Bloody Disgusting reports record podcast growth in 2021

Independent streaming company Cinedigm has announced that Bloody Disgusting reported record growth for its podcasts in 2021. The popular horror brand saw over 40 million podcast downloads last year, up 50% from 2020, and a 25% increase in listeners. Since partnering with the world's leading independent podcast company, Acast, in May 2020, Bloody Disgusting has found a strong revenue partner and scaled loyal listeners for their popular podcasts.

Currently distributing eleven horror podcasts, the Bloody Disgusting Podcast Network curates both fiction and non-fiction shows, covering everything from the sinister anthology Bleeder's DIEgest to the Stephen King-inspired The Losers' Club to SCP Archives Presents which dives deep into the darkness of the internet's most amazing stories.

The company's most popular podcast Creepy, which is downloaded more than a million times each month, gives voice to urban legends and horror stories primarily posted online, which are known as "creepypastas." The Creepy team finds and selects both acclaimed and emerging scary stories posted to Reddit and other horror forums and brings them to life on the podcast. This past October marked the fourth annual "31 Days of Horror" series, which has become a fan favorite each year. Last year's Halloween season series amassed 3.2 million listens.
Bloody Disgusting's shows consistently chart on Apple and Spotify. Creepy and SCP are always top 50 on Apple. SCP is one of the fastest-growing shows on Spotify, consistently in the top 5 on Spotify charts in the US, UK, Australia, and in the top 20s in Germany, Sweden, and Brazil. Creepy and SCP are in the top 1% of podcasts by downloads. The growth trajectory continues into 2022, with Bloody Disgusting's podcasts on track to gross over $1 million dollars in revenue before year's end, and major brands such as Babbel, Audible, HelloFresh and Nectar Sleep as current sponsors. Bloody Disgusting is investing aggressively to scale its podcast business with more original shows in development.
"It has been extremely exciting to watch the Bloody Disgusting Podcast Network see such tremendous growth year over year," said Tom Owen, Managing Director of Bloody Disgusting.

"Through Acast's far-reaching distribution platform and advertising marketplace, it allows the Bloody Disgusting Podcast Network to reach worldwide podcast listeners while also gaining brand advertisers. We've also been able to work with so many talented individuals and tell so many great stories. I can't wait to find our next project and continue expanding our library."

Over the past ten years, podcasts have become an increasingly popular form of entertainment in the United States. According to Statista, data from a study conducted in early 2021 showed that 41 percent of the population reported listening to a podcast in the previous month, which was more than three times as many listeners as a decade earlier. Diversity in content has played a role in the medium's continued rise. Historically skewing younger, the percentage of podcast listeners aged 55+ more than doubled between 2017-2021. This number will undoubtedly continue to rise as more Americans familiarize themselves with the medium. Statista reported that around 120 million Americans listened to podcasts last year, with that number expected to jump to around 160 million by the end of 2023.

Insidious Inspirations is Bloody Disgusting's latest half-hour, true-crime podcast that delves deep within the twisted tales that inspired some of Hollywood's most notorious characters. The podcast, which premiered earlier this year, has already garnered over 10,000 downloads in just a few weeks. Insidious Inspirations has landed in France's top 100 true crime podcasts and currently, its episodic downloads put it in the top 5% of podcasts (According to Libsyn). Every Tuesday, host Nichole Goodnight guides listeners through the true tales, urban legends and monster myths behind their favorite films. The series kicked off with "Hannibal Lecter - Werewolf of Nuevo León," the story of one of the 20th Century's most notorious serial killers. Additional episodes in the series include the stories of Sawney Bean, Robert the Doll and the Ocean Ave Haunting.