Podcast ratings and what they tell us

At Fresh Air, we’re huge fans of Dan Misener at ‘Bumper’. Since his time at Pacific Content he’s established himself as one of the world’s leaders in podcast insights. Fair do’s to the fella, because he’s recently spent time analysing over 28 million Apple Podcast Star ratings . The long nights must have flown by.

But what does all this analysis tell us? Well, in short, only 28% of podcasts have any ratings at all, and 87% of ratings are 5 stars. Explicit shows (i.e. with a bit of sweariness in them) get more highly rated than clean ones, and true crime podcasts get the most stars by a mile.

It’s important to remember that we know for a fact Apple star ratings make very little difference to your ranking in the podcast charts or the recommendation algorithms. So perhaps reviews are a pure vanity metric, most often posted by friends of the podcaster to make them look good. So don’t stress if no-one is reviewing your podcast, but if you want to see those stars go up, making some sweary crime is the secret. Thanks for all the work Dan.