How Often Podcasts Publish in 2026: Release Frequency, Active Shows and Podfade
The typical active podcast publishes once a week: the median gap between episodes is 7 days, and 41.5% of shows that published in 2026 run on a weekly schedule. 60% publish at least weekly and 10.4% publish daily. The bigger story is how few shows publish at all: of 100,000 podcasts sampled from the CastFox index, only 11.1% released an episode in 2026, and 52.8% have six episodes or fewer in their entire run.
Key findings
- Weekly is the standard: 41.5% of active podcasts publish about once a week, and the median gap between episodes is 7 days.
- 10.4% of active shows publish daily or more often, led by News (29.1% daily). 15% publish about monthly.
- Sports, Religion & Spirituality, Comedy publish fastest (median 7 days); Science (14 days), Technology (11.4 days), Music (11.1 days) publish slowest.
- Only 11.1% of all podcasts in the index released an episode in 2026, and 6.8% in the 90 days to September 30.
- Podfade is the norm: 22.8% of podcasts stopped after a single episode, 52.8% never passed six, and just 6.9% have reached 100 episodes.
How often do podcasts publish?
Among podcasts that published in 2026, the median show releases an episode every 7 days. The middle half of shows fall between 7 and 14.4 days, so a weekly or fortnightly rhythm covers most of podcasting.
We measured each show's current rhythm, the median gap between its most recent episodes, rather than a lifetime average, so a show that moved from weekly to monthly is counted as monthly.
Daily, weekly or monthly: the mix
Weekly shows (41.5%) are about twice as common as the next most popular schedule, every two weeks (20.5%). Daily publishing is a minority at 10.4%, concentrated in News and Arts. At the other end, 15% of shows publish about monthly and 4.5% less often than that.
Publishing frequency by genre
| Genre | Median days between episodes | Publish at least weekly | Publish daily | Shows |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sports | 7 | 72.2% | 10.4% | 510 |
| Religion & Spirituality | 7 | 78.4% | 11.9% | 1,141 |
| Comedy | 7 | 67.4% | 9.6% | 282 |
| News | 7 | 75.1% | 29.1% | 567 |
| Kids & Family | 7.2 | 54.8% | 9.5% | 168 |
| Society & Culture | 7.4 | 56.4% | 6.8% | 989 |
| Arts | 7.5 | 54.9% | 14.5% | 448 |
| Education | 8.1 | 53.3% | 7% | 747 |
| TV & Film | 8.2 | 53.3% | 2.9% | 244 |
| Health & Fitness | 8.5 | 53% | 6.4% | 574 |
| Leisure | 8.5 | 53.3% | 3.9% | 304 |
| Business | 9.5 | 50.7% | 5.8% | 1,147 |
| Music | 11.1 | 47.7% | 4.8% | 310 |
| Technology | 11.4 | 47.2% | 8.6% | 197 |
| Science | 14 | 43.5% | 6.5% | 154 |
Most genres cluster around a weekly rhythm. The differences show up in how many shows publish more than weekly: 29.1% of News shows publish daily, against 2.9% of TV & Film shows. Religion & Spirituality has the highest share of at-least-weekly shows (78.4%). Science, Technology, Music publish least often, at roughly two weeks between episodes.
Publishing frequency by language
| Language | Median days between episodes | Publish at least weekly | Publish daily | Shows |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | 7 | 61.2% | 10% | 5,334 |
| Spanish | 7 | 62% | 13.5% | 513 |
| Portuguese | 7 | 67.1% | 7.9% | 164 |
| Italian | 7 | 62.6% | 14.1% | 163 |
| French | 7 | 56% | 17.5% | 377 |
| Japanese | 7 | 76.1% | 12.4% | 226 |
| Chinese | 7 | 63.3% | 9.5% | 221 |
| German | 14 | 45.5% | 7.2% | 457 |
Weekly is the norm in every major language. German-language shows are the outlier at a median of 14 days, and Japanese-language shows are the most frequent publishers, with 76.1% publishing at least weekly.
How many podcasts are still active?
Of the 100,000 podcasts we sampled from the CastFox index of 4.8 million feeds, 11.1% released at least one episode in 2026, about 1 in 9. 6.8% published in the 90 days to September 30, and 17.6% have published since the start of 2025. The rest are dormant or abandoned feeds that still exist in podcast directories.
Active shows skew young. Of the shows that published in 2026, 43.4% started less than a year earlier, 21.2% are one to three years old, and only 3% have been running for ten years or more.
Podfade: how many episodes podcasts make
Most podcasts end early. 22.8% of all feeds contain a single episode, and the median podcast has just 6 episodes. Only 6.9% of podcasts have reached 100 episodes, which at a weekly schedule means about two years of consistent publishing.
Put differently: a show that keeps a weekly schedule for a year, about 50 episodes, already has more episodes than roughly 88% of all podcasts ever started.
How often should you publish?
- Weekly is the safe default. It is what 41.5% of active shows do and what listeners of most genres expect. Daily only makes sense for news and short formats; fortnightly is common in Science, Technology and Music.
- Consistency beats frequency. 52.8% of podcasts never pass six episodes. Pick a schedule you can hold for a year rather than the most ambitious one.
- For advertisers and guest bookers: a show's cadence tells you how many ad slots or guest slots it has per month and whether it is still alive. Check the date of the latest episode before you pitch; only 6.8% of podcasts in directories have published in the last 90 days.
In CastFox, every podcast profile shows the show's recent episodes and dates, and the "Active only" search filter removes dormant feeds. See how search filters work.
Methodology
Source. The CastFox podcast index of about 4.8 million podcast feeds, with each feed's episode count and first and latest episode dates, plus the recent episodes CastFox stores for each show.
Activity and episode counts. We drew 100,000 feeds at 5,000 evenly spaced points across the index. A podcast counts as active in 2026 if its latest known episode was published on or after January 1, 2026. Not every feed is re-checked at the same rate, so a small number of recent episodes may be missing; among feeds re-checked in 2026 (34.2% of the sample), 32.5% had published in 2026. The true share of active podcasts is therefore at least 11.1% and well under a third.
Publishing frequency. For sampled shows active in 2026, we took the recent episodes stored for each show (excluding trailers and bonus episodes), computed the median gap between consecutive episodes, and kept shows with at least four stored episodes (8,237 shows). This measures a show's current rhythm rather than its lifetime average. Genre is the show's primary Apple Podcasts category and language is the feed's declared language; groups with fewer than 150 shows are not reported.
Limits. Shows with fewer than four stored episodes are excluded from the frequency figures, which slightly under-represents brand-new shows. The index is built from public RSS feeds and covers most, but not all, podcasts.
Cite this data
This data is free to use under CC BY 4.0. Please credit CastFox Research and link to this page.
CastFox Research (2026). How Often Podcasts Publish in 2026: Release Frequency, Active Shows and Podfade. CastFox. https://www.castfox.net/research/how-often-podcasts-publish-2026
Download the full tables (CSV)
Journalists: for a custom cut of the data (a specific genre, country or show list), contact [email protected].
Frequently asked questions
How often do most podcasts publish?
Weekly. Among podcasts active in 2026, the median gap between episodes is 7 days, 41.5% publish about once a week, and 60% publish at least weekly.
What percentage of podcasts publish daily?
10.4% of active podcasts publish daily or more often. In News the figure is 29.1%.
How many podcasts are still active?
Only 11.1% of podcasts in the CastFox index released an episode in 2026, and 6.8% published in the 90 days to September 30, 2026. Of about 4.8 million feeds, that is roughly 530,000 active shows.
How many podcasts quit after a few episodes?
22.8% of all podcasts have only one episode and 52.8% have six or fewer. The median podcast has 6 episodes; only 6.9% reach 100.
How often should I publish my podcast?
Weekly is the standard listeners expect in most genres, and it is sustainable. Daily suits news and short formats; every two weeks is common in Science, Technology and Music. Whatever you choose, keeping it for a year puts you ahead of most podcasts ever started.
Can I use this data in my article?
Yes. The data is free to use under CC BY 4.0. Please credit "CastFox Research" and link to this page. A CSV of the full tables is available to download.