It’s official: YouTube has become the most popular platform for podcast consumption. Not Spotify. Not Apple. YouTube. 

But here’s the problem: most podcast hosting platforms still act like it’s 2018.

They treat YouTube as a side project, an optional add-on, not the main stage. So what about  your YouTube views, engagement, and subscriber growth? They’re nowhere to be found in your hosting platform data. You’re not seeing the full picture of your performance and you’re making decisions with incomplete data.

Let’s break down what that really means for your business and why integrating YouTube is no longer optional.

Most podcast hosting platforms track downloads. Some are starting to layer in Apple and Spotify dashboards. But none ingests YouTube data directly into your reporting—let alone combining it with your RSS metrics.

The result: you might be seeing a 30,000-download show… when the reality is you’re reaching 50,000 people once YouTube is factored in.

That’s not a rounding error. That’s a business-defining blind spot.

Most podcasters face a simple but critical marketing question:
Where do I send new listeners or viewers?

Do you direct them to:

• Spotify for easy mobile streaming?
• Apple Podcasts, still dominant among iOS users?
• YouTube, where discovery and algorithms work in your favor?
• Or your own website, to control the full experience and build your list?

The answer isn’t obvious. And the stakes are high.

Because this decision doesn’t just affect where people hear you—it affects whether they discover you at all, how they engage, and how valuable they are over time.

To make the right call, you need to ask better questions. Questions like:

• Where is discovery easiest? 
• On which platform is your show growing fastest?
• Where does your show make the most money?
  Which platform builds the deepest relationships?

Before you pick a platform to prioritize, you need to understand where you’re already winning. And that means pulling in your YouTube data, view counts, watch time, engagement, subscribers, and lining it up next to your RSS data.

When you do, patterns emerge:

• Episodes that cause a new audience member to subscribe or follow the show
• Moments that get clipped, shared, and replayed
• Episodes that “flop” in downloads but thrive on YouTube
• Audience segments who only know you from video

This is actionable insight. It tells you where to focus, what content to promote, and how to think about monetization, whether that’s via ads, subscriptions, or partnerships.

Your podcast is a multi-platform business now. Treat it like one.

YouTube isn’t optional anymore, it’s a core distribution channel. And if your analytics don’t reflect that, you’re not getting the credit (or the cash) you deserve.At Engine Room, we integrate your YouTube data directly into your podcast reporting. This gives you a full view of your show’s real performance across platforms, in real time. Because when you can see the whole picture, you make better decisions. And better decisions grow businesses.