India's Podcast Boom of 2025: Who Won on YouTube, Who Ruled Spotify How Indian podcasters leveraged video for scale and audio for loyalty in a breakout year.

2025 was the year of explosive podcast growth in India. It has grown significantly in both terms of its prominence within society and by creating an ecosystem around it encompassing several industries, including conversation, opinions, and consumption. Podcasting's meteoric rise in India also highlights interesting differences in how listeners choose to consume these types of content. For example, even though the majority of audio-first listeners continue to use Spotify as their primary platform, the increasing popularity of YouTube as a means to find new shows, build larger communities around shows, and consume video content means that Indian Podcasters will be able to tap into the full potential of both Spotify and YouTube.

Some podcast creation groups have been able to develop their brands using audio creativity and branding by creating loyal audio audiences, while others have developed significantly larger audiences through video-based content.

Here's a look at some of India's most popular podcasts of 2025, and how they performed across YouTube and Spotify.

The Ranveer Show (BeerBiceps)

Platforms: YouTube, Spotify
Genre: Self-improvement, business, spirituality, pop culture

Ranveer Show stands out among Indian podcasts for its dominant presence across platforms with regard to audience size. By 2025, it continued to build on its popularity as an Indian YouTuber with the same format as a Podcast and is positioned as one of the top Podcasts in India with a minimum of 1 - 5 million views for almost every episode. The reason why Ranveer Show has such high numbers is due mainly to the format in which it is produced - long-form videos with entrepreneurs, spiritual leaders, and celebrities.

On Spotify, The Ranveer Show continued to be one of the most-streamed Indian podcast shows, and it continued to be highly popular within the categories of Business and Self-Growth. In addition to its strong audio numbers, The Ranveer Show's primary advantage was that YouTube's algorithm continued to recommend the show's clips and full episodes to new audiences.

Platform takeaway:
YouTube built The Ranveer Show's scale and virality, while Spotify retained loyal, repeat listeners.

Figuring Out with Raj Shamani

Platforms: YouTube, Spotify
Genre: Entrepreneurship, finance, mindset

Raj Shamani's Figuring Out also had a major impact in 2025 and created great interest among young emerging entrepreneurs and professionals in India. The show was produced and developed in a very focused, insightful way, with all major episodes on YouTube being in the range of 500K to 1 million views on episodes that included interviews with startup owners and investors.

Similarly, Figuring Out came in at or near the top of the Spotify charts in the Business and Entrepreneurship categories in India. In addition, due to the shorter episode length, listeners appreciated being able to listen to Shamani's podcast while on the go.

Platform takeaway:
YouTube promoted visual thought leadership, while Spotify built trust and credibility in the Business Podcast ecosystem.

The Desi Crime Podcast

Platform: Spotify (primary), YouTube (clips)
Genre: True crime

True Crime podcasts had significant success in 2025, and The Desi Crime Podcast was an example of meaningful storytelling. It regularly appeared in the top creator-led podcasts in India on Spotify, with individual episodes receiving hundreds of thousands of streams. While YouTube primarily did not focus on full episodes, some brief clips and highlights of episodes were successful and helped bring new listeners to audio platforms.

Platform takeaway:
Spotify is primarily for consuming, and YouTube only serves as a means of discovering.

Khooni Monday – The Horror Show

Platform: Spotify, YouTube
Genre: Horror, storytelling

Khooni Monday exploited India's growing interest in the horror podcast category. In 2025, Khooni Monday found a great deal of success on Spotify, where episode-driven storytelling style lends itself to binge usage. Among younger users, Khooni Monday created a strong engagement through narrated visual episodes and clips on YouTube.

Platform takeaway:
Audio developed a habit of use, while Video developed curiosity about the content.

The Habit Coach with Ashdin Doctor

Platform: Spotify
Genre: Mental wellness, self-help

Wellness content grew significantly in 2025. The Podcast The Habit Coach continued to perform consistently on the Spotify platform, particularly as one of the leading self-help podcasts in India. With its short, actionable, and highly specific episodes, The Habit Coach was a great example of how audio is consumed, with little or no emphasis on YouTube as a distribution platform.

Platform takeaway:
Audio-first formats can continue to perform well; certain types of content can survive and thrive if they remain reliant on an audio-first platform.

YouTube vs Spotify:

The data clearly reveals a pattern from the data and the performance patterns of Indian podcasts in 2025; one conclusion is obvious:

• YouTube became a vehicle for getting noticed, for going viral, and for brand discovery

• Spotify became the vehicle for developing a loyal customer base, for repeat listening, and for establishing a connection with the listener (depth).

Why This Matters for Entrepreneurs and Brands

Podcasts in 2025 were not just a product for entrepreneurs; they were a way of getting their content to customers. Many podcasters have developed communities as a result of having conversations. Through these established communities of trust, entrepreneurs and podcasters can turn that trust into a revenue-generating model. In addition, brands follow where the attention is, and the attention is on creators who are authentic and credible.

Indian Podcasting is now recognized as an established part of the economy, that is no longer experimenting but rather strategically. Podcast creators who have developed specific segments of the market and can distinguish audiences have successfully leveraged their respective platforms to gain momentum.

In 2025, Indian podcasts didn't just speak. They scaled, influenced, and built businesses - one conversation at a time.