YouTube is making a bold move into the podcast space, launching its own weekly chart of top podcast shows in the U.S.
Announced on Thursday, the chart will be updated every Wednesday and will rank shows based on total watch time. It rivals similar rankings from Spotify and Apple, but with one major difference—YouTube’s focus on video.
Top-performing podcasts currently include The Joe Rogan Experience, Kill Tony, and Rotten Mango, which consistently draw millions of views.
YouTube, owned by Alphabet, now attracts over one billion podcast views every month, according to the platform’s internal data. Research by Edison in October 2024 found YouTube is the most popular podcast service, ahead of Spotify and Apple.
Ben Meiselas, co-founder of The MeidasTouch Podcast, praised YouTube for offering better advertising value. “YouTube just isn’t a place where you drop your content from other sources,” Meiselas said.
He added that they aim to make YouTube feel like cable news, creating content specifically for the platform’s audience. MeidasTouch has nearly five million subscribers and earns about 350 million monthly views.
Podcasts with video formats have become a dominant trend in media, especially during this year’s Upfront presentations. While Spotify paid out over $100 million to podcasters globally in early 2025 and now supports video, YouTube’s reach and creator payouts remain a powerful draw.
As YouTube doubles down on podcasts, the new chart signals a growing shift in how audiences consume this content.
