The 2025 State of

The 2025
State of

Video
Podcasts

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This is our first-ever annual report, sharing our video podcast research insights and hard-won experience to maximize the success of your video podcast strategy.
Why should you
listen to us?
We’re Sweet Fish, producers of over 350+ podcasts, across 10,000 episodes and  22M downloads and counting.
We’re the proud team behind Creator House,  our one-of-a-kind multimedia production studio in Orlando, and we’re growing our own video podcast — B2B Growth.

For this report, we Didn't hold back:

  • Deep dove on 150 top-ranking podcasts to uncover what’s working (and what’s not) in the industry.
  • Listened to over 100 hours of top-ranked video podcasts.
  • Polled 200+ of today’s top business podcast experts on their POV.
  • Wrote a 50-page report (!) and then edited it to 20 pages of hard-hitting insights.
  • Consumed no less than 150 cups of coffee.

Major Takeaways:

  • YouTube is now the #1 podcast discoverability platform… but most podcasters haven’t jumped on board just yet.
  • Consistent video posting is, by far, the leading indicator of audience growth.
  • You only need 30 views to crack the top 50% of podcasts… and 1,100 to make it in the top 5%.
  • People follow people, not brands — in the top 150 shows that we studied, only a single branded podcast has cracked the 500,000 subscriber mark on YouTube, while the other categorizations win significantly more audience growth.
  • More than 70% of viewers watch video podcasts in the foreground, meaning your show earns more mental real estate than audio-only shows.
  • 76% of businesses create podcasts with the primary goal of brand awareness or thought leadership, yet 65% of respondents from the same survey create interview-style shows (aka shows that position the guest as the thought leader).
  • Personality-led shows are the key for building audience engagement and sustained growth based on our audience analysis of the top 150 podcasts.
  • Our top 4 predictions for 2025... you’ll want to see these.

Have questions, comments,
or feedback?

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  • Message us at marketing@sweetfishmedia.com
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Dive in!