【Thai GL 2025 Review】10 Major Highlights: Observations on Works, CPs, and Industry Trends

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[Thai GL 2025 Review #7]
10 Major Highlights: Observations on Works, CPs, and Industry Trends

This article summarizes 10 trends and phenomena I noticed while following Thai GL in 2025.
The first half focuses more on the industry and major events, while the second half focuses more on actors, CP culture, and fandoms.

These are purely personal observations and reflections, shared for discussion and reference.

1. Production Increased by 44%: 25 Series + 1 Movie

Thai GL production increased significantly in 2025.

A total of 25 series and 1 movie were released throughout the year, bringing the total to 26 productions — approximately 44% higher than the 18 productions released in 2024. This reflects how rapidly the industry is growing.

At the same time, themes became far more diverse and ambitious than before:

• Denied Love explored arranged marriage and “married first, love later”
• Roller Coaster focused on a complicated love triangle
• Queendom used a body-swap concept
• Runaway combined mystery and supernatural horror
• ClaireBell was set inside a women’s prison
• Harmony Secret centered around corporate power struggles

Thai GL was no longer “just romance.”

2. Quantity Led to Quality: Two Rare 9+ Douban Hits Emerged

Love Design and ClaireBell achieved Douban scores of 9.3 and 9.2 respectively (recorded on December 25, 2025).

These became rare Thai GL productions that were praised not only by GL audiences, but also by general drama viewers.

Their screenplay structure, character development, cinematography, and overall production quality felt much closer to mainstream premium dramas, capable of competing with high-quality Korean, Japanese, or Western series.

As a result, many viewers began holding later Thai GL productions to much higher standards.

3. Thai GL Entered Prime-Time Television for the First Time

Only You aired on Thailand’s Channel 3 during the Friday 8:30 PM prime-time slot.

This marked the first time in Thai GL history that a GL series was broadcast in such a major traditional television time slot.

It was a milestone for Thai GL’s mainstream breakthrough and represented a major acknowledgment from mainstream media regarding the commercial value of GL content.

4. Major OTT Platforms Began Actively Acquiring Thai GL

Previously, Thai GL series mainly relied on YouTube or fragmented platform releases.

In 2025, mainstream OTT platforms such as iQIYI, WeTV, friDay Video, and Netflix became noticeably more active in licensing Thai GL content.

This allowed audiences to access Thai GL through official paid streaming services, showing that GL was gradually being recognized as a stable and sustainable content category with long-term audience value.

5. One Successful Series Could Generate a Massive “CP Economy”

By 2025, the commercial structure of Thai GL became much clearer.

Series could expand into fan meetings, concerts, endorsements, brand collaborations, overseas tours, and merchandise sales, forming a complete monetization chain.

For Thai GL audiences, the drama itself is often only the starting point for discovering a CP. Once a CP becomes successful, the commercial value can become enormous.

According to a May 2, 2025 report by Crossing titled “The Rise of Thailand’s Super CPs: How LingOrm Became a New Cultural Power”, citing the Thai program They Say That, LingOrm’s endorsements reportedly generated “over 500 million baht” in sales impact.

6. The LingOrm Phenomenon

LingOrm experienced truly explosive popularity in 2025.

They were no longer simply Thai GL actresses, but became highly visible and highly interactive figures within the international fashion world. Their influence clearly expanded far beyond the Thai GL community and continued growing rapidly, making them highly sought-after by major brands.

In fashion, their impact during Paris Fashion Week 2025 was especially remarkable:

According to EMV (Earned Media Value) statistics, Orm ranked #1 while Ling ranked #2.

In November 2025, LingOrm were officially announced as Dior Global Brand Ambassadors.

Lingling Kwong also ranked #17 in TC Candler’s 2025 “100 Most Beautiful Faces” list.

In Thailand’s highly respected Suan Dusit Poll, Ling was voted the #1 “Star of the Year” for 2025, while Orm ranked #2.

On social media, they repeatedly topped Thailand’s X trending charts and frequently entered global trends as well. Iconic lines from Only You became viral online memes and discussion topics.

Commercially, they held over 10 international fan meetings and one arena-scale concert in 2025. Meanwhile, Only You Episode 1 reportedly featured as many as 85 advertisements and sponsors.

All of this reflected a rare level of commercial influence and revenue-generating power.

7. FreenBecky Left Their Agency and Became Independent

As of January 2026, FreenBecky had gone approximately one and a half years without releasing a new series together.

Amid a financial dispute involving company debts reportedly reaching tens of millions of baht, they announced in October 2025 that they were leaving Idol Factory and establishing their own individual companies.

This reflected how valuable GL actresses had become commercially — valuable enough to support independent operations.

Many observers viewed this as a potentially important sign that the Thai GL industry may gradually move toward more artist-controlled business models.

Additionally, in May 2025, Freen became the first Thai actress to attend the Met Gala, marking a milestone for Thai GL artists entering the global fashion industry.

FreenBecky were also jointly selected for The Business of Fashion’s BoF 500 list in 2025, reflecting the growing influence of Thai artists in international fashion.

8. The FayeYoko “CP Separation” Controversy and Months of Fan Protests

In February 2025, Nine Star shocked fans by separating the highly popular GL pairing FayeYoko.

This triggered months of backlash and protest campaigns from fans worldwide, with repeated trending hashtags and boycott movements on X.

At the time, their series Blank held a Douban score of 8.9, ranking among the highest-rated Thai GL dramas ever. The series was critically praised, fan meetings sold well, and their future appeared extremely promising.

The core of Thai GL’s business model is emotional projection.

In particular, because Faye is openly lesbian and shared highly intimate interactions with Yoko, many fans viewed them almost like a real couple and became deeply emotionally invested in their relationship.

As a result, the emotional backlash caused by the CP separation became extremely intense.

9. Mainstream A-List Actresses Began Joining Thai GL

Thai GL in 2025 was no longer merely a testing ground for newcomers or niche productions.

More actresses with mainstream popularity and major representative works began participating in GL projects.

One notable example was Kao Supassara Thanachat, who has over 10 million Instagram followers and has starred in multiple prime-time Channel 3 dramas.

For the industry, this symbolized how commercially valuable Thai GL had become, as well as its ability to reach audiences beyond existing GL fandom circles.

10. Mascot Dolls Became Unexpected Commercial Stars

In 2025, Thai GL fans were no longer only following dramas and CPs.

Fans also began closely following mascot dolls — often jokingly referred to as the “children” of the CPs.

Fans monitored the mascots’ social media accounts, bought merchandise, attended mascot-related events, and projected enormous emotional attachment onto them. Many fans even treated them like grandchildren.

According to Zanroo statistics (November 1 – December 20, 2025), EmiBonnie’s mascot ANY ranked #3 in Thailand’s online mascot engagement rankings.

This showed that mascot IPs were no longer merely side products, but had become independent traffic generators and monetizable commercial identities.

Final Thoughts

Looking at these 10 observations together, 2025 felt like a year of major structural transformation for the Thai GL industry.

1. Supply Structure Changed

From scattered productions → to a stable production track

2. Quality Structure Changed

Prestige auteur-style works began emerging

3. Distribution Structure Changed

More OTT platforms actively licensed Thai GL series

4. Commercial Structure Changed

The “CP economy” proved capable of generating hundreds of millions of baht

5. Cross-Industry Structure Changed

Thai GL expanded from entertainment into the global fashion industry

6. Power Structure Changed

Artists increasingly began operating independently

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These are only observations from an ordinary fan who spent a year deeply immersed in Thai GL culture.

This article is simply my attempt to organize and share the changes and trends I personally witnessed within the industry.

If there are mistakes, omissions, or perspectives worth adding, feel free to let me know. I may continue updating this article in the future.

This is also the final article in my Thai GL 2025 Review series.

I’ll treat it as my formal farewell to “a year of crazily chasing Thai GL.”

Thank you to everyone who read this long article to the end.

— Gogo
2026.1.9