Two girls with a microphone recording a podcast

Podcast popularity soars in Portugal: PodScope reports record downloads in May

Grupo especializado investigación mercados

The podcast landscape in Portugal is booming, and the latest data from PodScope, a service by Marktest, confirms it. In May 2025, podcast downloads reached a new high for the year, totaling 18.5 million, a 60% increase compared to April and 45% more than in January*. That’s an average of 3.7 million downloads per week. 

Each month, PodScope publishes an independently audited ranking of the top 200 podcasts in Portugal, offering a transparent view of the country’s podcasting ecosystem. The May ranking (covering April 28 to June 1) highlights the dominance of four major media groups: 

  • Observador: 67 podcasts 
  • Impresa: 65 podcasts 
  • Bauer Media: 39 podcasts 
  • Grupo Renascença Multimédia: 29 podcasts 

At the top of the list was Extremamente Desagradável from Grupo Renascença Multimédia, with 2.42 million downloads, accounting for 13.1% of the total. It was followed by Mixórdia de Temáticas and O Homem que Mordeu o Cão, both from Bauer Media, with over 2 million and 1.3 million downloads respectively. Together, these three shows represented nearly one-third (31%) of all podcast consumption in the country. 

In terms of brand performance, the top five contributors to total downloads were: 

  • Rádio Comercial: 23.6% 
  • Observador: 18.6% 
  • Renascença: 17% 
  • SIC Notícias: 16.5% 
  • Expresso: 13.2% 

These five brands alone accounted for 89% of all podcast downloads in May. 

PodScope is a technical, audited, and independent measurement service for Portuguese podcasts, developed by Marktest. It is supported by a group of publishers and operators committed to transparency and international standards in podcast metrics. The goal: to elevate the real value of podcasting in Portugal. 

You can explore the full monthly rankings, including podcast names, categories, download numbers, weekly listeners, and new episodes, at www.marktest.com/pod_scope. 

 

Please, contact Marktest for more information.  

 

*Please note that when comparing April and May downloads, we are comparing a 5 week ISO month to a 4 week month. 
Grupo especializado investigación mercados

Minerva Insights was founded in 2023 as a result of the union of several companies specialized in market research, media intelligence and software development. 

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