WhichPodcast, the recently launched podcast discovery platform, has reported strong growth alongside new research into podcast survival rates and episode length trends.
Founder Zaq Qureshi said the platform has expanded rapidly since its last update, stating: “Since you last covered us, we’ve grown significantly. We now index over 35,000 podcasts and are scaling to over 500,000 this week.”
Alongside its expansion, the company has released two studies examining how podcasts evolve over time and how long episodes tend to be across the industry.
The Podfade Report analysed 10,789 RSS distributed podcasts and found that while inactivity exists even among established shows, it is relatively limited. 5% had not published in over six months, and 1% had been silent for more than a year.
The research suggests most podcasts survive early production stages, with 93% reaching at least ten episodes.
However, long term retention declines steadily, with 54% reaching 100 episodes and 17% reaching 500. The median publishing lifespan is 16 months, pointing to gradual drop off rather than early failure.
A separate analysis of 10,764 podcasts found that episode length is falling over time. The median episode now runs at 31 minutes, while the overall average sits at 38 minutes. More than a quarter of podcasts are under 15 minutes, and fewer than 1% exceed three hours.
Genre differences remain significant. Comedy podcasts have the longest median runtime at 55 minutes, while self-improvement averages 50 minutes and society and culture 45 minutes.
At the shorter end, crypto and web3 shows average 18 minutes, news 22 minutes and education 25 minutes.
The report also notes a long-term decline in episode length, falling from 48 minutes in 2009 to 35 minutes in 2025. It concludes there is no single ideal duration, with audience expectations varying widely by genre.
Read the full reports:
WhichPodcast (2026). The Podfade Problem: How Many Podcasts Actually Survive? Retrieved from whichpodcast.com/research/podfade
WhichPodcast (2026). How Long Is The Average Podcast Episode? Retrieved from whichpodcast.com/research/episode-length
