Wondering what the best day to release your podcast is?
I’ve got news for you, it doesn’t matter.

Photo by Bich Tran
Imagine you’ve been invited to a gala dinner. The first thing you’ll have to do is decide what to wear.
For you, that might mean a great suit. You find a great suit, then come event night you can start fussing. You make sure there isn’t any lint on it, that your shoes are tied nicely, and you can re-tie your tie over and over until you get it juuuust right.
But the fussing is absolutely useless if you’ve decided to wear a clown costume.
You could be standing at the mirror in your clown costume fussing over the lint, making sure your nose is straight, and that your wig isn’t squint. But no matter how much fussing you do, you’re not going to be allowed into the party.
Deciding which day to publish your podcast is the fussing. It is the little details you can focus on after you’ve picked your target audience, defined your concept, and focused on quality.
Then, you can start to add on the little wins, like choosing the best day and time to release your podcast.
That said, if you’re ready to fuss, then read on.
Best Day To Release A Podcast
If in doubt, let’s look at what successful podcasts are doing. I went into the Apple Podcast charts on Chartable today and picked out a few long-running shows that aren’t produced daily. Here’s what I found their podcast release schedules are:
- Acquired – Inconsistent publishing schedule – every 1-2 months
- Morbid – Mondays and Thursdays
- Pod Save America – Inconsistent publishing schedule – Every 1-2 days
- Huberman Labs – Mondays and Wednesdays
- New Heights – Wednesdays
- The Mel Robbins Podcast – Mondays and Thursdays
This isn’t a study of all the top podcasts, this is just a few to look at. And what jumps out to me isn’t the fact that three release a podcast on Monday. It’s the fact that you have two options:
Pick a day to release your new podcast episode and stick to it, or publish when you have something to say.
Acquired focuses on quality. Sometimes, it takes longer to produce one podcast episode than the next. That works great. Pod Save America is a politics show and seems to make a podcast episode when there’s breaking news. Meanwhile, the other shows have gone for the traditional weekly release, sometimes with a second day a week for bonus series.
For most of you, what day you release a podcast matters less than sticking to the day once you choose it so your listeners know when to expect you.
If you’re starting out, pick the day that works best for your production schedule. If you record at the weekend, publishing on Monday makes sense. Or if you interview on Wednesdays and edit on Thursdays, why not release on Fridays? It won’t make or break your show, so just pick one.
Alternatively you can look at your competitor’s scheduling strategy and decide if you want to do something different.
Read about ways to promote your podcast here.
Exceptions to The Rule
Obviously, if you have a podcast about living your best life over the weekend, it should come out on Friday. Or if you comment on Monday night football, it should come out soon after on Monday or Tuesday. But you’re smart enough to know that, I’m sure.
What Is the Best Time To Release a Podcast?
This still falls under the realm of fussing. It can be useful, but only after all the other marketing steps are taken care of. That said, there is a good rule of thumb.
If in doubt, go for the morning at 5.30 am
Podcasting is a companion media. People listen to a podcast while doing something else. For many people, that something is commuting.
The theory goes that you can capture listeners’ attention by being at the top of the queue of their “new releases” or downloaded episodes. They hop into the car, and you start playing. I see no hole in this logic, so a good rule of thumb is scheduling your podcast to release at 5.30 am will work out quite well.
Of course, common sense comes into play. If your podcast helps people fall asleep, then releasing it at night will be a better idea. It’s all about knowing what your target audience wants and giving it to them.
But once you are established, your listeners will know your rhythm and know when to look out for new podcast episodes anyway, so don’t worry too much.
Account for the Time Zone of Your Target Audience
5.30 am in London is very different from 5.30 am in California. This again comes down to knowing your podacst audience. Which time zone do they live in? Serve up your podcast to the listeners feeds when they’ll be awake to listen to it. You can look at your podcast analytics to see which countries people are listening from to help you decide.
Why It Matters
Two words: podcast charts.
Podcast charts are based on a few different factors, but according to Apple, top shows and top podcast episodes look at three factors:
- Listening: When listeners are engaging with episodes, it’s an indicator of content popularity.
- Follows: When listeners follow a show to receive new podcast episodes, it’s an indicator of their intent to listen.
- Completion Rate: When listeners complete podcast episodes, it’s an indicator of content quality.
By releasing your podcast in the morning, you are more likely to check these three boxes and move your podcast up the charts. It’s not a sure thing, but if you’re looking to fuss and start getting all the small 1% wins that can compound over time, releasing your episodes in the morning is a good idea.
The Day Doesn’t Matter – Megaphone’s Study and the Chicken and the Egg
Most of the other blog posts about picking a the best day to release a podcast reference a study done by Megaphone in 2018, which they have since removed from the internet. But I found the source on the Wayback machine.
It got attention, rightly so, for its fancy data graphs like this one:

I have a physics degree, so it irks me when people misinterpret data to fit their own conclusions. While people look at that and say it means Tuesday is the best day to publish, Megaphone themselves said:
We’ll stress again that these data only show correlations between publishing times and downloads. Any causal relationship would need to be tested by the same podcast methodically changing its publishing day and/or time, to see how that affected the downloads”
In their own words, they tell you to test the days of release with your podcast to see what works, and not just copy the data we have.
They go on to say:
There are many reasons for choosing a particular time slot for your podcast, but if you’re able to publish on Tuesday at 5 AM, these data suggest that wouldn’t be a bad choice.
And so the echo chamber began where an anecdotal study from 6 years ago became the golden standard of advice for releasing on a Tuesday.
That advice then made more people release podcasts on a Tuesday, and when those podcasts become successful, they can say, “Gosh, Tuesday really is the best day to release! It lead to the most downloads”
Using the same pen as Stephen King won’t make you write novels like he does. And so choosing the same release schedule as Mel Robbins won’t make you produce a podcast like she does. Early morning might be better but again it doesn’t matter if you don’t focus on building the audience. The harsh truth is an early morning release won’t grow your show.
Final Thoughts on the Best Day To Release a Podcast
Don’t spend too much time on this. Choosing the best day to release a podcast not going to be the golden gun that makes your podcast explode in popularity. It’s a 30-minute decision. Pick a day, pick a time, and stick to it. You can release podcast episodes when they’re ready. Or you can release mid week. Or you can lean into your target audience’s specific behavior and decide that they love hearing from you on a Friday.
Whatever your podcast publishing schedule, make sure you regularly produce podcasts and make your podcast schedule work for you. And as I mentioned earlier, think about gaining a loyal audience who will learn your podcast
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