HSBC: JioHotstar had 300M paying subscribers in India in 2025, compared with 65M for Amazon Prime Video and 20M for Netflix; ~24% of OTT users pay for content
And more than $900 million in annual revenue in India. — Amazon Prime Video has more than three times the subscribers as Netflix in India, according to HSBC.
Context & Ripple Effects
JioHotstar's reported scale extends a rapid-growth arc: it had already passed 200 million paid subscribers in April 2025, with multilingual IPL streams identified as a driver. The new HSBC figures put that expansion alongside a much smaller reported paid base for Amazon Prime Video and Netflix in India.
The comparison matters because only about 24% of Indian OTT users are reported to pay for content. That makes JioHotstar's 300 million paying subscribers and more than $900 million in annual India revenue a meaningful benchmark for the market's monetized audience.
First-order effects
- HSBC's figures position JioHotstar as the clear paid-subscriber leader among the three named services in India, ahead of Amazon Prime Video's 65 million and Netflix's 20 million.
- The reported revenue gives JioHotstar a larger domestic monetization base to support content and distribution than its two global rivals' disclosed subscriber positions imply.
Second-order effects
- Amazon Prime Video and Netflix face a sharper benchmark against JioHotstar's cricket-led scale when prioritizing Indian content, pricing, and acquisition spending.
- With a minority of OTT users paying, competition for incremental paid households is likely to center on conversion and retention rather than simply expanding reach.
Third-order effects
- If this gap persists, India's streaming market could increasingly be shaped by a locally scaled leader whose audience economics differ from global subscription-first services.
- The data point reinforces a broader split between services that can aggregate mass local audiences and those pursuing narrower premium subscription segments; whether rivals close it depends on their ability to convert more viewers into payers.
The trend: India's OTT market is moving toward a pronounced subscription-growth gap, where locally scaled platforms can concentrate paid audiences faster than global streaming brands.