UK Rankers · May 27, 2026

The Top 25 Podcasts in the UK for Q1 2026

By Edison Research

Edison Research at SSRS Announces Top 25 Podcasts in the UK   
for Q1 2026 from Edison Podcast Metrics  

The Joe Rogan Experience, The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett,  
and The Rest Is Politics remain in the top three spots 

Glen Mills, PA, USA, May 27, 2026 – Edison Research at SSRS announces the Top 25 Podcasts in the UK from Edison Podcast Metrics based on reach for the first quarter of 2026 among weekly podcast listeners ages 15+.  

The Joe Rogan Experience,The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett, and The Rest Is Politics top the list, as they did in Q4 2025. The top four shows remain in the same rank order as Q4, with other rank changes in the Top 10 noted below parenthetically. The full list of Top 25 podcasts is below.

  1. The Joe Rogan Experience 
  2. The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett   
  3. The Rest Is Politics 
  4. The Rest Is History   
  5. Newscast (+2 rank position since Q4 2025)
  6. The Rest Is Football
  7. That Peter Crouch Podcast (-2 rank position since Q4 2025)
  8. The News Agents (+5 rank position since Q4 2025)
  9. Americast (+10 rank position since Q4 2025)
  10. Crime Junkie

Two BBC news podcasts hit a record high. Newscast breaks into the top five and Americast into the top ten. Both podcasts covered stories on the Iran War, Maduro’s capture, and ICE Protests in the U.S   

Two sports podcasts also reach their highest rank on record: The Overlap and Stick to Football.

ZOE Science & Nutrition climbed 86 ranks to enter the top 25 for the first time. The show was nominated for an IHeart best-branded podcast award in 2026. ZOE was in the spotlight in Q1 2026 after the ASA upheld a ban on a ZOE ad that claimed its supplement was “just real food.”

Mel Robbins breaks into the top 25 in the UK. Robbins was named a TIME 2026 Woman of the Year in March.

About Edison Podcast Metrics 

Edison Podcast Metrics is unique in that it is not dependent on podcast download data and does not require podcast networks to opt into its service. At least 2,000 weekly podcast consumers in the UK are surveyed each quarter, and listening behavior is collected regardless of listening platform. The same methodology is being employed in the UK as is used in the U.S.   

Data from Edison Podcast Metrics UK provides show-level information on the top podcasts in the UK. Subscribers can analyze demographics, psychographics, and purchase-behavior information of weekly podcast consumers. The first Top Podcast Shows ranker in the U.S. was released by Edison Research in November 2019; the company has been tracking podcast consumption in the aggregate since 2006.  

For more information on how to become a subscriber to the full datasets, please contact info@edisonresearch.com

About Edison Research at SSRS

Edison Research at SSRS conducts survey research and provides strategic information to a broad array of clients worldwide, having conducted research in 66 countries. Edison Research’s The Infinite Dial® series has been the survey of record for digital audio, social media, podcasting, smart speakers, and other media-related technologies since 1998. The company’s Share of Ear® survey is the only single-source measure of all audio in the U.S. Edison Research is the leading podcast research company in the world, producing the only survey-based data on podcast listening in the U.S, Edison Podcast Metrics, and has conducted research for many companies in the space. 

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