Joe Rogan claimed on his podcast Friday that his subscriber base has grown in recent months despite the wave of controversies surrounding him.
The controversial host — who has faced a Neil Young-led boycott, content advisory warnings over his Covid-19 misinformation, pulled episodes and criticism over his past use of the N-word — said on the latest Joe Rogan Experience of his listenership, “It’s interesting, my subscriptions went up massively — that’s what’s crazy.”
Rogan added, “During the height of it all, I gained two million subscribers.”
According to the Hollywood Reporter, while Spotify does not publicly release the number of Joe Rogan Experience subscribers, sources confirmed that the podcast’s listenership has increased in recent months and, despite the controversies, never diminished.
Elsewhere in the episode, Rogan criticized “the media,” and specifically CNN, for their coverage of the scandals. “Yeah, [the media] went for it. It’s also fortunate that the people who went for it were CNN,” Rogan said. “They’re so untrustworthy and people know how biased they are and socially weird their anchors are.”
Rogan also mocked the news network over their disastrous CNN+ streaming service, a $300 million endeavor that was shut down just weeks after its launch. “They spent $300 million dollars, they got 10,000 subscribers,” Rogan said.
During a February stand-up appearance, Rogan addressed the controversies, as well as whether Spotify still supports the comedian/commentator. “Spotify has hung in with me, inexplicably,” Rogan said. “Let’s see what happens.”
Spotify previously defended their handling of Rogan and his podcast, even after the streaming giant quietly removed over 70 episodes from the platform for inflammatory language.
“We should have clear lines around content and take action when they are crossed,” Spotify CEO Daniel Ek wrote in an internal company letter. “But canceling voices is a slippery slope. Looking at the issue more broadly, it’s critical thinking and open debate that powers real and necessary progress.”