SUMMARY
- Joe Rogan hosts the no. 1 podcast in the world, "The Joe Rogan Experience."
- The UFC commentator reportedly has a $200 million deal with Spotify.
UFC commentator Joe Rogan is the most influential podcaster in the world and the figures back it up. Back in 2009, the stand-up comedian put out the first episode of his podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience.” Although the audio program first started on YouTube, the show found new heights after moving to Spotify.
Initial reports suggested that Rogan’s three-and-a-half-year deal with Spotify was worth $100 million. Since then, reports have clarified that the Texan would be earning $200 million instead. However, the partnership has been a rocky one with many backlashes against the podcaster. From past use of racial slurs to his controversial opinions against vaccines, Joe Rogan has had to weather a lot of storms.
As it turns out, it was a fruitful endeavor for both Rogan and the streaming platform. According to a recent report from Forbes, Rogan averages about 11 million listeners per episode. However, that does not come as a surprise to many as Rogan regularly attracts the most popular names in the pop culture zeitgeist. Elon Musk, Kanye West, Miley Cyrus, Dave Chappelle, etc are some of the biggest personalities that made appearances on his show.
“The Joe Rogan Experience” beats the competitors by nearly 2X margin
As previously mentioned, “The Joe Rogan Experience” is averaging above 11,000,000 listeners per episode. However, that is not the most impressive stat from the Forbes report. Reportedly, Rogan is generating nearly double the audience than the second biggest podcast, “Crime Junkie.” The true-crime podcast apparently has averaged 5.9 million listeners per episode.
While the 56-year-old has retained the top spot on Spotify for the majority of the past three years, there was only one podcast that was able to dethrone Rogan. It was actor and British royalty, Meghan Markel’s “Archetypes.” However, it ultimately missed out on featuring in the Top 5 podcasts with the highest number of listeners in 2023.
In first place, comes “The Joe Rogan Experience” with 11 million weekly listeners. “Crime Junkie” takes the second place with a 5.9 million average audience. In third place, comes New York Times “The Daily” with 1.9 million listeners weekly. “The American Life” and “Morbid: A True Crime Podcast” occupy the fourth and fifth spots respectively.
Top 5 most-watched JRE podcasts of all time
According to a report from the JRE Library, Joe Rogan has produced nearly 6000 hours of content, which translates to nearly 250 days. Brendan Schaub, Eddie Bravo, Bryan Callen, Ari Shaffir, and Joey Diaz are the top 5 guests with the most features on the show with 89, 87, 85, 63, and 60 appearances respectively. But the question is, what are the most-watched episodes of the biggest podcast in the world? Let’s find out.
5. JRE Episode #1255
The 1255th episode of JRE was one of the most controversial ones in its history. The episode featured the polarizing political commentator Alex Jones. Jones, who is infamous for his controversial views, made an appearance on the show in 2019. However, the podcast was later deleted from the official playlist of the show’s Spotify profile. The episode ranks 5th on the list with reportedly 33 million streams.
4. JRE Episode #1368
“The Joe Rogan Experience” episode #1368 came out in October 2019. The episode featured the American fugitive, Edward Snowden. Snowden is a former CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) employee who is famous for blowing the whistle on the “Patriot Act.” He has been living away from the United States of America since then and there was a lot of interest in knowing his side of the story.
Unlike his usual podcasts, this particular episode took place over a virtual call. Snowden was there to promote his book “Permanent Record” and the episode has 38,122,573 views so far.
3. JRE Episode #1070
Episode 1070 featured another frequent visitor of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Jordan Peterson. For those who are unaware, Peterson is a professor with degrees in political science and psychology. Peterson has even collaborated with soccer legend Cristiano Ronaldo. Known for his sharp tongue, Peterson has gone viral over the years for his innovative style of arguments. The particular episode, in 2018, has generated 38,938,839 million views.
2. JRE Episode #1315
As Joe Rogan fans already know, the MMA enthusiast already has a lot of interest in exploring the extra-terrestrial. Over the years, Rogan has spent hours discussing theories on alien life. Hence, one can imagine how excited Joe was to be talking to a former Area 51 employee, Bob Lazar. Lazar is a physicist and they spoke about UFO-related matters.
The episode aired in June 2019 and featured a fascinating conversation between Rogan and Lazar about the bizarre entities inside the heavily guarded area. Lazar was there to promote his Netflix documentary “Bob Lazar: Area 51 & Flying Saucers.” The episode has generated 56,835,507 views only on YouTube.
1. JRE Episode #1169
Elon Musk is one of, if not the most influential men in the world. From running businesses like Space X, Tesla, and Boring Company, to buying Twitter and rebranding it to “X,” not many have accomplished so much in their life. One more record that he holds under his belt is that he is the most-watched guest in JRE history.
His first appearance came in 2018, which broke the internet. During the episode, Musk tried out Rogan’s marijuana for the first time and it raised a massive controversy.
However, it resulted in a historical amount of views as the video has generated 68,147,481 clicks so far. His second appearance came in May 2020 and the episode (#1470) has generated 32 million views. In total, Musk’s JRE appearances generated over 100 million views on YouTube.
How much does Joe Rogan earn from his JRE episodes?
Joe Rogan currently holds a net worth of $120,000,000 according to Celebrity Net Worth. He has hosted the famous reality show “Fear Factor.” Aside from that, he also appeared in the popular TV show “NewsRadio.” He also made an appearance on Will Smith’s 2017 movie, “Bright.” However, most fans know him as the commentator for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
For his UFC appearances, Rogan reportedly gets paid $50,000. However, that does not compete with the money he earns for hosting his famous JRE podcast. While his Spotify deal is reportedly worth $200,000,000, Rogan reportedly earns $100,000 from each of his episodes. With more or less three episodes per week, Rogan bags more than a million per month from the podcast.