Alphabet’s YouTube Launches Weekly Top Podcast Charts In A Bid To Take On Spotify, Apple

The new chart will focus solely on U.S. audiences and be updated every Wednesday based on watch time data.

YouTube is introducing a new chart to spotlight the most-watched podcasts on its platform, aiming to compete more directly with Spotify and Apple in the growing podcast market.

Alphabet-owned YouTube said Thursday that the ‘Weekly Top Podcast Shows’ chart will rank podcasts by total watch time. 

The rankings will only include playlists marked explicitly as “podcasts” by their creators during upload, excluding Shorts or highlight-only playlists.

Current leaders on the chart include “The Joe Rogan Experience,” “Kill Tony,” and “Rotten Mango.” While Rogan’s full-length episodes are exclusive to Spotify, clips from the show remain popular on YouTube.

The launch underscores YouTube’s growing footprint in podcasting. The platform cited October data from Edison Research showing YouTube is now the most-used service in the U.S. for podcast consumption, surpassing both Spotify and Apple, with more than one billion monthly views. 

The new chart will focus solely on U.S. audiences and be updated every Wednesday based on watch time data.

The move follows broader efforts by YouTube to expand its podcast strategy, including the rollout of a dedicated podcast tab and creator tools for long-form audio. 

YouTube has been a prime source of advertising revenue for Alphabet. The platform raked in $8.93 billion in the first quarter (Q1) of 2025, up 10.3% year-on-year (YoY). The figure does not include YouTube's revenue through subscription services. 

Alphabet shares (GOOG/GOOGL) were down 0.2% in afternoon trading Thursday. The stock has fallen 13.5% year to date and is down more than 3% over the past 12 months.

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