Joe Rogan says his recent controversy has given his Spotify podcast even more horsepower. The podcaster claims the media frenzy over anti-vax conspiracy theorist guests and his past use of the N-word has netted him two million additional subscribers.
In Friday’s episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, the comic and UFC commentator was asked by his guest, British political commentator Douglas Murray, about the uproar. “You have been put through the wringer since we last met,” Murray says. “They did a number on you. Wow.”
“It’s interesting, my subscriptions went up massively — that’s what’s crazy,” Rogan replies. “During the height of it all, I gained two million subscribers … Yeah, [the media] went for it. It’s also fortunate that the people who went for it were CNN. They’re so untrustworthy and people know how biased they are and socially weird their anchors are.”
Spotify doesn’t publicly release its JRE subscriber numbers. But sources clarified the show has been consistently growing since the podcaster joined the streamer and hasn’t spiked due to any particular event. By one recent estimate, Rogan typically averages 11 million listeners per episode.
