Joe Rogan Audience Growth Shows Expanding Power Of Video Podcasts

Tubular Labs, the leader in global social video intelligence, has released its latest Audience Ratings data for October 2024, showcasing key social content trends that publishers, creators and brands alike can utilize for their own video success.

These October Audience Ratings, featuring deduplicated unique viewer figures and cumulative watch-time across both YouTube and Facebook, hone in on what’s driving growth. Namely, items like the explosion of video podcasts and cross-platform diversification, which are poised to play major roles in content through the end of 2024 and into 2025.

Joe Rogan Nets Near-Miss For No. 1 Watch-Time Spot in October

Joe Rogan didn’t need a Donald Trump video to be a popular YouTube watch, but it certainly drove an audience surge in October 2024, as Tubular Labs data reveals.

Rogan was the No. 34 media creator by unique U.S. viewers across YouTube and Facebook in October, thanks in part to his lengthy interview with the now president-elect. That unique viewer number was up 173% month-over-month to 21.9 million – his highest total in the last 13 months.

His watch-time gains were even larger as many of those new viewers tuned in for at least one of his three-hour interviews with either Trump or J.D. Vance. Rogan hit 1.2 billion minutes of U.S. watch-time in the month – up 145% month-over-month, placing him No. 3 among all domestic media creators. The popular podcaster narrowly missed the top spots, held by Disney Junior and Meidas Touch, each with 1.3 billion minutes watched.

Randy The TikTok Grandpa Takes YouTube

Randy Timmerman has a significant following as Gramps_Takes on TikTok but in recent months, he’s expanded his reach to other platforms – including YouTube, where he’s making a major impact with shorts.

Timmerman’s shorts are usually under 10 seconds long. Yet, according to Tubular’s data, he was still No. 10 by unique U.S. viewers across YouTube and Facebook in October, with 46.5 million. He was also the third most watched individual creator for the month, behind only Dylan Anderson and MrBeast.

His audience figure has grown by 55% month-over-month, and 650% since June. Despite the short video lengths, Timmerman’s simple advice and reaction videos have generated 24.7 million minutes of watch-time.

Fox News’ Growing Female Watch-Time

While traditional TV news creators saw October unique viewers rise across the board pre-election, Fox News was one of several to make even larger gains, especially among women. The cable network saw unique U.S. female viewers (across Facebook and YouTube) grow by 31% month-over-month, to its highest total in the last year.

Watch-time among those same U.S. women also climbed by an impressive 47%, as Fox News surged past peers by that metric, to 282.8 minutes watched. The most-watched Fox News video of the month was a one-on-one interview between Bret Baier and Vice President Kamala Harris, netting 6.5 million views. Fox News uploaded over 1.7K videos across YouTube and Facebook in the month leading up to the election.

Entertainment News Giants Grow Video Audience

Since October 2023, Entertainment Tonight has seen unique U.S. viewers across YouTube and Facebook climb by nearly 41%, while Access Hollywood’s “Access” page has grown by 269% in the same stretch. The growth of both indicates an increasing appetite for entertainment-focused news. There is also more room for the two audiences to expand into one others’ footprints as over the last six months, Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood social video audiences overlapped by just 16%.

Access Hollywood, in particular, has fueled its rise with a heavier focus on Facebook year-over-year. The channel increased Facebook uploads by 71% this October vs. last, and that platform’s where they leaned more heavily into shorts/reels content. Nearly a third of Access Hollywood’s Facebook videos were under one minute in duration, including every one of the month’s 10 most-viewed (led by Eminem’s reaction to the news he was going to be a grandpa).