How Spotify’s ‘Case 63’ went from regional hit to unexpected chart-topping podcast

Initially a Spanish-language Chilean series, “Caso 63" ranked No. 1 for nearly a month in Argentina and Mexico post-premiere in 2020. Less than a year later, it became a No. 1 podcast in translations for Brazilian and Indian audiences. The English version, released at the end of October, topped the charts in the U.S., Canada, Ireland and the U.K.

Altogether the show has reached five million unique listeners and ranked fourth in Spotify’s list of most-listened-to shows last year, behind “The Joe Rogan Experience," Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy" and “Anything Goes With Emma Chamberlain."

The success of the scripted fiction podcast marks a turnaround for the company’s Gimlet studio—where some executives have said they were frustrated by a lack of original breakout hits since its acquisition in 2019. Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, has a content partnership with Gimlet Media. The podcast’s run also contrasts with Spotify’s broader strategy of paying to exclusively host already successful podcasts, particularly nonfiction talk shows.

Dawn Ostroff, the chief content and advertising business officer who has spearheaded Spotify’s expansion into podcasting, said most of the nearly 4.7 million podcasts on the platform are talk shows but says growth will come from creating more scripted narrative shows.

The English-language adaptation stars Julianne Moore and Oscar Isaac, who are also executive producers on the series, which Spotify greenlighted for a second season. It has attracted interest from Hollywood, and Spotify is expected to sign a deal soon for screen adaptation, according to people familiar with the matter.

The show invites listeners inside the psychiatric sessions between Ms. Moore’s Dr. Eliza Knight and her patient, known as Case 63, a man who claims to be a time traveler sent from the future to help stop the world from ending. Its roughly 10-minute episodes, of which there are 10 in season 1, are made to be binged.

“There is no question that these shows involve risk," said Tom Webster, a partner at podcast-industry advisory service Sounds Profitable, with challenges including an unknown story and a fairly new medium. Expanding on a show that already had traction and casting A-list actors helped, he said.

Spotify, the world’s largest music-streaming service by subscriptions, has in recent years worked to recast itself as an all-things-audio company, investing over $1 billion in podcasting and more recently moving into audiobooks. It has become the top U.S. podcast platform by listeners, according to audio-data tracker Edison Research, in part by paying large sums to carry interview-oriented shows from some of the biggest podcasters, like Mr. Rogan, and celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

It has more recently tried its hand at more scripted fiction shows, and over the summer reported that “Batman Unburied"—the first project released as part of Spotify’s multiyear agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.’s DC—hit No. 1 to unseat Mr. Rogan in several key markets. In November, “Quiet Part Loud," a fictional audio series from Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions, premiered at No. 1 in its first week.

“Caso 63" has had a similar effect in Latin America, one of the largest streaming markets, as “Serial" had in the U.S., when it introduced podcasting to American consumers and sparked the hugely popular true-crime podcast genre.

Javier Piñol, Spotify’s global head of markets for talk content, said companies can expand and increase the value of a story by sharing it across borders. “‘Money Heist’ wasn’t an insane success in its first season in Spain," he said of the television series. “Netflix bought it, and then it became this huge global phenomenon."

Ms. Ostroff pointed to the “borderless experience for our users when it comes to music," with Latin, Afrobeat and K-pop becoming global phenomena regardless of language. She also cited Netflix’s success dubbing over shows taped in other markets.

Scripted podcasts, she said, are the hardest to make, but they have more crossover appeal than interview podcasts that often rely on a single host’s popularity or cultural relevance. With “Caso 63," she said, “We realized we need to rewrite the script to make it culturally relevant to each region and cast different actors who are well regarded and respected in those regions."

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text