814,428 monthly listeners), ABC News Top Stories (668,722), Mamamia Out Loud (547,801) and Shameless from Shameless Media (527,448).

In terms of genres, society and culture reigns supreme, chalking up more than 4.4 million monthly listeners, while news is second highest with just shy of 4m. Rounding out the top five are true crime (3.89m), comedy (3.86m) and sports (3.48m).

According to the official rankings, the top five podcast publishers for May were ARN / Iheart (4.65m monthly listeners), then LiSTNR (3.9m). These were followed by recent edition to the list, ABC (2.3m), Audioboom (2.2m) and SiriusXM Podcast network (1.99m).

LiSTNR was claiming to have broken new records as Australia’s number one sales representation podcast network nationally for 21 of the 23 months since inception on the Australian Podcast Ranker in July 2022.

Other shows in the top 10 included The Kyle & Jackie O Show with 1.67m monthly listeners (6th, up three places), Conversations on the ABC with 435,000 listeners (8th, down one place) andStuff you should know with 309,468 monthly listeners (10th, up three places).

The LiSTNR sales representatives podcast network reached more than 7.76 million monthly listeners in May, an increase of more than 474,000 monthly listeners from April’s ranker results and almost one million listeners ahead of its closest competitor. The LiSTNR Original published podcast network also grew ahead of the market with 254,000 new monthly listeners.

Out of the LiSTNR stable, several other series grew in monthly listeners including: Abbie Chatfield’s It’s A Lot, The Briefing, Darling, Shine!, KICPOD, Triple M’s Marty Sheargold Breakfast Show, CommSec Market Update, Crime Insiders, Everyone Relax, Triple M Rocks Footy NRL, Matt and Alex All Day Breakfast, Secrets of a Self-Starter and The Fox’s Fifi, Fev & Nick.

The Briefing also achieved its highest ever monthly listeners in May to reach 218,656 monthly listeners. In all, LiSTNR had 18 podcasts in the top 50 of the Top 200 Australian Podcast Ranker in May, pointing out it was more than double that of its closest competitor.

Popular podcasts in the top 20 included Hamish & Andy, which also claimed the number one comedy podcast, 7am with Schwartz Media, Happy Hour with Lucky & Nikki, It’s A Lot with Abbie Chatfield, Crime Junkie, and SmartLess.

Other titles that moved significantly up the ranker in May included Sit With Us, Crime Insiders, Something Was Wrong, and Prosecuting Donald Trump.

In addition, Secrets of a Self-Starter and Mr Ballen’s Medical Mysteries made their debut on the Top 200 Podcasts ranker, and CounterClock and The Grade Cricketer marked their return to the Top 200. “It’s great to see such strong growth from our locally co-produced and created podcasts. Hamish & Andy grew their audience month on month. It’s A Lot with Abbie Chatfield, KICPOD with Laura Henshaw and Steph Claire Smith, The Happy Hour with Lucy Jackson and Nikki Westcott, Darling, Shine! with Chloe Fisher and Ellidy Pullin, and Do you F*king Mind? with Alexis Fernandez show that this group of content creators are starting to really connect with under 35 women, growing their audiences and communities,” Executive Head of LiSTNR Podcasts, Grant Tothill, said. “To see the growth of The Briefing and Crime Insiders is credit to the team in the competitive News and Crime genres. Today’s results reaffirm LiSTNR’s investment in Australian podcast creators offering advertisers local voices and communities to drive their brand messages. “It’s encouraging to see the increase in both LiSTNR’s sales and publisher network audiences match the LiSTNR sales results for May as LiSTNR continues to drive podcast sales in Australia. The LiSTNR sales team achieved podcast revenue growth of 40.5% year on year, almost double the total podcast market average of 21.6% and driving market growth, CRA figures showed.”