Top 50 Streaming Originals: Netflix, Prime Video, JioHotstar, Amazon MX Player, SonyLIV... Who Won the 2025 OTT Race?

What—and how much—did India watch in 2025? A lot. India’s streaming market closed the year with scale, clarity, and a clear hierarchy as the top 10 featured a diverse mix of critically acclaimed titles, long-running blockbuster IPs, breakout originals, and global series.

According to Ormax Media’s Top 50 Streaming Originals in India: The 2025 Story, the year’s most-watched streaming originals together amassed over 654 million views, with key insights into what exactly worked and how each streaming giant followed a peculiar story.

That headline number was powered overwhelmingly by familiar IPs. Across platforms, returning seasons dominated the upper end of the charts, while new originals struggled to break through unless backed by strong branding or star value.

According to the report, the rankings are based on weekly primary audience research conducted across India.

"Our viewership estimates (reported in millions) are a measure of the number of individuals who watched the property for at least 30 minutes. They do not reflect the number of OTT accounts used, but rather the actual number of viewers. For example, if three family members or two friends watch together on a single account, they are counted as three and two unique viewers, respectively," the report stated.

The Top 10

The top of India’s streaming charts in 2025 was dominated by established franchises and returning seasons. JioHotstar led from the front, claiming the top two positions with Special Ops S2 and Criminal Justice: A Family Matter, which emerged as the year’s most-watched streaming originals.

Special Ops S2 topped the list with 29.6 million, followed closely by Criminal Justice: A Family Matter at 27.7 million.

Close behind was Amazon MX Player’s tentpole hit Ek Badnaam Aashram S3 Part 2, which secured third place with 27.1 million, reaffirming the franchise’s enduring mass appeal. Prime Video followed with a strong showing, placing The Family Man S3 at fourth with 24.6 million viewers and Panchayat S4 at fifth with 23.8 million, reinforcing the platform's reputation for consistent, franchise-led performance.

Reality content continued to deliver scale, with Salman Khan-hosted Bigg Boss Hindi S19 taking sixth place at 20 million viewers on JioHotstar. Prime Video returned to the list at seventh with the acclaimed Paatal Lok S2, which drew 16.8 million viewers.

Netflix’s presence in the Top 10 came via three titles: The Ba***ds of Bollywood at eighth with 16.7 million viewers, followed by global juggernauts Squid Game S3 (16.5 million) and Stranger Things S5 (16.4 million), rounding out the list.

What makes The Ba***ds of Bollywood a big winner is that the Aryan Khan directorial is the only non-franchise Indian original in the Top 10, sitting comfortably above global hits like Squid Game S3 (Korean) and Stranger Things S5 (Englsih).

However, since the last two are international titles, once those heavyweights are removed from the equation, the Top 10 reshuffles slightly but remains firmly franchise-driven. Without Squid Game S3 and Stranger Things S5, JioHotstar’s animated mythology series The Legend of Hanuman S6 enters the list at ninth with 16.2 million, while Netflix’s The Royals closes out the Top 10 at tenth with 15.5 million.

Top 10 (Excluding International Titles)

The Streamer's ₹500 Crore Club?

At the very top end of the 2025 streaming charts, only three titles crossed the 25-million mark: Special Ops S2, Criminal Justice: A Family Matter and Ek Badnaam Aashram S3 Part 2. All three were returning franchises, and together they formed a clear upper tier that no other title managed to breach.

The next band widens slightly. Six titles managed to hit or cross the 20-million mark, adding The Family Man S3, Panchayat S4 and Bigg Boss (Hindi, S19) to the three leaders. Notably, this group was also dominated by long-running, culturally entrenched IPs.

The widest cluster emerged at the 15-million threshold, indicating where the real volume of "hits" now sits. Alongside the six above 20 million performers, this group included Paatal Lok S2, The Ba***ds of Bollywood, Squid Game S3, Stranger Things S5, The Legend of Hanuman S6 and The Royals.

Films

Streaming films continued to trail series in overall traction in 2025, but a small clutch of titles still managed to break through. Netflix dominated the streaming films conversation, placing five of the six most-watched titles of the year and occupying the top two positions outright.

Topping the list was Jewel Thief – The Heist Begins (rank 15), which emerged as the most-watched streaming film of 2025 with 13.1 million viewers on Netflix. Close behind was another Netflix release, Dhoom Dhaam (rank 20), which drew 12.1 million viewers, reinforcing the platform’s strong grip over the direct-to-digital film space.

The only non-Netflix entry in the top three came from JioHotstar, where Ibrahim Ali Khan-led Sarzameen (rank 23) secured third place with 11.5 million.

Netflix then rounded out the list with three mid-tier performers. Aap Jaisa Koi (rank 38) attracted 9.7 million viewers, followed by Nadaaniyan (rank 45) at 8.9 million, and Baramulla (rank 46) at 8.8 million.

So, Who Won?

According to the Ormax report, Netflix had 20 titles in the Top 50 list and led in total views when all languages—including English and Korean—were counted, thanks to big global franchises like Squid Game and Stranger Things and driven by a long tail of solidly performing Hindi originals.

Including the four international titles (Wednesday S2, rank 35 at 10 million and Adolescence, rank 47 at 8.7 million), Netflix led with over 236 million in viewership, followed by JioHotstar at over 188 million.

Prime Video accumulated over 113 million, MX Player 94.7 million, and SonyLIV 20.9 million, taking the combined Top 50 total to over 654 million views.

But when you strip out international content—and look only at Indian-language viewing—JioHotstar narrowly outpaced Netflix, finishing with 188.7 million views against Netflix’s 185.3 million. That makes JioHotstar the most-watched platform for Indian-language content alone.

While Sony LIV had two shows in the Top 50, including Huma Qureshi-led Maharani S4 (rank 29, 10.6 million) and Shark Tank India S4 (rank 32, 10.3 million), JioHotstar remained top-heavy and brutally efficient with its biggest shows comfortably crossing the 25-million mark.

Prime Video delivered consistency over scale, extracting strong numbers from just eight entries (half on Netflix's 16 Indian titles), while MX Player continued to over-index thanks to mass-leaning drama led by Aashram.