Multi-content streaming platforms in India remain confident about the region’s performance in 2025 despite indications of ‘digital fatigue’ and lower engagement in the sector globally. Large OTT players in the country are sanguine about their prospects and have lined-up content to appeal to audiences’ evolving tastes.
After recording an upward trend—both in engagement and OTT downloads—from 2021 to 2023, India reported a 16 per cent decline in engagement and an 8 per cent decline in downloads, according to a report by Sensor Tower, an audience insights platform. This change in Indian consumer activity comes at a time when reports of “digital fatigue” among global users is emerging. The report attributed this phenomenon to macroeconomic pressure on consumer spending, competition from social apps and networks increasingly depend on live events (sports, etc.) and tentpole content to retain users.
Speaking specifically about India, Lloyd Mathias, Marketer & Business Strategist, attributed this fatigue to the post-Covid era, coupled with an excess of entertainment content.
“Through 2021, OTTs and digital platforms got a huge upsurge because of Covid-related restrictions. However, towards the end of 2022, there’s been a correction. People have gone back to the cinema, to meeting each other in real life. They also have many digital avenues for entertainment. A lot of entertainment has actually shrunk to “snack-bites”,” said Mathias, adding that other events like elections and sports tournaments also contributed to lower online activity.
Despite the analyses, platforms like Netflix India and Amazon-MX player told businessline that they have seen positive growth in the Indian market in the past year. For example, Monika Shergill, Vice President – Content, said Netflix has been growing very healthily across Indian regions, particularly in 2024, when India became the second largest market for the platform in terms of addition to paid subscribers.
Similarly, Amazon MX Player said it not seen any signs digital fatigue on its servers for the Indian market. Amogh Dusad, Head of Content, said that the OTT industry is still in its early years at a time when access to smartphones is increasing.
“With relatively efficient data prices and low-cost smartphones, access throughout the day for consumers to watch video content is only going up. So, we continue to see healthy consumption happening because consumers are able to explore and get first-person access,” said Dusad.
Adding that the Amazon MX Player platform is also working on a new category called ‘MX Fatafat’ which provides 2-minute vertical scrolling scripted dramas, Dusad said the company expects an upward trend in terms of engagement and revenue for this year.
The assertion on revenue is also supported by data from Sensor Tower which showed an 86 per cent increase in in-app purchases in India. However, when asked whether the Indian market will defy the general trend of digital fatigue, Mathias said he foresaw a possible plateau but not a definite increase in user activity.
“People today have too many entertainment options and there’s pressure on time. The biggest factor is really short-format content like Insta Reels and YouTube shorts and to a small extent, podcasts. OTT needs to evolve. Earlier, its was largely about film-based content. Now people want other entertainment formats like more reality and such like. So, some degree of evolution has to happen,” he said.
