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The Daily was No. 1 on Apple Podcasts’ 2024 U.S. Top Shows chart, followed by Crime Junkie and The Joe Rogan Experience. These are Apple’s market-specific year-end rankings—not a worldwide or cross-platform measure of podcast audiences. Apple announced the charts on November 19, 2024, with localized versions for listeners in nearly 100 countries and regions. Apple’s announcement contains the U.S. lists and links to its chart collection.
Apple Podcasts’ 10 most popular U.S. shows of 2024
Apple’s overall Top Shows list brought together daily news, true crime, interviews, health, culture and sports. The ranking was:
- The Daily — daily news
- Crime Junkie — true crime
- The Joe Rogan Experience — comedy and interviews
- Dateline NBC — true crime
- SmartLess — comedy and interviews
- Huberman Lab — health and fitness
- This American Life — society and culture
- New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce — sports
- Up First from NPR — news
- Morbid — true crime
The result is specific: Apple ranked The Daily first in its U.S. 2024 Top Shows chart. It does not establish that the program had the largest podcast audience worldwide, or that it led on every listening service.
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Apple’s separate Top New Shows chart covered programs that debuted during 2024. Its U.S. top 10 was:
- The Tucker Carlson Show
- Three
- Mortal Sin
- Drowning Creek
- The Rise and Fall of Ruby Franke
- Blood is Thicker: The Hargan Family Killings
- Noble
- Murder in the Hollywood Hills
- Hysterical
- Who Killed JFK?
Investigative, documentary and true-crime titles occupy much of this list, while The Tucker Carlson Show stands out as a daily news-commentary launch. That is a pattern in this chart, not a claim about all new podcasts or listeners.
Hysterical was Apple’s Show of the Year
There is a second result that can be mistaken for the chart winner: Apple named Hysterical its 2024 Show of the Year on December 3. That was a separate editorial recognition, not the No. 1 position in the overall Top Shows ranking. Hysterical placed ninth among the year’s Top New Shows. Apple described it as a seven-part investigative series produced by Wondery and Audacy’s Pineapple Street Studios. Read Apple’s announcement of the award.
Top serialized shows
Apple introduced a dedicated Top Series chart in October 2024 for serialized programs intended to be heard in sequence. It is not simply another name for the overall show chart: it highlights narrative series suited to following episode by episode. The U.S. year-end top 10 was:
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- Serial
- Up and Vanished
- Three
- The Bakersfield Three
- CounterClock
- Something Was Wrong
- Dr. Death
- The Binge Cases
- Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra
- The Binge Crimes
Three appeared at No. 2 on the new-show list and No. 3 in Top Series. Those rankings measure different things—newness and serialized format—so the overlap is not a contradiction. Apple said its Top Series chart features the top 100 serialized shows and updates continuously; the chart is available in selected markets, not everywhere. See Apple’s announcement about narrative series and its market and chart information.
Top episodes of 2024
Apple’s U.S. Top Episodes ranking placed individual installments from both ongoing shows and serialized productions in the same list:
- Crime Junkie — “SERIAL KILLER: The Alphabet Murders Part 1”
- The Joe Rogan Experience — “#2219 – Donald Trump”
- The Daily — “Harris Baits Trump: Inside Their Fiery Debate”
- Dateline NBC — “Dangerous Secret”
- The Bakersfield Three — “Episode 1: Fight Like a Mother”
- SmartLess — “Vince Vaughn”
- Three — “Skylar Is Missing | Chapter 1”
- Serial — “Serial S04 – Ep. 1: Poor Baby Raul”
- Mortal Sin — “1 – Ashes to Ashes”
- New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce — “Travis Wins on the Road, Jason Celebrates Shirtless and Full Divisional Round Recap | Ep 75”
Election-related material and serialized true crime both appear prominently in the episode list. Apple does not describe this chart as an audited ranking of total downloads, so the positions should not be translated into download totals or listening hours.
Most shared shows and episodes
Sharing is a distinct behavior from listening or following. Apple’s U.S. Most Shared Shows chart ranked:
- Huberman Lab
- Scamanda
- Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
- The Daily
- The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
- The Bible Recap
- The Mel Robbins Podcast
- Sold a Story
- Who Killed JFK?
- Crime Junkie
The top shared individual episodes were:
- The Tucker Carlson Show — “Calley & Casey Means: The Truth About Ozempic, the Pill, and How Big Pharma Keeps You Sick”
- The Mel Robbins Podcast — “The #1 Menopause Doctor: How to Lose Belly Fat, Sleep Better, & Stop Suffering Now”
- The Daily — “The Year of Taylor Swift”
- Huberman Lab — “Dr. Stacy Sims: Female-Specific Exercise & Nutrition for Health, Performance & Longevity”
- The Joe Rogan Experience — “#2219 – Donald Trump”
- The Ezra Klein Show — “Is Tim Walz the Midwestern Dad Democrats Need?”
- Honestly with Bari Weiss — “Why the Kids Aren’t Alright”
- We Can Do Hard Things — “263. Healing from Emotionally Immature Parents with Lindsay C. Gibson”
- Call Her Daddy — “Vice President Kamala Harris”
- Good Inside with Dr. Becky — “The Anxious Generation with Jonathan Haidt”
Several shared episodes concerned public figures or election-year issues, including episodes featuring Donald Trump, Tim Walz and Kamala Harris. That is evidence about what was shared on Apple’s chart, not a measure of listeners’ political views or total audience size.
Most followed shows
Apple’s Most Followed Shows list ranked shows by following activity, a separate measure from its overall Top Shows ranking:
- The Joe Rogan Experience
- New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
- Huberman Lab
- Call Her Daddy
- The Tucker Carlson Show
- The Mel Robbins Podcast
- SmartLess
- Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
- Crime Junkie
- The Daily
The Joe Rogan Experience was No. 3 on Top Shows but No. 1 among Most Followed Shows. The difference illustrates why the categories should not be collapsed into one claim about popularity.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Subscriber shows and podcast channels
Apple also published rankings for subscriber-focused shows and channels. Its U.S. Top Subscriber Shows list was:
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- Morbid
- Dateline NBC
- The Rise and Fall of Ruby Franke
- Dr. Death
- SmartLess
- Something Was Wrong
- Scamtown
- American Scandal
- Mortal Sin
The Top Channels chart, which ranks podcast networks or publisher channels rather than individual shows, was:
- Wondery
- iHeartPodcasts
- The New York Times
- audiochuck
- SiriusXM Podcasts
- Dateline NBC
- Dear Media
- iHeart True Crime
- Scicomm Media
- Cumulus Podcast Network
These are their own chart categories, not a second overall popularity table. Apple’s chart documentation notes that Top Subscriber Shows and Top Subscriber Channels require supported software versions, including iOS 15.5 or later, iPadOS 15.5 or later, and macOS 12.4 or later.
What the 2024 charts suggest—and what they do not
Across the U.S. lists, true crime was particularly visible: Crime Junkie, Dateline NBC and Morbid all made the overall top 10, while investigative and crime narratives appeared throughout Top New Shows, Top Series and the episode charts. At the same time, the overall list included news, interview, health, culture and sports programs. The mix shows that Apple’s chart categories capture several kinds of listening and engagement rather than one single genre or audience profile.
The lists also reveal different forms of engagement. The most-followed ranking had a different leader from Top Shows; shared-show and shared-episode charts spotlighted what users passed along. None of those categories should be treated as a direct substitute for the others.
How Apple Podcasts charts work
Apple says its charts show popular shows and episodes in a particular market and offers multiple chart types, including Top Shows, Top Episodes, Most Shared and Most Followed. The company describes charts as drawing on a mix of factors but does not publish the exact algorithm. As a result, these year-end positions are best read as Apple Podcasts rankings for the specified market and category—not as verified download counts, unique-listener totals, listening hours, revenue, or a universal comparison across services. Apple’s explanation is in its chart documentation.
The 2024 collection was available from Apple Podcasts’ Browse tab through the end of that year. It is a historical year-end feature, whereas Apple’s ordinary charts change over time; the current Apple Podcasts charts page should not be mistaken for the 2024 results. The year-end announcement does not specify an exact measurement date range, so it is safest to refer to the published 2024 rankings rather than assume a January-to-December tracking window.
Bottom line
The Daily was Apple Podcasts’ No. 1 U.S. Top Show of 2024. Hysterical was Apple’s separate editorial Show of the Year. The distinction matters: one is a chart position, the other an award, and neither is a universal ranking of every podcast platform.
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