Taylor Swift shatters YouTube podcast record even as Swifties crash stream
Travis and Jason Kelce’s ‘New Heights’ episode with Taylor Swift has shattered the concurrent livestream viewership record for YouTube podcasts since the site launched the service in 2023.
On August 03, 2025, the Philadelphia Eagles’ Jason Kelce and Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce finally invitedTaylor Swiftonto their joint sports podcast, New Heights.
This episode coincided with the reveal of Swift’s forthcoming album, ‘The Life of a Showgirl,’ which is set to release in October 2025.
Swift’s massive fanbase came in droves to watch their favorite pop star dish about her upcomingmusicand chat with her boyfriend, Travis — and thanks to their viewership, the New Heights podcast has smashed aYouTuberecord.
Swifties crash New Heights podcast & break YouTube record
On August 15, YouTube published an update on X, revealing that the two-hour long podcast episode peaked at over 1.3 million concurrent livestream viewers.
This is more views than any other podcast has received on the platform ever since they launched a dedicated service exclusively for podcasts back in 2023.
The@newheightshowepisode with@taylorswift13peaked at over 1.3M concurrent livestream viewers, more than any other podcast on YouTube since the platform officially launched a dedicated podcast experience in 2023.https://t.co/XhYUU1DVbw
On top of that, the podcast held an eye-popping number of average viewers at 1.18 million, and the episode has racked up over 15M total views in just two days.
That’s not all; Taylor’s New Heights appearance even soared past Donald Trump’s presence on theJoe RoganExperience in terms of concurrent viewers within its first hour. That JRE episode, which wasn’t livestreamed, boasted 800K viewers in its first hour, while Swiftiessped past that at 1.3M— although the stream ended up crashing due to the sheer amount of fans tuning in.
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The New Heights podcast also weighed in at third place in themost-watched livestreamsof the week, losing only to football club FC Barcelona and Twitch streamer CazeTV.
The episode also dominated Spotify,taking over the top spotin three separate categories: Top Episodes, Trending Podcasts, and the Sports subgenre.
