Apple announces top podcasts of 2023 alongside new Apple Books Year in Review feature

As we approach the end of 2023, Apple is taking a retrospective look at the last year in media. After recently naming Taylor Swift artist of the year for being the “most-streamed female artist in Apple Music history,” it’s time to check in with Apple Books and Podcasts.

Apple Books Year in Review

New in the Apple Books app on iPhone and iPad this year is a novel experience called Year in Review.

With Year in Review, users can view personalized reading highlights about the books and audiobooks they enjoyed in 2023, including their total time spent reading, the longest book or audiobook they read, the series they completed, their most-read author and genre, and their highest-rated book — all presented in a simple and engaging experience with visuals that are easy to share. Year in Review is available on iPhone and iPad within the Read Now tab under Top Picks to users with at least three titles marked as finished.

Books and audiobooks can also be added manually to the Year in Review experience. Apple is also using “anonymized reader insights” to determine your reader type. These are the six categories:

• The Contemporary for readers of trendy titles
• The Completist for readers of multiple books in a series
• The Seeker for nonfiction readers
• The Wanderer for multigenre readers
• The Deep Diver for single-genre readers
• The Free Spirit for readers with wide-ranging interests across the book world

Learn more about the new Apple Books Year in Review experience here.

Top books of 2023

Apple breaks down its top books list by fiction and nonfiction as well book and audiobook. These are the top five titles in each category.

Top Nonfiction Books of 2023

1. Spare by Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex
2. The Woman in Me by Britney Spears
3. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann
4. Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia and Bill Gifford
5. Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson

Top Fiction Books of 2023

1. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
2. Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
3. Happy Place by Emily Henry
4. Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
5. The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

Top Nonfiction Audiobooks of 2023

1. The Woman in Me by Britney Spears
2. Spare by Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex
3. Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia and Bill Gifford
4. The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
5. Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson

Top Fiction Audiobooks of 2023

1. Only the Dead by Jack Carr
2. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
3. Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
4. Happy Place by Emily Henry
5. Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

Top podcasts of 2023

Apple Podcasts has its own collection of lists. Categories include Top Shows, Top New Shows, Most Followed Shows, Most Shared Shows, Most Shared Episodes, Top Free Channels, and Top Subscriber Channels. Check out the lists for US users:

Top Shows

1. Crime Junkie
2. The Daily
3. Dateline NBC
4. SmartLess
5. This American Life
6. Morbid
7. Up First
8. Huberman Lab
9. Hidden Brain
10. Stuff You Should Know

Top New Shows

1. Scamanda
2. The Retrievals
3. The Deck Investigates
4. Murder & Magnolias
5. Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
6. The Girl in the Blue Mustang
7. The Coldest Case in Laramie
8. Murder in Apartment 12
9. The Girlfriends
10. Undetermined

Most Followed Shows

1. Huberman Lab
2. SmartLess
3. New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce
4. Scamanda
5. The Mel Robbins Podcast
6. Crime Junkie
7. The Retrievals
8. The Deck Investigates
9. Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
10. On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Most Shared Shows

1. Scamanda
2. Sold a Story
3. The Retrievals
4. Huberman Lab
5. SmartLess
6. The Witch Trials of J.K Rowling
7. Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra
8. Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis Dreyfus
9. The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
10. True Sunlight

Most Shared Episodes

1. Huberman Lab: “What Alcohol Does to Your Body, Brain & Health”
2. Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus: “Julia Gets Wise with Jane Fonda”
3. The Daily: “The Fight Over Phonics”
4. Hidden Brain: “The Paradox of Pleasure”
5. Sold a Story: “The Problem”
6. The Mel Robbins Podcast: “The ‘Let Them Theory’: A Life Changing Mindset Hack That 15 Million People Can’t Stop Talking About”
7. The Retrievals: “The Patients”
8. We Can Do Hard Things with Glennon Doyle: “Why We Love the Way We Love: Attachment Styles with Dr. Becky Kennedy”
9. Just B with Bethenny Frankel: “Reality Reckoning: Rachel Leviss (Part One)”
10. Serial: “The Alibi”

Top Free Channels

1. iHeartPodcasts
2. audiochuck
3. The New York Times
4. Dear Media
5. Serial Productions
6. Barstool Sports
7. ABC News
8. The Daily Wire
9. Scicomm Media
10. Cumulus Podcast Network 

Top Subscriber Channels

1. Wondery
2. Dateline NBC
3. Pushkin
4. iHeart True Crime
5. Lemonada
6. Tenderfoot TV
7. TED Audio Collective
8. Freakonomics Radio
9. Radiolab
10. BBC Podcasts