Microdrama market data: estimates by vendor
Vendor estimates and official figures for the size of the microdrama market. The three revenue bases in circulation — app-store consumer spend, gross in-app purchase revenue and company revenue — are not interchangeable, and China-inclusive figures are not combined with ex-China figures. Where vendors disagree, both figures are shown.
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| Metric / region | Figure | Year / period | Vendor / source | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overseas microdrama — supply & creative volume | 38,722 new titles in June 2026 (all-time monthly record); H1 ad creatives 19.61m sets, +324% YoY; local-language vs translated flipped 27% to 46% local | H1 / Jun 2026 | DataEye 研究院 | estimate |
| Note The supply record sits alongside revenue growth of 13%. | ||||
| TikTok — own short-drama revenue + AI share of consumption | US$82m cumulative to end-June 2026 (Jan >US$7m; June alone >US$22m, local-language >US$16m, local AI drama +112% YoY); 40% of on-platform short-drama consumption time is AI content | Jan–Jun 2026 | TikTok, via DataEye | company |
| Note First disclosure of the figure. TikTok reported on its own inventory, and the 40% consumption-time metric has no external audit. | ||||
| Non-Chinese apps in the overseas revenue top 20 | My Drama (UA) · Vigloo (KR) · Shortical (IL) · CandyJarTV (Inkitt, DE to SF) | H1 2026 | DataEye 研究院 | estimate |
| Note Inkitt is Berlin-founded and San Francisco-headquartered, so CandyJarTV is German in origin rather than German-based. | ||||
| Overseas microdrama — download leaderboard | FreeReels (Kunlun) #1 >218m — only app >200m; NetShort (麦芽) #2 >130m; ReelShort (COL) #3 >121m; ByteDance Melolo + PineDrama both TOP10 | H1 2026 | DataEye 研究院 | estimate |
| Note Neither ReelShort nor DramaBox leads on downloads. The Chinese original reads 纷纷跻身TOP10. | ||||
| Overseas microdrama — revenue map versus download map | Revenue: US/JP/CA >44%, developed >60% (KR #4, UK #5). Downloads: IN/ID/BR >50%, PH #6 to #4, US #4 to #7 at 4% | H1 2026 | DataEye 研究院 | estimate |
| Overseas microdrama downloads + MAU | 1.441bn downloads H1 (+79% YoY); MAU ~100m end-2025 to 258m mid-2026 (13.9% pen.) to 389m end-2026 (20.9%) | H1 2026 / FY2026 forecast | DataEye 研究院 | estimate |
| Note The top 20 platforms account for more than 1.2bn downloads, or 84% of the market. | ||||
| Overseas microdrama app IAP revenue | ~US$1.27bn (12.7亿美元), +13% YoY; Chinese-origin US$1.182bn = 93%; non-Chinese local ~US$70m = 7% | H1 2026 | DataEye 研究院 | estimate |
| Note The Chinese-origin share is down from about 95% in 2025. Ten non-Chinese apps are in the global top 50 and four in the top 20. | ||||
| Overseas (ex-China) microdrama market — full-year forecast | >US$6bn (60亿美元), raised from US$5bn; of which >US$3bn app IAP + ad/free | FY2026 | DataEye 研究院 | estimate |
| Note Overseas (ex-China) only, and not to be combined with global or China totals. The vendor attributes the increase to batch export of AI and comic-adapted dramas and to TikTok and YouTube content partnerships. | ||||
| Overseas (ex-China) microdrama — downloads versus revenue growth | downloads +79% YoY vs app IAP revenue +13% YoY (~6× divergence) | H1 2026 | DataEye 研究院 | estimate |
| Note The vendor describes the sector as having entered stock competition (存量竞争). Naavik's volume-versus-value analysis of 14 June 2026 reaches the same conclusion from a different vendor and method. Downloads were also only 20% above H2 2025. | ||||
| Global microdrama revenue | $11B | 2025 | Omdia | estimate |
| Note All-revenue, China included (~83%) | ||||
| Global microdrama revenue | $14B (forecast) | 2026 | Omdia | estimate |
| Note All-revenue; ~$3B ex-China | ||||
| Global microdrama revenue | > $22B (forecast) | 2030 | Omdia | estimate |
| Note All-revenue; international about one third | ||||
| Global market (China + ex) | ≈ $26B ($16.2B CN + $9.5B ex) | 2030 (forecast) | Media Partners Asia | estimate |
| Note All-revenue | ||||
| China market | RMB 50.44B (~$6.9B), +34.9%; > film box office | 2024 | CNSA White Paper | official |
| Note All-revenue, China | ||||
| China market | CNY 100bn+ (≈ doubled); 33,000 dramas; ~700M users | 2025 | NRTA government briefing | official |
| Note All-revenue, China. The user count is from an earlier, undated NRTA briefing; at the State Council Information Office briefing of 17 September 2026 the NRTA put the audience at more than 800M. | ||||
| Ex-China / overseas market | $1.4B to $9.5B (28.4% CAGR) | 2024 to 2030 | Media Partners Asia | estimate |
| Note All-revenue, ex-China | ||||
| Overseas app IAP consumer spend | $2.8B, +116% (cited as outside China); $2.98B, +115% (cited as global) | 2025 | Sensor Tower | estimate |
| Note App-store IAP only, the narrowest of the three revenue bases. Both levels are attributed to Sensor Tower, with different scopes, and are not reconciled. | ||||
| Overseas dual-store IAP | US$2.279B (~$2.28B), +129% | 2025 | DataEye | estimate |
| Note Dual-store IAP, ex-China | ||||
| US — largest overseas market | $819M to $3.8B | 2024 to 2030 | Media Partners Asia | estimate |
| Note All-revenue, US | ||||
| US share of global app IAP | 49% (~$350M) | Q1 2025 | Sensor Tower | estimate |
| Note App-store IAP | ||||
| Japan — largest APAC ex-China | > $1.2B | 2030 (forecast) | Media Partners Asia | estimate |
| Note All-revenue, Japan | ||||
| Downloads — global category | 475M (9.5× YoY) | 2024 | Sensor Tower | estimate |
| Note App-store downloads | ||||
| Downloads — global category | 2.3B | 2025 | Sensor Tower | estimate |
| Note App-store downloads. A '+1.66B YoY' increment also circulates with this figure; it does not reconcile with Sensor Tower's 475M for 2024. | ||||
| Q1 2026 category | DLs 860M (+139%); MAU 775M (+216%); ex-CN-Android IAP $530M | Q1 2026 | Naavik (on Sensor Tower) | estimate |
| Note Mixed bases; the IAP figure is ex-China Android | ||||
| Global short-drama downloads | 2.3bn (2025); Q4'25 +186% YoY while OTT downloads −7% | 2025 / Q4'25 | Adjust × Sensor Tower | estimate |
| Note App-store downloads | ||||
| Engagement — ReelShort vs incumbents (US) | 35.7 min/day vs Netflix 24.8 / Prime 26.9 / Disney+ 23 | 2025 | Adjust × Sensor Tower | estimate |
| Note Average daily time in app. Other accounts credit the same 35.7 min figure to Omdia. | ||||
| Europe revenue per MAU | $2.05 (full-year 2025); $0.24 (Q1 2026 alone) | 2025 to Q1 2026 | Adjust × Sensor Tower | estimate |
| Note Revenue per MAU. A full-year figure and a single-quarter figure, so not a like-for-like decline. | ||||
| Supply / advertiser density | >35 apps >10M DLs (2025); >700 advertisers/mo; 50% of app marketers building one | 2025–Q1'26 | Adjust × Sensor Tower | estimate |
| Note Report and practitioner survey | ||||
| Overseas (ex-China) market | projected >$5bn 2026; AI-drama/manhua ~$100M to ~$650M (~6×); live-action shoots −30–50% Q2'26 | 2026 (proj.) | DataEye | estimate |
| Note Overseas IAP plus AI content | ||||
| Head-of-field revenue concentration | DramaBox + ReelShort combined annualized revenue ~$1.5bn; 'most users based in the U.S.' | mid-2026 (annualized) | Media Partners Asia / ampd (APOS, via Variety) | estimate |
| Note MPA estimate. Local content outperforms Korean content in Indonesia and Thailand. | ||||
| China — AI supply share | ~1,300 AI short dramas uploaded/day; AI >95% of new releases; AI titles 38% of Jan'26 top-100 (vs 7% a year earlier); market >CNY 120bn 2026 (proj., > box office) | H1 2026 | DataEye via mpost.io / The Standard HK / 36kr | estimate |
| Note AI production cost is below CNY 200k against about CNY 1.5m for live action, a reduction of about 90%. The breakout rate for new AI comic-style titles is below 0.1%. The dates of the carrier articles are not established. The NRTA, at its briefing of 17 September 2026, put AI-generated dramas at more than 90% of the 430,000 microdramas that went online in the first eight months of 2026. | ||||
| Global — vertical-app churn and consolidation | About 1,500 vertical-video apps launched in about three years, 539 of them active in December 2025; predicted to shrink to about 50 as US players take stakes | as of Dec 2025 (Content London) | Olivier Bernard, co-founder and COO of Kedoo Entertainment (Content London, via C21) | company |
| Note Executive estimate. | ||||
| Vertical video, global — all formats | ~$150B | 2026 | Hernan Lopez (media advisor) | company |
| Note Covers all vertical video. The bulk of it is advertising on Reels and TikTok rather than paid microdrama, so it is not a microdrama market size. | ||||
| DramaBox — platform scale | 465M+ downloads; 175 territories; 16 languages; 6,000+ titles | cumulative to Jun 2026 | DramaBox (M. Kartaszewicz, Head of Comms) via PRODU | company |
| Note Company-claimed, unaudited | ||||
| AI short and comic dramas launched (China, network-wide) | 221,900+ (0.47% >100M views; <6% >10M; >90% flops) | H1 2026 | DataEye 研究院 | estimate |
| Note From DataEye's ADX data, published as a vendor-authored trade column that also carries Migu AIGC commercial content. A DataEye release dated 27 July 2026 describes the same 221,900 count as new AI titles on Douyin. | ||||
| Vertical-drama revenue, global ex-China | $3B | 2025 | Owl & Co | estimate |
| Note Paid vertical-drama content economy, ex-China (Holywater / Owl report) | ||||
| Vertical-drama revenue, global ex-China | $4B (forecast) | 2026 | Owl & Co | estimate |
| Note +33.3% YoY, and converging with Omdia's ~$3B ex-China. It reconciles the earlier '$150bn vertical video' figure, which covers the broad ad-inclusive category. | ||||
| Vertical video economy, global ex-China | $150B (+41% YoY) | 2026 (forecast) | Holywater Tech × Owl & Co | company |
| Note Operator-claimed, and covering the broad ad-inclusive vertical-video category rather than microdrama. It is about 10.7 times Omdia's $14B microdrama figure for the same year, while the same report's microdrama sub-figure is about $4B ex-China. It entered DACH mainstream press on 27 July through DerStandard (AT), reframed as a study with its basis and scope stripped. | ||||
| China short-drama users (de-duplicated, all channels) | 851M | May 2026 | QuestMobile | estimate |
| Note Vendor release of 28 July 2026, 《2026年短剧营销行业报告》. | ||||
| China short drama — standalone apps | 402M users (+77.1% YoY) | May 2026 | QuestMobile | estimate |
| Note Standalone apps are growing about three times faster than WeChat mini-programs, indicating migration out of in-feed formats into standalone apps. | ||||
| China short-drama — WeChat mini-programs | 508M users (+25.4% YoY) | May 2026 | QuestMobile | estimate |
| Note Still larger than apps in absolute terms, but growing about three times more slowly. | ||||
| China short-drama — Douyin mini-programs | 14M users (−83.3% YoY) | May 2026 | QuestMobile | estimate |
| Note Consistent with a migration of duanju out of in-feed mini-programs. | ||||
| China short-drama app engagement | 26.9 h/month across 125.6 sessions/month | May 2026 | QuestMobile | estimate |
| Note Above online video. | ||||
| China AI short-drama market | ¥40bn FY26 (+138% YoY); ¥22bn Jan–May actual | FY2026 | DataEye | estimate |
| Note Vendor release of 27 July 2026, 《2026上半年AI剧漫剧数据报告》. The figures first appeared in a DataEye-bylined column on 16 July and were presented at WAIC on 20 July. | ||||
| China — new AI titles on Douyin, H1 | 221,900 titles; 0.47% hit rate | H1 2026 | DataEye | estimate |
| Note Vendor release of 27 July 2026. The same count first appeared in a DataEye-bylined column on 16 July, which described it as network-wide in China, and was presented at WAIC on 20 July. | ||||
| Global short-drama active titles (weekly) | 43,200 (+8.54%); 13,300 new = 30.79% | 13–19 Jul 2026 | SocialPeta | estimate |
| Note Weekly ranking, published 28 July 2026. | ||||
| EU AI Act Article 50 — Code of Practice signatories (de-duplicated) | ~190 organisations (Section 1 = 83 · Section 2 = 152; many signed both, so the two are not additive) | as at 31 Jul 2026 | European Commission | official |
| Note Published signatory table, 'Strong backing for the Code of Practice on Transparency of AI-generated Content', published 31 July 2026. About half the signatories are small or recently founded companies. The code remains open for signature and the list is updated on an ongoing basis. | ||||
| Overseas short-drama value chain | $3.6B (+126% YoY) | 2025 | Google data as relayed by DataEye — not attributable to Google | estimate |
| Note DataEye attributes the figure to Google; no Google publication of it is cited. It circulates through DataEye alone (2023 $600M; 2025 $3.6B, +126%; 2026 $6.0B estimated), in an article on Huxiu dated 27 January 2026 and reposted from 霞光社. | ||||
| Overseas microdrama app IAP revenue — competing vendor figures | 点点数据 $2.058B (+126%); DataEye $2.279B (+129%); Sensor Tower's own published figure is $2.98B global (+115%) | 2025 | 点点数据 / DataEye / Sensor Tower | estimate |
| Note A $2.03B figure in circulation attaches an overseas-only level to Sensor Tower's global growth rate; the Chinese original hedged with 「Sensor Tower等权威机构」. Deloitte's 2025 base of $3.8bn for in-app micro-series is a different basis again, and the three do not reconcile into a single series. | ||||
| Overseas short-drama apps — installs and sessions | installs +238% YoY · sessions +679% YoY | Q1 2026 (vendor release 23 June 2026) | Adjust (Sensor Tower supplied top-apps data only) | estimate |
| Note The Adjust release is confirmed for 23 June 2026. This is mobile-measurement panel data rather than a census: Sensor Tower's own store-level figures for the same quarter are downloads +140% and IAP +20%. | ||||
| Overseas AI drama / anime-drama market | $100M to $650M | 2025 to 2026 (forecast); vendor release about 12 May 2026 | DataEye | estimate |
| Note Confirmed verbatim in 《DataEye 2026年Q1海外AI剧/漫剧数据报告》 of about 12 May 2026. It is a forecast (预估) rather than an actual, and is not comparable with QuestMobile's releases. | ||||
| China — Hongguo free 漫剧 (animated short drama) | 39.14M | May 2026 | QuestMobile | estimate |
| Note Sub-figure of the vendor release of 28 July 2026. Companion figure: Tencent 火龙漫剧 10.78M. | ||||
| China — short-drama reach on content platforms (Douyin + Kuaishou main apps) | 472M (+27.1% YoY) | May 2026 | QuestMobile | estimate |
| Note Sub-figure of the vendor release of 28 July 2026. | ||||
| Chinese-origin apps' share of the ex-China microdrama field | 94.93% of revenue · 80.46% of downloads | FY2025 | DataEye | estimate |
| Note DataEye release of 22 January 2026. A widely circulated '95%' is this revenue share cited as a download share; the '67%' counterpart usually paired with it is not traceable to any vendor, and the 'Q3 2024' base period attached to it appears in no source. The sourced figures describe weaker erosion than the circulating pair. | ||||
| Adjacent-category funding — AI video | Kling AI ~US$3.0bn (2 Jul) · Shengshu $500M (6 Jul) · PixVerse $439M (13 Jul) · Zhixiang ¥1.5bn (23 Jul) · Fish Audio $52M (28 Jul); ITjuzi: July's top four alone >RMB 26.2bn (~$3.6bn) | Jul 2026 | Kuaishou HKEX filing via Xinhua; ITjuzi; Crunchbase | estimate |
| Note Kling detail: RMB 13.8236bn plus RMB 5.2235bn, capped at RMB 20.4471bn, about US$3.0bn for 16.67%, implying US$18bn post-money. | ||||
Corrections and updates
Correction, : Sensor Tower's 2.3bn short-drama app downloads for 2025 were shown with an increase of 1.66bn on the year, which does not reconcile with its 475m for 2024. The table now gives 2.3bn alone; the 1.66bn increase circulates without a reconciling source.
Correction, : Sensor Tower's 2025 short-drama app spending was shown as a single range of $2.8bn to $2.98bn. The two figures are cited with different scopes, $2.8bn outside China and $2.98bn globally, and are now shown separately.
Update, : The NRTA's figure of about 700m Chinese microdrama users came from an earlier, undated briefing. At its briefing of 17 September 2026 the NRTA put the audience at more than 800m.
Correction, : Europe revenue per user was shown as falling from $2.05 in 2025 to $0.24 in the first quarter of 2026, which compares a full year with a single quarter. The two figures are now shown separately.