Streaming across Asia: catalogue depth in eight markets
Japan’s catalogue dwarfs Pakistan’s by more than six times, while a uniform 17-platform roster masks vast differences in title depth across the region.
Abstract. PlatformTrack’s index of eight Asian markets reveals 219,819 availability records, with Japan (55,089) towering over Pakistan (8,201). A broad middle—Philippines, Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia, India, Indonesia—clusters between 22,000 and 36,000 records. Every market carries the full 17-platform set, so the gaps are entirely in catalogue depth, not platform absence. The market leader varies: Apple iTunes dominates in Japan, the Philippines and Malaysia; Netflix leads in Thailand, India, Indonesia and Pakistan; Google Play tops South Korea. Japan’s depth is driven by transactional movie catalogues, while Netflix-led markets skew toward subscription.
The spread from Japan to Pakistan
Across eight Asian markets, PlatformTrack records 219,819 title-availability records. Japan leads with 55,089 (of which 44,479 are movies), more than six times the 8,201 recorded in Pakistan. The Philippines (35,505), Thailand (26,464), South Korea (25,002), Malaysia (24,645), India (22,472) and Indonesia (22,441) form a dense middle tier, each within a few thousand of the next.
Japan’s catalogue is not only the largest but also the most movie-heavy: movies account for 81% of its total, a share matched only by South Korea (20,607 movies out of 25,002, or 82%). By contrast, Pakistan’s catalogue is the smallest in both absolute and relative movie terms.
| Market | Platforms | Records | Movies | Series | Largest platform |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Japan | 17 | 55,089 | 44,479 | 10,610 | Apple iTunes (16,709) |
| Philippines | 17 | 35,505 | 30,021 | 5,484 | Apple iTunes (18,633) |
| Thailand | 17 | 26,464 | 19,747 | 6,717 | Netflix (8,900) |
| South Korea | 17 | 25,002 | 18,714 | 6,288 | Google Play (11,367) |
| Malaysia | 17 | 24,645 | 19,323 | 5,322 | Apple iTunes (10,383) |
| India | 17 | 22,472 | 17,079 | 5,393 | Netflix (7,766) |
| Indonesia | 17 | 22,441 | 16,017 | 6,424 | Netflix (8,716) |
| Pakistan | 17 | 8,201 | 4,863 | 3,338 | Netflix (7,704) |
Eight Asian markets, all with the full 17-platform roster present. Records are availability counts from the most recent weekly sync.
The table below summarises the total records, movie records and leading platform for each market. The gap between Japan and Pakistan is the widest in the region, and the middle five markets differ by less than 15,000 records from top to bottom.
Transactional vs. subscription: who leads each market
The largest platform varies by market in a pattern that reflects the balance between transactional and subscription services. Apple iTunes leads in Japan (16,709 records), the Philippines (18,633) and Malaysia (10,383), indicating strong transactional movie catalogues. Netflix leads in Thailand (8,900), India (7,766), Indonesia (8,716) and Pakistan (7,704), pointing to subscription-driven depth. South Korea is the sole market where Google Play leads (11,367), another transactional service.
Japan’s depth is particularly driven by transactional movie catalogues: its top platform, Apple iTunes, offers more records than the entire catalogue of Pakistan. In Netflix-led markets, the subscription service accounts for roughly one-third to one-half of each market’s total records, suggesting a more concentrated offering.
Uniform 17-platform coverage, uneven depth
All eight markets carry the full roster of 17 platforms tracked by PlatformTrack. There is no market where a platform is absent; the variation is entirely in catalogue depth. This means that a viewer in Pakistan has access to the same set of services as a viewer in Japan, but with far fewer titles available on each.
The implications are clear: platform availability is not the bottleneck—local licensing and investment in content libraries are. Markets with larger catalogues, like Japan and the Philippines, benefit from deeper transactional and subscription offerings, while smaller markets like Pakistan see thinner pickings despite the same number of platforms. The middle tier of five markets shows that similar platform counts can coexist with a 60% range in total records (from 22,441 to 35,505), underscoring that catalogue depth, not platform count, determines the viewer’s experience.
Key takeaways
- Japan’s catalogue (55,089 records) is more than six times Pakistan’s (8,201), despite both having the same 17 platforms.
- Apple iTunes leads in three markets (Japan, Philippines, Malaysia) while Netflix leads in four (Thailand, India, Indonesia, Pakistan); Google Play leads in South Korea.
- Uniform platform coverage across the region means gaps are purely in catalogue depth, not service availability.
Method: figures are drawn from the PlatformTrack index, refreshed weekly from TMDB availability data across 17 platforms and 57 markets. Counts are availability records, not unique global titles. See the methodology.