‘Criminal Justice: A Family Matter’, garnering 27.7 million viewership, on JioHotstar has emerged as the most watched streaming original show in the top 50 list for shows on OTT platforms in the first half of 2025, according to new findings released yesterday by Ormax Media.

Amazon Prime Video has three shows in the top five category. The No. 2 position in terms of viewership (27.1 million), interestingly, is held by ‘Ek Badnaam Aashram S3 Part 2’, which is part of ad-supported Amazon MX Player. At #3 and #4 are S4 of ‘Panchayat’ (23.8 million) and ‘Paatal Lok’ season 2 (16.8 million), respectively.

At No. 5 is Netflix’s Korean fiction series ‘Squid Game’ S3 with a viewership of 16.5 million. The first season of this show was a runaway hit for the streaming platform globally, including India.

The only mythology-based and animated series in the Top 10 original streaming shows in the period January-June 2025 evaluated by Ormax Media was S6 of ‘The Legend of Hanuman’(16.2 million).

“Our new report ‘Top 50 streaming originals in India: Jan-Jun 2025’ lists the most-watched OTT original properties in India in the first half of 2025. The report is a part of our ongoing endeavour to build public domain data on the performance of the streaming category in India,” Ormax Media said in a statement, explaining the rationale and methodology used for the report’s survey. (https://www.ormaxmedia.com/insights/stories/top-50-streaming-originals-in-india-jan-jun-2025.html)

This particular report, Ormax clarified, focuses only on Original content, and does not cover other ‘non-original’ content on streaming platforms, such as theatrical films, catch-up television and sports. “From May 2025, we have started estimating viewership of theatrical films on OTT as well. Because this expansion happened mid-year, this category is not a part of this report. However, our 2026 mid-year and annual reports will cover this category too,” Ormax added.

Amongst the English-language shows in the Top 50 list Netflix’s global critical sensation ‘Adolescence’ is at # 28 with a viewership of  8.7 million. ‘The Last of Us’ (8 million) season two on JioHotstar is placed at # 31, while action thriller ‘Reacher’ (7.5 million) S3 is at #33.

Amongst the regional language shows, ‘Suzhal-The Voretx’ S2 (8.3 million) in Tamil on Amazon Prime Video is at #30, while Tamil fiction series ‘Heart Beat’ S2 (7 million) on JioHotstar is at #37 and Malayalam show ‘Kerala Crime Files’ S2 (6.9 million) occupies #38 position.

Ormax said viewership is estimated through weekly primary research conducted amongaudience across India and languages, projected to the OTT universe in India. The viewership estimates (reported in millions) are a measure of the number of individuals who watched at least one full episode of a show, or at least 30 minutes of a film. They do not reflect the number of OTT accounts used, but rather the actual number of viewers.

The estimates represent unduplicated audiences — a viewer is counted only once even if he/she watched episodes over multiple weeks. The methodology also captures viewers who may have accessed the show or film through pirated means. All language versions are included in the estimates, including dubbed audio feeds in Indian languages. However, the estimates are restricted to the Indian market and do not include overseas viewership.

Some properties, primarily those launched in the second half of June 2025, are still being tracked and their viewership estimates have been projected for their complete run. Hence, final estimates may vary from the numbers in this report, Ormax asserted.