I am obsessed with audio. Podcasts, music, audiobooks - even hold music has its charms. I’ve been lucky to spend my career supporting audio’s growth and development. So when Netflix started inking deals with the world’s largest podcast companies in 2025, I knew I’d be keeping a close eye (and ear!) on the movement.
At Samba, we’ve been measuring Netflix podcasts since day one, and we’re thrilled to share what we’ve learned, starting with the first-ever Netflix Podcast Ranker. This inaugural release covers Q1 views and minutes by title and publisher. Each month, we’ll publish updates and highlight what’s standing out.
Want to know what happens when podcasts hit the big screen? Let’s find out together.
We are still very much in the early days of podcasting’s Living Room Era. The data we see today aren’t benchmarks or trends, they’re early signals of a formerly mobile-first medium in evolution. And those signals are genuinely encouraging.
Samba estimates 13% of Netflix-viewing households in Q1 watched a Netflix podcast. For context: 21% of Netflix households watched KPop Demon Hunters within 30 days of release, and 47% watched the Stranger Things S5 premiere.
13% — not bad for a format navigating a new audience, new user experience, and new (literal, physical) place in viewers’ lives.
*Netflix households defined by a US household who has watched Netflix for at least 1 cumulative minute between Jan1-Mar31, 2026. Number of total Netflix podcast listeners defined by US Households who watched a Netflix podcast for at least 1 cumulative minute Jan1-Mar31, 2026. Netflix Podcast listeners in this calculation are de-duplicated (i.e., A HH that watches 3 podcasts or episodes is counted as 1 HH). Calculation is defined by Number of Netflix Podcast Listeners / Number of Netflix Households.
We estimate Netflix launched around 46 podcast titles in Q1. Based on public announcements and platform exploration, roughly 39 are licensed from external publishers, with around 7 (15%) being Netflix Originals.
iHeartMedia ranks #1 by both views and total minutes consumed. Netflix Originals punch above their weight — just 18% of the catalog earns enough per-title views to claim the #2 spot.
The Breakfast Club ranks #1 by total views, followed by Bridgerton (a Netflix Original) and Murder with My Husband (an independent podcast).
One of the first questions I had when Netflix podcasts launched: Will the big screen fundamentally change why people consume podcasts? Will certain genres thrive, and will others be better suited for sticking to its audio roots?
To explore this, Samba partnered with Podscribe, a podcast-first measurement company ranking shows on audio downloads and YouTube views. We compared each title’s Podscribe rank to its Netflix Podcast Ranker position. The finding? There’s little to no correlation between the two. The takeaway? Well, it’s too early to draw sweeping conclusions - but it may hint that Netflix is delivering a genuinely different kind of podcast experience.
Shows like Joe and Jada (Podscribe: #4,995) and The BobbyCast (#2,546) are nearly invisible in Podscribe’s audio and YouTube ranker, yet both land in Netflix’s top 20. They share a common thread: devoted, genre-specific fans and celebrity hosts whose personality is part of the product. Watching Bobby Bones break down a Luke Combs album sitting across from Luke Combs may carry a visual intimacy that these genre superfans prefer over audio.
On the flip side, Behind the Bastards (#34 on Podscribe), Spittin Chiclets (#443), and The Ringer NBA Show (#454) are highly visible in the audio world but fall outside the top 50% on Netflix. Narrative and sports content may continue to be well-suited for the on-the-go format. Though it’s early days, and we’ll be watching these trends closely, and sharing what we find.
Charlamagne tha God, Angela Yee, and DJ Envy launched The Breakfast Club as a morning radio show on New York’s Power 105.1 in December 2010. It quickly became the #1 morning show in the market, grew into a top-20 podcast, and was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2020. The show is now hosted by Charlamagne tha God, DJ Envy, and Jess Hilarious.
The Breakfast Club is drawing in an audience that is highly engaged, culturally specific, and clearly arriving with intent. Black audiences are over-indexing by more than 2× relative to both the general population and the general Netflix viewing base. And they’re watching deeply, not just sampling. For anyone wondering why Netflix is licensing up to 80% of its podcast content from established creators rather than building from scratch, The Breakfast Club goes a long way toward answering that question. The Breakfast Club has spent more than a decade building trust and credibility with their audience. That’s not something you can manufacture overnight.
The daypart data is equally striking: nearly half (44%) of Breakfast Club viewing happens in daytime or primetime hours — and only 10% in the early morning, despite its origins as a morning show. It’s an early indicator that Netflix may be reshaping not just where people watch podcasts, but when.
Many research studies document that podcast listeners tend to be lite TV viewers. For example, in 2025, Signal Hill reported 35% of weekly podcast consumers do not subscribe to any pay TV, making them unreachable through traditional advertising. This has historically been a selling point for brands seeking incremental reach to their TV campaigns.
However, The Breakfast Club audience on Netflix podcasts actually under-indexes on being lite-TV viewers. In other words, households who watched The Breakfast Club on Netflix podcasts were 59% less likely to be a Lite TV viewer than the average TV-viewing household in the US. These viewers aren’t heavy TV viewers either. Instead, they are medium TV viewers - over-indexing the general population on being in this cohort by over 80%.
This is another early signal on how the medium may evolve as podcasts become more prominent on the big screen. Brands and podcast monetization teams may need to rethink their reason and purpose for using podcast ads.
Netflix is making a real bet on podcasts with 40+ licensed titles from the world’s biggest audio studios in a single quarter. Moving shows from pocket to prime time changes the dynamic of the medium in ways we’re only beginning to understand. Hosts now have the opportunity to be both an on-the-go companion and an invited guest on the biggest screen in the house. That’s a new kind of relationship, and it may take time for audiences, creators, and publishers to fully figure out.
Here’s what we can say – an audience exists, and it’s engaged. The Breakfast Club alone accounts for over 40% of all Netflix podcast views in Q1, and the genre patterns we’re seeing hint at something real about what the living room wants from this medium.
We’ll be watching, measuring, and sharing. See you next month.
Want to dig into this data deeper? Click here to continue exploring.
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