The case goes cold for true crime podcasts

BY Nathan Jolly

November 20, 2024 9:40

The case goes cold for true crime podcasts

Australians are losing interest in true crime podcasts as the ‘society and culture’ category becomes the most popular in the country, reflecting shifting listener habits, and a more crowded market.

This is according to the October Podcast Ranker, which shows Hamish and Andy is again the country’s most-listened-to Australian podcast, with over 934,000 listens for the month.

Casefile – which has just inked an exclusive partnership with Acast – sits in second, with 771,000, while ABC News Top Stories just trails with 748,000.

Shameless and Mamamia Out Loud sit in fourth and fifth spot this month, driving up the aforementioned ‘society and culture’ category.

While true crime podcasts have been fashionable over the past few years, the sheen may be wearing off, as other categories grow and climb the charts – and listening habits change from serialised stories to ‘actionable’ or newsworthy podcasts.

That being said, News Corp’s serialised ‘Bronwyn’ investigation climbed into the Top 20 this week, jumping from #31 to #13 with 263,000 listeners for the month, while I Catch Killers with Gary Jubelin dropped from #14 to #15, with 247,000.

Elsewhere in the top reaches sits True Crime Conversations by Mamamia, at #19, and Acast’s Australian True Crime at #21.