Whether you’re targeting audiences in Manchester, Melbourne, or Miami, one thing is consistent: digital audio offers a huge opportunity to reach listeners wherever they’re tuning in. That might be in the car, at home, on a smart speaker, during the commute, at the gym, at work, playing a mobile game – the touchpoints keep growing for a channel with increasing possibilities.
We speak a lot about the market in the UK, but understanding how audiences consume streaming audio, podcasts, and mobile in-game in different markets is just as crucial. audioadpro has served campaigns across the globe – including Canada and Australia, the UAE, Germany and the US – and this roundup features the latest research shaping digital audio advertising right now and what it means for advertisers.
United Kingdom
The UK remains one of Europe’s most mature digital audio markets, with connected listening firmly embedded in consumers’ daily lives. According to The Infinite Dial UK 2025, 74% of UK adults aged 16+ listen to connected audio every week, up from 66% in 2021. Listening is no longer confined to smartphones either; 33% of adults now use Apple CarPlay or Android Auto as an audio source in the car, while 32% play games on a mobile device each week, creating more opportunities for advertisers to reach audiences across audio environments (The Infinite Dial UK, 2025).
Despite this, digital audio still represents just 2.5% of UK digital advertising spend, suggesting there’s significant headroom as brands continue to diversify their media mix (IAB UK Digital Adspend Report, 2025).
United States
If you want one statistic that sums up the size of the US podcast market, it’s “Americans now consume 812 million hours of podcasts every single week”. That’s 5% higher than last year and a 386% increase over the past decade (Edison Research Share of Ear, 2026).
The wider digital audio landscape is just as impressive. EMARKETER forecasts 239.6 million digital audio listeners in 2026, with 183.3 million accessible to advertisers (EMARKETER US Digital Audio Forecast, 2026).
Canada
In Canada, the podcast market is equally strong. According to Triton Digital’s Canadian Podcast Report, 46% of Canadians now listen to podcasts every month, rising to 49% among English-speaking Canadians – the largest annual increase the report has ever recorded (Triton Digital Canadian Podcast Report, 2026).
While podcast listening continues to grow, music streaming remains Canada’s biggest digital audio habit (CRTC, 2025). Canadians streamed more than three billion songs in a single week for the first time in December 2025 (Music Canada/Luminate, 2025).
Australia
Over in Australia too, online listening is firmly embedded in everyday behaviour. The latest Infinite Dial Australia found that 84% of Australians listen to streaming audio each month, representing an estimated 20 million people. Podcasting is also reaching greater heights, with 55% of Australians consuming podcasts monthly, up from 52% the previous year (The Infinite Dial Australia, 2026).
Listening is also becoming increasingly connected across devices, with Apple CarPlay or Android Auto now present in 52% of primary vehicles, showing how the car is becoming an important digital listening environment (The Infinite Dial Australia, 2026).
Germany
Germany’s digital audio market continues to evolve, with podcast listening on the rise once again. The latest ARD/ZDF Media Study found that 34% of Germans now listen to podcasts every week, up from 29% the previous year. Mobile gaming also presents a growing opportunity for advertisers, with 52% of Germans aged 16+ playing video or computer games, and 88% of gamers using a smartphone to play (Bitkom, 2025).
Alongside these shifts in audience behaviour, Statista identifies programmatic buying as a key trend in Germany’s digital audio advertising market, “driving targeted ad campaigns and maximising ROI in the market”.
Every market has its own listening habits, preferred platforms and audience behaviours. But the direction of travel is remarkably similar, seen also in the places we haven’t covered today. People are listening to more digital audio than ever before.
Research from Effie Worldwide and System1, presented at Cannes Lions 2026, analysed 1,262 campaigns across 17 years and found that campaigns using audio consistently outperformed those that didn’t. The study reported average effectiveness uplifts of 23% in the UK & Ireland, 16% across Europe and 5% in the US, reinforcing audio’s ability to build trust, improve campaign performance and drive commercial results (Effie x System1 Databank: The Secret to Profit and Trust: Audio, 2026).
At audioadpro, we help brands navigate both the UK market and international opportunities – combining audience insight, precise geo-targeting and consolidated measurement – delivering performance-driven digital audio campaigns across multiple territories.
Wherever your brand may be jetting off to next… send us your flight dates, and we’ll sort the planning.
