We Made a World Map of the Most Popular Podcast Category by Country

Rephonic is a database of 2.5m+ podcasts and in our last industry article, we investigated what chart-topping podcasts have in common.

Looking at the Apple Podcasts rankings for a few dozen countries, we started to notice Society & Culture appearing most often in the Top Shows charts.

So we decided to look closer and break this down to find out what the most common podcast category is by country at a given point in time. The results are pretty interesting!

Map showing the most common category in the the Apple Podcasts 'Top Shows' chart by country
Most common podcast category in the the Apple Podcasts 'Top Shows' chart by country

Society & Culture is the most common category in the Top Shows chart for 16 countries, followed by True Crime in 8 countries, then Comedy in 5 countries.

True Crime takes the crown for two out of the three North American countries that Apple Podcasts has charts for:

Most common podcast category in the the Apple Podcasts 'Top Shows' chart by North American country

In Europe, Society & Culture comes out on top for the majority of countries. History makes a surprise appearance as the most common category in the Belgian charts.

Most common podcast category in the the Apple Podcasts 'Top Shows' chart by European country

Final thoughts

Looking at the most common category in the Top Shows charts is just one of the ways to measure the popularity of podcast genres amongst different audiences.

Whilst we don't want to draw too many conclusions from this snapshot, it provides an intriguing overview of the current podcasting landscape, especially for countries where there is a lack of listener data available.

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Footnotes

Here is the full list of the most common category in the Apple Podcasts Top Shows chart by country. This is a snapshot in time from January 2023.

CanadaTrue Crime
MexicoComedy
USTrue Crime
ArgentinaSociety & Culture
BrazilNews
ChileComedy
ColombiaMental Health
AustriaTrue Crime
BelgiumHistory
DenmarkSociety & Culture
FinlandSociety & Culture
FranceSociety & Culture
GermanyTrue Crime
IrelandTrue Crime
ItalySociety & Culture
NetherlandsSociety & Culture
NorwaySociety & Culture
PolandTrue Crime
RussiaSociety & Culture
SpainComedy
SwedenSociety & Culture
SwitzerlandSociety & Culture
United KingdomComedy
AustraliaTrue Crime
New ZealandTrue Crime
ChinaSociety & Culture
Hong KongSociety & Culture
IndiaSociety & Culture
IndonesiaEducation
IsraelEducation
JapanComedy
PhillipinesSociety & Culture
Saudi ArabiaSociety & Culture
SingaporeInvesting
South KoreaEducation
TaiwanSociety & Culture
United Arab EmiratesIslam
South AfricaChristianity
Becca Butcher

Becca Butcher

Marketing at Rephonic

Find, pitch and get featured on podcasts

Rephonic gives you listener numbers, contacts, demographics and more across 2.5m+ podcasts.


Becca Butcher

Becca Butcher

Marketing at Rephonic

Find, pitch and get
featured on podcasts

Rephonic gives you listener numbers, contacts, demographics and more across 2.5m+ podcasts.