In a year dominated by political chaos, AI breakthroughs, and endless true-crime obsessions, one voice has cut through the noise louder than ever: Joe Rogan.
The comedian, UFC commentator, and master of mind-bending conversations has officially been crowned the world’s most popular podcaster of 2025 by Apple Podcasts, ending the long reign of The New York Times’ The Daily, Mel Robbins’ motivational empire, and the true-crime juggernaut Crime Junkie.
Happiness isn’t in Spotify exclusivity, my friends. The Joe Rogan Experience stormed to the very top of the global charts, routinely pulling in millions of downloads per episode and proving once again that raw, unfiltered, three-hour marathons about aliens, psychedelics, politics, and jiu-jitsu still beat polished 20-minute news summaries.
What made 2025 the year Rogan fully reclaimed his crown? A perfect storm of viral guests, cultural timing, and the return of the ultimate podcasting cheat code: Elon Musk. Their latest conversation (episode #2223) became one of the most shared episodes of the entire year, with over 50 million views in weeks. They talked Neuralink, Mars, free speech, AI, and everything in between, reminding the world why the Rogan-Musk combo has been breaking the internet since that legendary 2018 joint-smoking episode.
But the numbers tell an even bigger story. In the U.S. alone, Rogan finished ahead of:
- The Daily (The New York Times);
- The Mel Robbins Podcast;
- Crime Junkie;
- Dateline NBC;
Meanwhile, the most viral new series of 2025 turned out to be The Telepathy Tapes, a wild dive into alleged telepathic phenomena and suppressed science. Rogan appeared on an early episode and helped rocket it to Apple’s #1 most-shared show of the year.
The broader 2025 podcast landscape looks exactly like you’d expect from our current timeline: people are obsessed with crime, politics, conspiracy, and the supernatural. Yet in the middle of it all sits Joe, holding court with neuroscientists one day, comedians the next, and occasionally dropping three-hour bombs with the richest man on Earth.
After years of criticism over misinformation, cancellation attempts, and the Spotify exclusivity drama, Rogan’s multi-platform comeback (YouTube, Apple, Spotify, everywhere) turned him into the most accessible and most listened-to voice on the planet. No gatekeepers. No script. Just a mic, curiosity, and an endless parade of fascinating humans.
So yeah, make Joe Rogan great again? Mission accomplished. He never really left the throne, he just built a bigger one.
And with episode 3,000 looming and rumors of deeper xAI integration on the horizon, 2026 is already looking insane.
Grab your headphones. The experience isn’t over. It’s just getting started.
Also read:
- Robert Kiyosaki Cashes Out $2.25 Million in Bitcoin: A Strategic Pivot or a Bet Against the Hype?
- Netflix House Opens in Philadelphia: The Streaming Giant's First Themed Entertainment Venue
- Cloudflare Calls to Unblock the Internet, Framing Site Blocking as a Digital Trade Barrier
- The Panacea of the Bush: Russell Crowe on Joe Rogan, The Farm, and Finding Peace
Thank you!
