What India enjoyed on Netflix in 2022

The year 2022 continued to see increasing traction on OTT platforms as content consumption grew. The year was marked by the launch of several new Web Series across genres, streaming of sports events, as well as movie premieres.

Looking back at what India enjoyed on Netflix this year, the list is dominated by local and global stories across languages, genres and formats – films and series, documentaries, reality shows and more.

Love for Netflix series and films

From a heartland thriller fronted by an ensemble cast in ‘Khakee: The Bihar Chapter’, returning of fan-favourites – ‘Delhi Crime S2’, ‘Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives S2’, the path breaking performance of Alia Bhatt in ‘Darlings’, to Dhanush winning global fandom — and representing India — in the Russo brothers’ action thriller, ‘The Gray Man’, and iconic soundtracks from ‘Mismatched S2’ (Aise Kyun), ‘Monica, O My Darling’ (Yeh Ek Zindagi) and ‘Stranger Things S4’ (Running Up That Hill and Master of Puppets).

India’s most-watched to must-watch stories

Netflix launched 27 films and series in India in 2022 across 10+ genres and 5 formats. Seven out of 9 films released this year featured in the global Top 10 for non-English films and 6 out of 7 returning seasons of Netflix series featured in the #1 spot in TV shows in India. ‘Darlings’ enjoyed the highest opening ever for any Netflix film in India and was watched in 28 countries with total viewing hours of over 32 million, while ‘Monica, O My Darling’ trended in the #1 spot in 7 countries, including India, in the first two weeks of its release alone. ‘Mismatched S2’, ‘Jamtara Sabka Number Ayega S2’, and ‘Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein’ were the most trending Indian series this year. On average, every Netflix film and series from India released in 2022 trended in 8 countries.

Taking Indian cinema to the world

Netflix saw the OTT launches of three of the biggest blockbusters from India – ‘RRR’ (Hindi) (viewed for over 73 million hours), ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ (viewed for over 50 million hours), and ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’ (viewed for over 21 million hours) that found audiences around the world. At 15 weeks, ‘RRR’ (Hindi) was the longest-ever trending Indian film on the global Top 10 for non-English films.

Unmatched variety

Variety was the name of the game – be it films and series across every kind of genre and format. The top watched genre in India in 2022 for Indian stories was thrillers, followed by action dramas and sports dramas. The top watched genres for global stories in India were action dramas and thrillers. 2022 was also the year of multiple formats – from series and films to stand-up comedy, true-crime documentaries and India’s first adventure interactive special, ‘Ranveer vs Wild with Bear Grylls’.

International hits

Five of Netflix’s biggest English language series of all times premiered this year – ‘Inventing Anna’ and ‘Bridgerton S2’, followed by ‘Stranger Things S4’, ‘Dahmer Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story’ and ‘Wednesday’. Besides these, ‘Money Heist’ (Spanish), ‘Squid Games’ (Korean), and ‘All Of Us Are Dead’ (Korean) were the most trending global titles in India. Korean and Spanish were the most watched non-Indian languages on Netflix after English.

Going forward, Netflix has an array of exciting stories coming up in 2023 to keep up the growth momentum.