UK-based true-crime podcast RedHanded has made its debut as one of the top 100 most-listened to podcasts in the US, according to Triton Digital’s newest rankings data.
The audio technology and advertising company published its U.S. Podcast Ranker for July 2023 on Thursday, covering a reporting period from 3 July to 30 July. The data is measured by Triton’s Podcast Metrics measurement service which calculates top podcasts by weekly average downloads and weekly average users.
RedHanded appeared as the 79th most popular podcast in the US, according to weekly average users. The podcast, which is co-hosted by Hannah Maguire and Suruthi Bala, has been running since 2017 and has published over 300 episodes of the main show, covering a range of true-crime cases as well as two weekly bonus shows on Wondery+ and Patreon.
In April this year, Redhanded announced that it was signing Wondery and Amazon Music as its distribution and ad sales partner to offer ad-free and bonus content for subscribers, as well as expand its listeners worldwide. Although the podcast has already proven to be popular with its audience, having won the coveted Listener’s Choice title at the British Podcast Awards for two years in a row, this newest milestone shows how far the podcast has come in terms of global reach.
“I think that the reason true crime podcasts are having a moment is clearly because the true crime content that was being produced prior to that wasn't really hitting the ears of listeners or the eyes of listeners in the way they wanted to consume true crime,” Bala told PodPod in an upcoming episode of the podcast. “So this idea of people who like Hannah and I, just being genuinely curious, looking into a case and talking about it with no agenda… We're just two random people that are interested in true crime and that's obviously resonating with people.”
Other new podcasts to make their debut on Triton’s July podcast ranker include USA Today’s short-form news podcast 5 Things, also distributed and represented by Wondery. The podcast landed as the 99th most listened to podcast last month after covering a hefty news period which included events like the Hollywood strikes, charges against former US president Donald Trump, and an exclusive on extremism in the US military.
True-crime podcast Crime Junkie once again remained as the top most-listened to podcast in July, followed again by NBC’s Dateline. Comedy podcast Smartless continued its climb to the top, going from sixth to third place in July, replacing NPR news podcast Up First.
Triton Digital’s podcast ranker also calculates the top 100 podcasts in the US according to average weekly downloads, however it does not filter out podcasts that release short-form content, which is why NPR’s News Now continues to be the highest-ranked podcast on the metric due to its hourly release schedule.
The top sales network in July remained unchanged, with SiriusXM Podcast Network keeping its place at the top with its 52.2 million average weekly downloads and 13.7 million average weekly users. This is once again followed by Wondery and NPR.
As part of its continued efforts to expand its podcast advertising, SiriusXM’s advertising arm SXM Media recently announced two new partnerships with programmatic ad buying platform The Trade Desk and cybersecurity company HUMAN to offer enhanced third-party measurement and brand safety solutions for audio advertisers.
