When you check your podcast host analytics, then look at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube, the numbers often don’t line up. That’s not a glitch - it’s because each platform tracks different things, in different ways, for different purposes.

If you’re serious about measuring your podcast’s growth, it helps to know what each platform is actually telling you, and which metrics are worth paying attention to.

Here’s a straightforward breakdown.

Your Podcast Hosting Platform

Most hosts track downloads, listener location, device usage, and app distribution. This data reflects activity based on your RSS feed, which powers most podcast players.

Best for:

• Measuring overall growth over time
• Comparing episode performance
• Identifying where your audience is located

Key Metric to Track:​
​Downloads in the first 7 and 30 days: This gives you a consistent baseline to measure if new episodes are performing better (or worse) than previous ones.

Apple Podcasts (Podcasts Connect)

Apple provides listener-centric insights, like how much of your episode people actually listen to, whether they follow your show, and when they drop off.

Best for:

• Gauging listener engagement and loyalty
• Understanding episode retention
• Tracking follower growth within the Apple ecosystem

Key Metric to Track:​
​Follower count and average consumption: These show whether people are sticking with your show and whether your episodes are keeping attention from start to finish.

Spotify for Creators

Spotify offers a unique view of your audience, including age and gender data, plus a breakdown of Plays versus followers and retention.

Best for:

• Demographic insight
• Episode structure data (based on drop-off)
• Measuring follow-through from new listeners to followers

Key Metric to Track:​
​Listener count and play-to-follower ratio: A high number of listeners is a good start, but consistent growth in followers indicates your show is building momentum.

YouTube

If you’re publishing video versions of your podcast (or even just audiograms), YouTube offers discovery potential and community-building tools that traditional podcast platforms don’t.

Best for:

• Expanding your reach to new audiences
• Understanding visual engagement (via watch time and Click-through Rate, or CTR)
• Building subscribers through related content and Shorts

Key Metric to Track:​
​Watch time and subscriber growth: YouTube rewards content that holds attention. If your watch time is increasing and subscribers are growing, your visibility is improving.

What to Actually Track Across the Board

If you want a simple way to track whether your podcast is growing, focus on these metrics from each platform:

• Downloads per episode over time (from your host)
• Follower/subscriber growth (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube)
• Listener retention and completion rates (Apple and Spotify)
• Watch time (YouTube)

While it can be easy to get sucked into vanity numbers, look for trends instead, especially improvements over 30- and 90-day windows. That’s where you’ll see the real story of your podcast’s progress.

Until the next time, happy podcasting.