PulseDIST
PulseDIST counts downloads the way the IAB Podcast Measurement Guidelines (v2.3) describe. A download is one listener, meaning one internet address and one app, fetching at least a minute of an episode on one calendar day in South African time. Repeat requests, previews and partial requests under a minute are not counted, and known bots, crawlers and server software are left out. Addresses are never stored: each is turned into a code that changes every month, and the request records are deleted after 30 days. Since iOS 17 (2023), Apple Podcasts only downloads new episodes automatically for people who are still listening, so download numbers across the industry fell by 10 to 30%. That drop is unplayed files that are no longer fetched, not lost listeners. Apple and Spotify report plays inside their own apps; those figures are not downloads and will not match.
Places come from IP geolocation by DB-IP (CC BY 4.0). Apps and bots are recognised with the Open Podcast Analytics Working Group's public lists.