Love, sex life and dating podcasts get Kenyans hooked – Report

BY SINDA MATIKO
Most Kenyans are hooked on content about Love, sex lives, and dating according to the latest report by the giant Swedish audio streaming platform, Spotify.
According to the report seen by Nation, Kenya which is among the top three countries in Africa with the biggest market share of podcast growth behind South and Nigeria respectively, raked over 400 million minutes of streaming in 2024.
South Africa led with two billion minutes followed by Nigeria’s 700 million minutes.
Cumulatively almost four billion minutes of audio podcast played in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2024.
“Numbers don’t lie. Podcasting is here to stay because it lets creators take control of their narratives and tell these stories on their terms while bringing their community along for the journey.  South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya listened to the most shows this year, with South Africa contributing over two billion minutes. If you started playing podcasts on one device today, it would make for about 30 centuries of listening. “ notes Ncebakazi Manzi, Spotify’s Sub-Saharan Africa Podcast Manager.
But unlike South Africans and Nigerians, Kenyans have found an appetite more in topics that center around relationships.
“Kenya’s broader listening data shows relationships are a meaningful taking point. Seven of the 10 most shared episodes in the country discuss love, sex lives, and dating. Julia Gaitho’s So This Is Love holds three out of the country’s top five most shared podcast episodes.” Manzi adds.
In Nigeria and South Africa, audiences embrace shows about spirituality with the ‘Christian Motivation’ podcast having one of the most shared episodes in South Africa while the ‘Apostle Joshua Selman’ podcast maintained its popularity in Nigeria for a second consecutive year.
As the continent’s second-largest podcast market, Nigeria listened to 700 million minutes in 2024 creating half of the new shows published in Sub-Saharan Africa this year.
Motivational shows about issues like managing finances, personal goals, and health also remain popular across the three leading countries. The data shows that Western shows like ‘The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett’ by the 32-year-old English Entrepreneur ‘Motivation Daily by Motiversity’ and ‘The Success Addicted Podcast’ have attracted listeners.
Even though spirituality dominated Nigeria’s top charts, the continued popularity of shows like “I Said What I Said and “The HonestBunch Podcast” shows listeners also want conversation-style shows. Listeners in Kenya and South Africa also showed an affinity toward these shows.
This year, three hilarious content creators Trevor, Frank, and Dante, popularly known as 3MenArmy, topped the list of top ten Kenyan podcasts that attracted the most listenership on the platform, with their podcast The 97s Podcast.
The three host the podcast, exploring their everyday life experiences as they speak their minds in a fun and sometimes smart but silly way. The 97s Podcast has seen tremendous growth in its listenership, coming in at number eight last year.
“The 97s Podcast has been inspired by this approach where funny and frank chats between hosts Trevor, Frank and Dante have led the podcast to take the number-one spot in the country for the first time” Manzi observes.
The 2023 most streamed podcast So This Is Love, a podcast hosted by Julia Gaitho aka Jules, dropped to second place, proving it is still one of the most popular podcasts in the country.
Jules’ podcast focuses on relationship issues ranging from loss of love, heartbreak, and finding yourself.
Julia Gaitho hosts various guests who share their experiences in past relationships, either anonymously or with their real identities.
An interesting entry into the top 10 is actor and scriptwriter Abel Mutua’s The Mkurugenzi Podcast, which comes in at number three after not even making the top 10 list last year. Abel’s podcast is a storytelling channel he created for the sole purpose of educating, entertaining, and informing his audience about life events.
The podcast Messy In Between, which ranked second in 2023, dropped to fourth this year. The podcast is hosted by Murugi Munyi and Lydia K.M., who say theirs is a podcast about “life as it is. Messy. In love, work, money, relationships, friendships, and everything in between.
ShxtsNGigs podcast, which was fourth last year, moved to fifth in 2024. The weekly podcast an opinion show hosted by two best friends James and Fuhad, tapped into audiences’ hunger for conversational shows.
The humorous podcast has made its way to the top charts in six of the top 10 podcast-playing African countries.

English entrepreneur and investor Steven Cliff Bartlett’s podcast A Dairy of a CEO with Steven Barlett jumped from 10th to sixth this year in 2023. In 2017, he launched The Diary of a CEO podcast, which is one of the most listened-to podcasts in the world.
It’s Related, I Promise podcast, which ranked third in 2023 and was the most exported that year, dropped to seventh this year. Described as “a sonic escape into the world of three diverse Kenyan women,” the podcast is hosted by Julia Gaitho and Sharon Machira, young professionals who brave the urban landscape of Kenya’s capital city and grow their friendship along the way.
Another new entry in the top 10 is Mic Cheque, hosted by musician Aryosh, which is more of a banter and fun podcast that has gradually gained popularity this year.
The Sandwich Podcast, hosted by four friends, which was sixth last year, lost its grip in 2024 and dropped to ninth.
Rounding out the top 10 is a new entry, the motivational podcast Success Addicted Podcast, with the voice of Earl Nightingale.