‘Panchayat’ most watched Hindi web show in first half of 2024; ‘Chamkila’ most watched film

The third season of Amazon Prime Video’s Panchayat, with a viewership of 28.2 million, has emerged as the most watched Hindi language web series across streaming platforms in the first six months of 2024, according to research conducted by media consulting firm Ormax Media. 

Following Panchayat is Netflix’s Heeramandi, with a viewership of 20.3 million, and Prime Video’s Indian Police Force, at 19.5 million viewers.

However, Disney+ Hotstar has topped the list of most watched Hindi language web shows with five entries, that include The Legend of Hanuman (14.8 million), Showtime (12.5 million), Karmma Calling (9.1 million), Baahubali: Crown of Blood (8 million), and Lootere (8 million).

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Not only that, the third season of Bigg Boss OTT on JioCinema has emerged as the most watched unscripted Hindi show, with a viewership of 17.8 million, followed by The Great Indian Kapil Show on Netflix (14.5 million) and season three of Shark Tank India (12.5 million).

Tracking the viewers

These findings, based on web shows and movies released between January and June 2024, are a part of Ormax’s mid-year review of streaming originals in India. 

Ormax Media—a tracking, testing and analytics-led media consulting firm for television and streaming services—estimates viewership using primary research conducted among audience across India on a weekly basis. 

Moreover, viewership estimates represent the number of people who have watched a show (at least one full episode), or a film (at least 30 minutes). It does not represent the number of accounts used for watching the same, so three members of a family, or two friends, watching on the same account are considered as unique viewers. 

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Hence, the viewership number remains unduplicated and if an audience member watches the web show episodes over multiple weeks, he or she is still counted as only one viewer.

Binge-worthy content

Coming back to what audiences watched most, Netflix emerged as the dominant platform, with four films featuring in the list of most watched direct-to-OTT Hindi titles. 

The platform's Amar Singh Chamkila (12.9 million) was at the top, while Murder Mubarak, with a viewership of 12.2 million, also featured on the list. 

Separately, B&B: Bujji and Bhairava, the animated prelude to the theatrical film Kalki 2898 AD, was the most-watched Telugu web show at the halfway mark of the year, followed by ETV Win’s #90’s – A Middle Class Biopic. 

Prime Video's Inspector Rishi—with a viewership of 4.9 million—was at the top of the list of most-watched Tamil OTT titles thus far this year.

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Meanwhile, international originals centered around a science fiction and/or fantasy premise performed well, Ormax stated in its report.

Among them, Amazon Prime Video's season four of The Boys emerged as the most-watched international show in India this year, with a viewership of 10.5 million.

The best movies and shows

The third season of Panchayat also came on top of the list of most-liked Hindi web show during this period. It received an Ormax Power Rating (OPR)—a score on a scale of 0-100 that represents how much a show, or a film is liked by its viewers—of 77. 

Ormax measures ORR for all major web shows and films, based on data collected from actual viewers of the content after its release, over a period of four to eight weeks. It maintains a minimum sample size of 1,200 viewers for Hindi titles and 500 for other Indian languages.

Across platforms, while Netflix's Amar Singh Chamkila was the most-liked direct-to-OTT film in the first six months of 2024, Maharaj and Bhakshak, also on Netflix, followed close behind. 

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The season two of House Of The Dragon (on JioCinema) topped the list of most liked international properties, while season four of Prime Video’s The Boys tied with Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender for the second spot.

“We have been working to build industry data for the streaming category in India. In our effort to expand the scope of our data, this year's edition of Streaming Originals in India Report includes Viewership, Marketing Buzz and Content Strength (OPR) for Telugu and Tamil languages as well, along with Hindi and International language content,” Keerat Grewal, head of business development (Streaming, TV & Brands) for Ormax Media, said in a statement.