Early-year kickoffs, leveraging existing channels help drive growth rankings.
Kicking off a new podcast early in the year helps increase visibility before the calendar turns over, according to new data from Edison Podcast Metrics.
The top five new shows in 2023 all launched in May or earlier, giving them ample time to build their followings compared to shows debuting later in the year.
Edison's report didn't rank the five in order, but all shared two elements in common.
Early-year releases ( one each debuted in January, February, March, April and May) were one aspect. The other is the fact that none of the top five new shows started from scratch in the media world.
Brain Leak and The Chapter Podcast both evolved from YouTube videos to a podcast format. The Unplanned Podcast grew from social media presence on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, while The Broski Report with Brittany Broski combined a long term YouTube presence with previous podcast exposure (Broski co-hosted Violating Community Guidelines before branching out with her own show). Podcast P with Paul George leveraged George's celebrity status in NBA basketball.
None of these shows hit top overall rankings compared to established dominant podcasts, but garnered the highest weekly average listener counts among shows launched in 2023.
