Joe Rogan recently lost his long-held place at the top of the Spotify US podcast charts, but a new episode from both him and his rival have further solidified that he might have something to worry about.
The Joe Rogan Experience has been one of the most popular podcasts since it's inception in 2009, and has especially remained the show to beat ever since the move to Spotify in 2020.
Having shared the microphone with high-profile guests such as Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Quentin Tarantino, and Miley Cyrus, it's not hard to see why around 11,000,000 viewers tune in for every episode.
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He has recently been knocked off the top spot of his native Spotify charts though, and surprisingly it was by a podcast that at the time only had one episode. The new leader has further cemented their reign for a second week too, remaining in the top spot following the next episode's release.
The new leader in question is 'Not Gonna Lie with Kylie Kelce', which follows one of the most prominent members of the nation's favorite football family as she explores her own personal story beyond existing documentaries and delves into gossip too.
It would be a bit disingenuous to call this a completely new podcast as Kylie Kelce is more than an established name in American pop culture right now, being the husband of former NFL star Jason Kelce who himself hosts a hit podcast with his brother, who is of course currently in a relationship with Taylor Swift.
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What you cannot deny though is the achievement of knocking Joe Rogan off of his perch for not just one week but two, as many have questioned the sustainability of Kylie's popularity at the top.
Rogan fans aren't too happy with the news though, as various Reddit threads have pushed back against Kelce's rise to fame, as reported by Newsweek.
"Why would anyone care about what the wife of the man whose brother is dating Taylor Swift has to say about anything," argues one disgruntled commenter, while another explains how they "can't wait for Taylor to break up with that guy so I won't have to hear about him or his brother or his brother's wife."
Some who would otherwise find themselves against Rogan have expressed their disinterest too, with one user declaring: "I hate Rogan, but I also don't care for the Kelce's continuously getting rammed down my throat."
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It's hard to ignore the numbers though, as Kelce's podcast remains the #1 in the US and Canada across both Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Perhaps the 'truth' behind the situation lies both within the episode specific charts and the data behind these platform's algorithmic weightings.
The Joe Rogan Experience currently holds the top three spots on Spotify's US episode charts - with the most recent episode #2241 claiming the top spot following its release.
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Kelce, however, finds her first episode all the way down at #63, and the second is currently not placed on the top 100 at the time of writing.
This disparity between overall podcast rankings and individual episode popularity could be down to the way that things are weighted on these platforms though, as explained by one Reddit user.
"Apple charts use an algorithm that weights percentage change in download/stream numbers," details the user, "so going from 0 to 500,000 could put you ahead of a show that went from 980,000 to 1,000,000."
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This could then explain how a completely new podcast which doesn't seem to have a major episode-by-episode pull can outrank a long-running show with 11 million average listeners, and it could perhaps appear more 'realistic' as the weeks go on.
Of course, we don't have any specific viewership numbers for the Not Gonna Lie podcast right now, but many have pointed to the difference in chart rankings as an indicator that this might not last for as long it seems from a first glance.