Mirzapur has emerged as the most consistent title on IMDb’s ranking of popular Indian streaming series over the past decade, securing a spot on the platform’s annual Top 10 list nine times since its premiere.
On Tuesday, the online platform released its new report titled ‘10 Years of Streaming in India — An IMDb Report 2026’, which analyses the top 10 most popular Indian web series for each year from 2016 to 2026, spanning 110 chart positions and 64 unique titles.
These rankings are determined by the page views generated by each series on IMDb, the Amazon-owned entertainment database, which draws over 250 million monthly visitors globally.
While Mirzapur featured on the annual charts nine times, Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story achieved the remarkable feat of appearing five times despite consisting of just a single season.
The year-by-year rankings illustrate the evolving landscape of Indian streaming content, beginning with TVF's Pitchers leading the charts in 2016. It was followed by Prime Video’s Inside Edge in 2017 and Netflix’s landmark thriller Sacred Games in 2018 and 2019.
The momentum shifted as Scam 1992 took the top spot in 2020, paving the way for TVF’s Aspirants in 2021 and Criminal Justice in 2022. Prime Video's Farzi claimed the lead in 2023, while Mirzapur dominated in 2024. More recently, The Ba*ds of Bollywood secured the number-one position in 2025, and Pritam and Pedro emerged as the most popular Indian series of 2026 up to October 15.
Crime and thriller titles dominated the listings with 48 out of the 110 positions, though genres like horror, romance, comedy, and drama steadily gained traction in later years.
A platform-wise breakdown placed Prime Video at the forefront with 31 chart entries across 14 unique intellectual properties, followed closely by Netflix with 21 entries across 18 titles, and JioHotstar with 19 entries across 10 titles. YouTube and SonyLIV each secured 14 entries, accounting for 11 and 5 distinct titles, respectively. Notably, YouTube served as a major launchpad for Indian web series, with 13 of the 64 unique titles on the annual charts having originated on the video-sharing platform.
TVF stood out as a dominant force, contributing nine unique series that accounted for 17 chart entries—representing nearly one in every six positions. Its enduring presence across the rankings spans from Pitchers in 2016 to Sapne vs Everyone in 2026.
According to the report, actors Pankaj Tripathi, Ali Fazal, Vikrant Massey, Jitendra Kumar, Kapil Sharma, and Sunil Grover stand out as the MVPs of streaming for their frequent appearances across top-tier web series.
Meanwhile, Kay Kay Menon, Naveen Kasturia, and Mona Singh earned recognition for their adaptability across various projects, whereas Shahid Kapoor, Vijay Sethupathi, Samantha, Barun Sobti, and Karan Tacker were highlighted for seamlessly crossing over between different formats and character roles.
Despite the increase in audience interest, the number of new series and seasons commissioned in India has declined for two consecutive years.
Streaming commissions reached a high of 202 in 2023 before declining to 169 in 2024 and 145 in 2025, with Hindi-language content making up 66 per cent of all Indian streaming originals in 2025.
Overall, the report estimates that audience engagement with Indian web series has surged approximately 17-fold over the past ten years.
“Building on the success of last year's report on Indian cinema, we turned our lens to series and used IMDb Data to understand how a decade of streaming has reshaped audience interests,” said Yaminie Patodia, head of IMDb India.
The report also features insights from prominent industry leaders, including Gaurav Gandhi of Prime Video, Gunjan Soni of YouTube, Monika Shergill of Netflix, former Applause Entertainment CEO Sameer Nair, and Vijay Koshy of TVF.