Apple Podcasts has surpassed Spotify to become the world’s most popular podcast app among creators, according to a new industry report published by market research firm PodNews.
The survey, which consulted more than 26,000,000 subscribers and 135 podcast creators, saw Apple Podcasts’ platform rating rise from 3.2 to 3.7, and Spotify’s platform rating increase from 3.3 to 3.5.
Another notable change is that podcast creators are becoming increasingly frustrated with Google Podcasts, probably because Google Podcasts hasn’t seen any new features this year. On the other hand, there is news that Google plans to restructure the podcast business and merge it into YouTube, which is fraught with a lot of uncertainty.
The highest rating for the platform is Overcast, with a rating of 4.5 again, up from 4.3 last year. PodNews says this is the same as in previous years, with many creators giving Overcast high scores and therefore not including it in the top mainstream platform rankings.
Overcast is an iOS app developed by Marco Arment for downloading and playing podcasts. Several journalists reviewed it positively, with both The Verge and The Sweet Setup naming it the best podcast listening app for iOS in 2015 and subsequent years.
