The latest Edison Podcast Metrics UK have just been published for Q3 2023.

What has changed? Well Joe Rogan still tops the charts, while The Rest Is Politics climbs to number two pushing The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett down to number three (not number 90).

Edison Research notes the following:

Edison Podcast Metrics is unique in that it is not dependent on podcast download data and does not require podcast networks to opt into its service. At least 2,000 weekly podcast listeners in the UK are surveyed each quarter for the service, and listening behavior is collected regardless of listening platform. The same methodology is being employed in the UK as is used in the U.S.

A subtle dig at Podtrac who do use different methodology in the US and the UK?

Anyway, I’ve put all the Q3 rankings into my spreadsheet and shown the Q on Q changes.

Aside for The Rest is Politics riding high, The Rest is History and Saving Grace both showed large jumps up the table. Help, I Sexted My Boss feel down 13 places this quarter, but mostly things were unchanged with titles shifting a small number of places.

Indeed there are only three new entries this quarter – or more accurately, re-entries, since The Infinite Monkey Cage, The Fellas and Desert Island Discs have all been in the chart previously.

Again, there is no hard listening data being overlayed onto this chart, so it can only be taken as a ranking. But based on the movements between places in the charts, it still feels like #2-#4 are quite close, and can switch around; #5-#10 are also quite close, but on a lower tier; and #11-#25 are again quite close. There are probably another 10-15 titles sitting just outside this top 25 that could at any point join it. Oh, and Joe Rogan seems unassailable at the moment, although the rise of The Rest Is Politics may put that to the test soon.

Seasonality is the other thing to take account of. Whilst many of these titles are “always on” in the podcast parlance, others run seasons. Examples include The Infinite Monkey Cage and Uncanny, the latter of which has fallen out of the charts, but aside from some 1 minute shorts during the month of Halloween, was mostly not publishing new episodes in this quarter.