Edison Insights: Listening Makes for Better Watching

By Gabriel Soto

Senior Director of Research, Edison Research

Earlier this week, viewers across the globe witnessed Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs triumph over Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles in a hard-fought historic Super Bowl. This year’s championship was the first time two black quarterbacks faced off in the big event and the first time two brothers on opposing teams, Jason and Travis Kelce, battled for familial and football supremacy in a Super Bowl. Historically, TV, radio, and online publications have brought us these colorful storylines -- making games more interesting to watch. But a younger medium has allowed fans to stay closer to their favorite sports and teams than ever before: podcasts.

The inexpensive entry point for podcasting means anyone can create their own. Even the aforementioned Kelce brothers started a podcast at the beginning of the 2022 NFL season, allowing us to come along on an incredible ride that would eventually lead to both of them meeting on the big stage. Sports podcasts like theirs, and the ability to listen whenever and wherever, bring millions of fans endless analysis and perspectives. But, just like in sports, there can only be one winner that draws in the largest audience.

In an Edison Research first, we tap into Edison Podcast Metrics to identify the most popular sports shows. Edison Podcast Metrics is the only dataset that covers the entire podcasting space, not just networks who opt-in to any particular download counting service. So based on our surveys of over 10,500 U.S. weekly podcast consumers conducted from July to December of 2022, we can measure the top podcasts in the beloved sports genre.

Standing in third place is The Pat McAfee Show 2.0, while second place goes to Barstool Sport’s Pardon My Take. At the top of the podium is The Ringer’s Bill Simmons Podcast --having earned the highest number of U.S. podcast listeners in the third and fourth quarters of 2022.

All three shows cover the hottest stories in sports, occasionally interviewing players and coaches. They publish episodes frequently so listeners can tune in routinely. And they also encompass NFL and NBA news, two sports that align with podcast listeners’ top tastes.

In Q4 2022, according to Edison Podcast Metrics, 29% of the weekly podcast audience age 13 and older say their favorite sport to watch live on television or streaming video is football, followed by a significantly smaller 14% who say basketball. Soccer is the third most popular sport – 9% of podcast listeners say it’s their favorite to watch, which is slightly higher than the 8% of listeners who say baseball.