What determines my podcast's ranking on the charts?

Each podcast player has its own way of determining charts, and while none have revealed their exact algorithm, we can dive into what we know about them.

Apple Podcasts

From Apple's blog post:

Apple Podcasts Charts reflect the most popular shows and episodes available in a given market and are designed to help people discover what to listen to next. They do not reflect all-time listening records, and are not a measure of the largest podcasts by listenership.

While the exact algorithm cannot be shared to protect their integrity, the charts measure a mix of the following:

• Listening: When listeners are engaging with episodes, it’s an indicator of content popularity.
• Follows: When listeners follow a show to receive new episodes, it’s an indicator of their intent to listen.
• Completion Rate: When listeners complete episodes, it’s an indicator of content quality.

In August of 2022, Apple also released two new charts: Top Subscriber Shows & Top Subscriber Channels. Read more here.

Spotify

From Spotify's blog post:

Here are five new features to know about in the new Charts experience:

“Top Podcasts” is where you’ll find the overall most popular shows—ones fans have been listening to for some time, and rising newcomers. It’s determined by a combination of overall follower counts and the number of recent unique listeners.

“Top Episodes” is where you’ll find of-the-moment trends in what people are listening to today. This chart is determined exclusively by the number of unique listeners on that day, providing a look into what’s buzzworthy at the moment.

U.S. users can also now find our Podcast Charts on the web in an all-new, easy-to-use browseable experience. (We’re exploring additional markets—stay tuned!)

We’ve built our charts to be as trustworthy and transparent as possible: They’re based on a combination of number of unique listeners and number of followers and provide expanded opportunity for podcasters to get their shows discovered.

The best way to support your favorite podcasters is by following them and listening to their episodes, since there are now more ways for them to be discovered. The depth and breadth of Top Podcasts and category charts allows many more podcasters to claim a spot, while Trending rewards new and emerging podcasters.

Chartable

Every week, we use Chartable's IAB V2-certified measurement of audience size to create the Top 200 and Trending charts across twenty different countries, based on weekly changes in audience among the podcasts using the Trackable feed integration. New charts drop every Wednesday morning. The charts are opt-in, and open to any publisher to join on the Integrations page of their dashboard, free of charge. Sign up for a free Chartable account here.

View Apple, Spotify, and Chartable charts here.