Hamish & Andy retake top spot as ABC's 'Unravel' storms podcast ranker

Hamish & Andy have overtaken Mamamia Out Loud to claim No.1 in September’s Australian Podcast Ranker, while ABC’s Unravel surged 107 places to break into the top 10.

Johns Media’s Backstage with Cooper & Matty Johns also gained ground, climbing nine places to No.28 as several football podcasts increased their audiences.

A comparison of Triton Digital’s September and August figures shows a tougher month for several major daily news titles, alongside sharp falls for Pretty Sure and The Grade Cricketer.

Hamish & Andy reclaim the lead

LiSTNR’s Hamish & Andy reached 871,392 monthly listeners in September, up 2.5% from 849,854 in August.

Mamamia Out Loud slipped to second as its audience fell 6.9% to 796,760 from 855,821. That left a 74,632-listener gap between the two shows, after Mamamia held a lead of just 5,967 in August.

The change at the top came despite Mamamia Out Loud recording more monthly downloads: 2.10 million against Hamish & Andy’s 1.59 million. The ranker orders podcasts by monthly listeners.

ABC News Top Stories held third, and Life Uncut remained fourth, while SEN Breakfast climbed from seventh to fifth.

Unravel’s audience jumps more than sevenfold

Unravel delivered September’s standout breakthrough, rising from No. 116 to No. 9.

Its monthly audience increased from 56,286 to 421,203, a gain of 364,917 listeners, or 648.3%. Downloads rose from 189,342 to 1.65 million.

The publishing schedule also changed substantially. Unravel recorded nine new episodes in September after releasing none in August, an important distinction when assessing the scale of its growth.

News Corp Australia’s The Poisoned Wife also made an immediate impact, debuting at No.15 with 292,758 listeners and 468,101 downloads across six new episodes.

Those results point to strong demand for investigative and crime storytelling, although established titles had a mixed month. I Catch Killers with Gary Jubelin grew 5.4% to 262,299 listeners and climbed three places to No.17. True Crime Conversations edged up 1.3% to 260,101, holding No.18.

Australian True Crime’s audience fell 1.4% to 255,230, taking it from No.17 to No.20.

Daily news audiences soften

Several prominent daily news podcasts lost listeners in September, even where their rankings barely moved.

ABC News Top Stories remained third despite a 14.8% audience decline to 533,611. The Front fell 6.7% to 365,660, The Daily declined 6.3% to 257,286, and 7am lost 6.2% to 197,308.

ABC News Daily was comparatively steady, down 0.5% to 336,152.

Guardian Australia’s Full Story broke the pattern, rising 7.3% to 253,248 listeners and climbing from No.23 to No.21. It also published 40 new episodes, up from 32.