Hopes for Thai drama series regional/international potential have never been higher. In Thailand though, premium Korean TV series are nowhere near to being beaten. 

Hopes for Thai drama series regional/international potential have never been higher. In Thailand though, Korean TV series are nowhere near to being beaten.

Netflix’s viewers in Thailand consistently pick Korean drama as their top weekly watch, putting titles like period drama “The East Palace” and romantic comedy “Our Sticky Love” above homegrown fare.

Only four Thai TV series have made it to the top of Netflix’s TV rankings in Thailand this year so far. And no Thai title has held #1 for more than two consecutive weeks from January to early September.

Two of the four series – stand-up comedy special “Deaw Still Alive” with comedian Udom Taephanich and legal drama “The Evil Lawyer” – are Netflix originals. 

The other two – psychological thriller “Girl From Nowhere: The Reset” and thriller “One Night Stand” – were released on local channels and acquired by Netflix for simultaneous or later release. “Girl From Nowhere: The Reset” and “One Night Stand” each had a single week at #1 on the domestic charts before dropping back down.

A Thai-produced title led the Netflix Thailand Top 10 in just six of the 36 weeks tracked – 17% of the window.

The contrast between Thai originals and South Korean series is stark: a South Korean title led 22 of the 36 weeks (61%) — more than three times Thailand’s share and the dominant country of origin at #1 for the entire period. China (5 weeks), Japan (2 weeks), and the United States (1 week) filled most of the remainder.

Even if they rarely reach #1, Thai titles have a steady presence overall on Netflix’s Thailand top 10. Thai-produced titles filled 102 of the 360 Top 10 slots tracked across the first 36 weeks of this year (28.3% of all slots).

Twenty-six distinct Thai titles appeared somewhere in the Top 10 over the period from a range of production houses. These include BEC World/BEC Studios  (“Brothers”, “The Scammer Games”),  Maker Group (“Wrong Side of the Rainbow” aka “Love Betrayal”/“Rak Hak Lang” with BEC World), The One Enterprise/Change 2561 (“The Hidden Shadow”, “One Night Stand”), the Kantana Group (“The Face” S4), and Domundi TV/Mandee (“Khemjira”), among others. 

Domestic presence moved in waves rather than a straight climb: from zero to two slots a week through late December and January, up to two-to-four slots a week from early February to late April, back down to mostly one-to-two slots a week over an early-summer lull from late April to mid-June, then settling into a steady three-to-four slots a week for the entire back third of the window, from mid-June through the first week of September.

The clearest illustration of that gap between presence and #1 finishes is a three-way tie for the longest run of any domestic title: “Wrong Side of the Rainbow”, “The Scammer Games” and “The Hidden Shadow” each charted for a full 10 weeks. Of the three, “The Hidden Shadow” fared worst, never rising above #7, while “Wrong Side of the Rainbow” and “The Scammer Games” both peaked at #3.

Genre is where the Thailand Top 10’s split personality shows up most clearly. Across all 360 slots tracked, action is the single biggest draw by a wide margin – 106 slots (29.4%), well ahead of comedy (54 slots, 15%) and thriller (48 slots, 13.3%). But that action-led profile is almost entirely an import: action accounts for 35.3% of the slots filled by non-Thai titles, against just 14.7% of the slots Thai titles occupy.

What Thai audiences watch from their own industry looks different again. Mystery is the leading genre among Thai-produced slots (17.6%), followed closely by romance (16.7%) and thriller (15.7%), with action only fourth (14.7%) – the reverse of the pattern international titles set. 

“Girl From Nowhere: The Reset” and “The Hidden Shadow” anchor the mystery share; “Money, My Love”, “Wrong Side of the Rainbow” and “In Love Forever” carry romance; “One Night Stand”, “The Scammer Games” and “Time” make up thriller.

One genre remains a genuinely Thai-only category on the Top 10: cooking competitions. “MasterChef Thailand”, “Bid Coin Chef” and “Less Is Delicious” between them filled eight of the 102 Thai slots (7.8%) – a bigger share of Thai presence than action – with no non-Thai title in the same category charting at any point in the 36 weeks tracked.

Published in ContentAsia's Oct/Nov 2026 Magazine