Spotify has released its annual list of the top 50 most popular podcasts of 2025, with 'The Joe Rogan Experience' claiming the number one spot for the fifth consecutive year. The rankings, part of the Spotify Wrapped campaign, are based on unique users who listened to at least two minutes or 50% of an episode.
Video is playing an increasingly significant role in podcast consumption. Nearly half of the top 50 shows (24 out of 50) now offer video on Spotify, up from about a third last year. Time spent with video content on the platform has more than doubled year-over-year, driven largely by video podcasts. Over 390 million users have streamed a video podcast, a 54% increase from the previous year.
Following Rogan, the top five includes 'This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von', 'The Mel Robbins Podcast', 'Call Her Daddy' hosted by Alex Cooper, and 'Crime Junkie' from Audiochuck. Jordan Newman, Spotify's head of content partnerships, noted that video has helped podcasts go viral, citing an episode of Amy Poehler's 'Good Hang' featuring Tina Fey as an example. 'It allows for emotional resonance that wouldn't be possible without video,' he said.
Spotify's video podcast library now contains nearly 500,000 shows, out of a total of almost 7 million podcast titles. In October, Spotify announced a deal with Netflix to bring video podcasts like 'The Bill Simmons Podcast' and 'The Rewatchables' to the streaming service starting in 2026. Despite the video boom, Newman emphasised that audio-only podcasts remain popular, with low barriers to entry allowing creators to start with minimal equipment.
