Christianity , Music , and Comedy are the most crowded primary categories. Interestingly, the top 3 categories in 2018 look a lot like the top 3 categories in 2015, when Josh Morgan performed a similar analysis of the iTunes directory.

Remember, Apple lets you list your show in multiple secondary categories, but you only get to select one primary category. If your show’s content straddles more than one, I hope this chart can help you make a smart decision about which primary category to choose.

Home Cooked is listed in Arts: Food, a relatively uncrowded category

For example, my pals Sarah and CJ recently launched a show called Home Cooked, all about the intersection of food, family history, and culture. Given the nature of the show, they could have listed it under Society & Culture or Personal Journals .

Instead, they made the smart choice to list it under Arts: Food . Not only is this a much more specific category, but it’s also way less crowded, representing just 0.5% of the entire Apple Podcasts directory. I’m not surprised Home Cooked has remained on the Canadian food charts since it launched.

If you want to compete in a sparsely-populated category, pay close attention to the bottom of the list. Government & Organizations: Regional , Games & Hobbies: Aviation , and Business: Shopping seem like good places to hang out (stay tuned for my new hobby podcast: How To Buy a Regional Airline).

If you’re trying to decide between two different podcast categories, and both seem like a good fit… pick the less-crowded one.

Which categories have the most episodes?

In addition to “Top Shows,” Apple also maintains a “Top Episodes” list. Another way to think about crowdedness is to look at episode counts.

Let’s look at a list of Apple’s categories, by total number of episodes: