Despite Death of Charlie Kirk, His Podcast Still Draws Thousands of New Subscribers
For the second quarter in a row, the dally podcast fronted by far-right extremist Candace Owens, continued its streak as the fastest-growing right-wing podcast. Exclusive research conducted by TheRighting found that the number of year-over-year (YOY) subscribers to “Candace” on the Castbox platform soared 59% in the first quarter compared to Q1, 2025.
A year ago, “Candace” attracted 46,640 subscribers at the conclusion of Q1. On March 31, 2026, “Candace” had 74,079 subscribers, the largest percentage jump of any right-wing podcast surveyed by TheRighting. The show picked up 27,439 subscribers in a year and ranked as the 10th most subscribed right-wing podcast.
“Candace Owens’ skyrocketing popularity defies an easy explanation,” observed Howard Polskin, President, TheRighting. “You’d think that her baseless attacks on people like Erika Kirk, the widow of slain right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, would disgust vast segments of the MAGA universe. Apparently not, because each month the podcast attracts thousands of new subscribers. She’s thriving in a world where the truth is often irrelevant and outrage trumps logic.”
Four other right-wing podcasts notched doubled-digit subscriber growth: “The Megyn Kelly Show,” “The Charlie Kirk Show,” “The Matt Walsh Show” and “The Ben Shapiro Show,” which also attracted 142,190 subscribers in the quarter, far more than any other podcast. At its current rate of growth, TheRighting projects that “The Ben Shapiro Show” will exceed one million Castbox subscribers by the end of Q2, the first time any right-wing program tracked by TheRighting has passed that mark.
Despite the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk last September, “The Charlie Kirk Show” continues to draw thousands of new subscribers each month. The show now features Andrew Kolvet as the host most days and drops new episodes daily. It added almost 30,000 new subscribers in Q1, 2026, up 48% from the same period in 2025.
Top Q1 Right-Wing Podcasts by YOY % Growth
(percentage growth of new subscribers on the Castbox platform, Q1 2026 v Q1 2025)
–“Candace,” 59%
–“The Megyn Kelly Show,” 53%
–“The Charlie Kirk Show,” 48%
–“The Matt Walsh Show,” 24%
–“The Ben Shapiro Show,” 19%
Top Q1 Right-Wing Podcasts by Subscriber Growth
(total number of new subscribers added on the Castbox platform, Q1 2026 v Q1 2025):
–“The Ben Shapiro Show,” 142,190 new subscribers
–“The Megyn Kelly Show,” 71,538 new subscribers
–“The Charlie Kirk Show,” 29,257 new subscribers
Notable Right-Wing Podcasts That Failed to Crack the Top 20
–“Gutfeld! Monologues,” 16,939 subscribers
–“Timcast IRL,” 14,573 subscribers
–“Next Up with Mark Halperin,” 5,891 subscribers
–“The Benny Show,” 3,009 subscribers
–“Pod Force One with Miranda Devine,” 1,273 subscribers
Methodology
This report is based on data that is updated daily from the podcast app Castbox, which is the fourth most popular app on the podcast-hosting platform Buzzsprout. Castbox represents 2.6% of all podcasts that Buzzsprout serves. No other leading podcast app besides Castbox makes its data publicly available. TheRighting’s top 20 chart only lists programs that have had new podcasts available on the Castbox platform since January 1, 2023.
