Joe Rogan’s Channel Growth Lags Behind Competitors
Joe Rogan’s YouTube channel growth is lagging behind his competitors, new research shows.Kyle Tharp, the independent writer and researcher, shared in a recent Substack that Rogan’s channel growth is being outpaced by the likes of Turning Point USA, More Perfect Union and Nick Shirley.Newsweek has contacted a representative for Rogan for comment.Why It MattersRogan’s podcast is closely followed by political observers, and how it ranks in different podcast charts can be viewed as a political litmus test of sorts. It has regularly been the subject of controversy for all manner of reasons, from misinformation to the sharing of conspiracy theories.During the 2024 presidential election, Donald Trump appeared on Rogan's podcast, and he was thanked by name by Trump’s longtime friend, CEO and president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Dana White, when Trump declared victory in the election.Rogan has since broken with Trump on multiple issues, from immigration policy to the handling of the Epstein files.What To KnowRogan retains one of the biggest audiences on YouTube and his podcast is one of the biggest on the planet. Tharp’s research named him as one of the biggest channels, alongside FOX, The Daily Show and Vox. He currently has 20.8 million subscribers on YouTube.According to Tharp’s research, which focused on ranking the growth of the "biggest partisan-leaning political YouTube channels in Q1,” Rogan’s channel gained some 200,000 new net subscribers in the first quarter of this year.By contrast, Turning Point USA gained some 1.6 million, the largest increase by far. Turning Point USA has 6.87 million subscribers.Turning Point USA’s subscriber bump in the first quarter has been linked by social media users to their hosting a rival Super Bowl halftime show in February.Rounding out the top three were More Perfect Union, an independent nonprofit newsroom, which gained 560,000 new subscribers, and Nick Shirely, an independent journalist who went viral in December for outlining alleged fraud in Minnesota, who gained 520,000 new subscribers.Behind them in the top five were the Shawn Ryan Show and Meidas Touch, which gained 490,000 and 450,000 subscribers, respectively. Some of the channels that have outpaced Rogan are newer, and may be more likely to grow quickly. The fast-growing channels also show a mix of political voices, with right and left wing voices both seeing their audiences grow.What People Are SayingKyle Tharp, writer and researcher, in a post on X: “New in @readchaoticera: The biggest partisan-leaning political YouTube channels in Q1 Fastest growing: TPUSA, More Perfect Union, Nick Shirley, Tucker Carlson, Shawn Ryan Most viewed: FOX, MSNOW, MeidasTouch, Brian Tyler Cohen Biggest: Rogan, FOX, Daily Show, Vox.”Mehdi Hasan, a journalist, in a post on X: “Proud to see Zeteo in there as the sixth-fastest growing progressive YouTube channel in the first quarter of 2026, just 10k subscribers behind my old employers, MSNBC, and ahead of Joe Rogan, Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens et al.”What Happens Next Subscriber counts and viewership will likely continue to fluctuate throughout the year.
