From what we can see, Covid-19 has helped to revitalize interest in podcasts. The number of people posting to the two subreddits gradually fell across 2019. In 2020 that fall has been completely reversed, and then some.

From April onwards discussion on these subreddits really gets going, increasing 29% from March to April. This eventually peaked the week of May 3 with 2,600 users posting to the subreddits.

The trend looks to be continuing into this month, too. May has already seen nearly as many posts as March, with plenty of the month still to go. Clearly there’s a big appetite for podcasts, and there’s good news for people looking for something new to listen to.

We set up a query in our Consumer Research platform to track mentions of people specifically talking about their own podcasts, going back to January 2019. There’s been a big change.

The number of people talking about their own podcasts jumped at the beginning of March and has continued to trend upwards since. With many people under lockdown and with more time on their hands, creating podcasts has clearly been a popular way to while away the hours.

In April, 39k people mentioned their own podcasts, a 41% year-on-year increase. May is looking to follow suit, with 25k of these mentions already. That’s a lot of new podcasts, and good news for microphone manufacturers too.

But what genre of podcasts are our new creators recording? We looked at that too, using Apple’s podcast categories to group our data.

While Arts is way out in front, it’s clear that the podcasts being created cover a wide range of topics. This is another positive example of people getting creative during the pandemic. For some, this could be the start of an entirely new career path.

This revived interest in podcasts also presents opportunities for brands. One option is to create their own podcast, but this can be tricky, timely, and costly. The other is to snap up some ad space to get in front of freshly eager ears.

Retro game consoles are thriving

Consumers have been pulling out their old game consoles for some good old nostalgic fun.

Using our Consumer Research platform, we found 10m English-language mentions of playing with old consoles between March and April 2020. These mentions are up 23% compared to January and February.

The SEGA Genesis (also known as the Mega Drive outside of the US) is the most popular retro console on social, with 625k mentions. The console’s mentions increased 22% during lockdown compared to January and February totals.

An astonishing 231k people were discussing playing with Game Boys, and we found 2k people using their lockdown time to customize their handheld console with a paint job.

People are also using their lockdowns to revive old consoles, rather than buying them new or refurbished. 135k social posters were discussing console repairs in March and April, up 33% from January and February. And 10k people were asking for help to restore their console back to factory condition.

The top titles we found mentioned in retro gaming conversations were:

1. The Sonic Series (174k mentions)
2. Pokémon (79k mentions)
3. Super Mario Series (49k mentions)
4. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1&2 (41k mentions)
5. The Legend of Zelda series (40k)

Consumers are trying to make the most of their time during lockdown. Retro consoles take consumers back to a happier time, and discussing them online provides a fun outlet to connect (especially for anyone looking to escape gloomy news reports).

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Brandwatch Response Team