Podcast downloads drop again due to iOS 17

Sorry to sound like a broken record, but the numbers are down again. This time the increase is significant, although that is not unusual at the end of the year. Podtrac reports that downloads from the top 20 publishers fell 19% month-on-month and 24% year-over-year. The report noted that the decline was “primarily due to changes in downloading behavior with iOS 17 as it continues to be adopted by podcast listeners.”

In September, Apple rolled out iOS 17, and one small change had a big impact on downloads. In the past, if you subscribed to a show, forgot about it for a while, and then returned, all intervening episodes would automatically download. But iOS 17 makes it so downloads can resume where they left off without having to do automatic downloads. In the end, this is a good thing for both your phone memory and advertisers who want to know exactly who is listening to their ads. But for publishers, it’s an adjustment that will shrink their overall metrics in the short term.

What the short-term effects will be remains to be seen. As of November, Podtrac found that 75% of podcast listeners are using iOS 17, and this number may rise further in December. But December’s numbers (down 19% month over month!!) should be taken with a grain of salt. Listener habits can be disrupted during the holidays, and Podtrac reports that downloads dropped 11% month-over-month in December 2022. In other words, even though downloads fell in December last year, downloads still increased by 2% year-on-year.