Microdrama market data news
Measurements of the microdrama market: revenue, downloads, audiences and spend. Figures from different vendors and bases are not comparable, and each report says which it is.
Start with the guide: Microdrama market size 2026: the main estimates compared, Microdrama statistics 2026: sourced, dated figures
- Sensor Tower: South Korean short-drama app revenue hit a record in August
In-app purchase revenue rose about 28% on July, and two short-drama apps now sit 7th and 8th in Korea's entertainment top 10 by in-app revenue.
- Owl & Co.: two-thirds of Q3 vertical drama releases outside China were AI generated
The consultancy's quarterly report puts the AI-generated share at 3% in the first quarter and 28% in the second; PineDrama accounted for more than half of 63bn views tracked in the third.
- Omdia finds men account for 54% of UK microdrama users
Omdia's consumer research puts men at 54% of UK microdrama users, against an even split in the US and a female majority in Spain and Brazil.
- Dentsu survey: 8% of French respondents watch microdramas
Dentsu's Entertainment Spotlight 2026, released ahead of Mipcom, found that one in five consumers across 12 markets watch microdramas. Satellifacts reported the French share at 8%.
- Dentsu: 62% of microdrama viewers watch for more than an hour per session
The microdrama chapter of Dentsu's Entertainment Spotlight 2026 reports that one in five consumers across 12 markets watch the format, with DramaBox, My Drama and ReelShort the most-subscribed platforms.
- Shortical targets $100m revenue in 2026; Mansa cites $100k-$250k budgets
Founders of the two microdrama companies described their economics in a TheWrap interview published 2 October 2026. All figures are company statements.
- FlexTV owner Mega Matrix reports 29% revenue decline and wider loss for first half of 2026
Mega Matrix's H1 2026 interim report, filed with the SEC on 1 October 2026, shows revenue of $10.5m and a net loss of $6.3m, with in-app purchase revenue down 32%.
- German study puts under-30s at 47 minutes a day of social-media video
The ARD/ZDF media study for 2026 records non-linear video drawing level with linear television. It does not measure microdrama as a category.
- Snap-commissioned Ipsos study says short-drama viewers on Snapchat spend over $50 a month
A survey of 3,000 daily social media users in the US, UK and Saudi Arabia, commissioned by Snap Inc. from Ipsos, reports that Snapchat users spend more than $50 a month on average on short-drama platforms.
- PineDrama passes 100m downloads with about 7m daily users, per Sensor Tower
ByteDance's overseas short-drama app has passed 100m cumulative downloads, with Indonesia and Brazil accounting for 82% of them, according to Sensor Tower figures published in China in September.
- iiMedia puts China's 2025 microdrama market at RMB 67.79bn, below the regulator's figure
The research firm's consumer trends report gives a 2025 market size roughly a third smaller than the figure China's broadcasting regulator gave at a State Council briefing the same day.
- Omdia puts US second-screen smartphone use at nearly three in four TV viewers
The research covers simultaneous media use while the television is on, and rose across every age band measured since 2023. It contains no microdrama figure.
- DramaWave led August short-drama downloads, DramaBox led revenue
Insightrackr's monthly ranking of overseas short-drama apps put DramaWave first by downloads and DramaBox first by revenue for August 2026. Coin Drama rose twenty places. No European app appears in either top fifteen.
- FlareFlow posts a 60% net margin on an entity with negative net assets
COL Group's half-year report puts its wholly owned microdrama platform at RMB 253m revenue and RMB 152m net profit. The same filing shows net assets of minus RMB 305m and describes the platform as having reached monthly operating break-even.
- COL Group short-drama revenue doubles as ReelShort stays outside its consolidated accounts
The Chinese publisher's half-year report shows short drama and IP derivatives at RMB 411m, up 108.72%, against web literature down 54.91%. Crazy Maple Studio, which operates ReelShort, is disclosed as a 49.24% equity-method associate rather than a subsidiary.
- Kuaishou reports short-play supply up more than fivefold since January
The platform's interim results for the six months to 30 June 2026 describe a more than fivefold increase in the supply of short plays, counting live-action and AI-generated titles together, against a January 2026 base.
- Short-drama app downloads reach 1.45bn in the first half of 2026, Mintegral reports
Advanced Television reported on 18 August that Mintegral, drawing on Insightrackr data, put first-half short-drama app downloads at 1.45bn, up 95.5% year on year, with about 83% coming from emerging markets.
- China Literature books RMB430m from short drama and says reading revenue shifted to it
The Hong Kong-listed publisher reported short-drama and AI-animated-drama revenue above RMB430m for the first half, up 230%, and attributed part of a 7.3% decline in its online reading business to a shift toward those formats.
- Revenue and download maps for short-drama apps have pulled apart
DataEye's first-half data puts revenue in the US, Japan and Canada and downloads in India, Indonesia and Brazil. Four of the twenty largest apps by revenue are not Chinese-owned.
- DataEye: overseas downloads up 79% in H1, in-app revenue up 13%
The vendor's half-year figures put install growth six times ahead of in-app purchase revenue growth, and describe a sector that has moved from land-grab expansion to competition for existing users.
- Two unrelated $1.4bn estimates circulate for different markets and years
Media Partners Asia's global ex-China figure for 2024 and Owl & Co's US figure for 2025 are both $1.4bn. Quoting them together implies a corroboration that does not exist.
- DataEye puts H1 2026 overseas microdrama app spending at $1.27bn
The Chinese research house estimates in-app purchase revenue for microdrama apps in markets outside China at about $1.27bn for the first half, up 13% year on year. Its published revenue split does not sum to that total and one share is misstated.
- Three unrelated "150" figures circulate as microdrama market sizes
A $150bn vertical-video estimate, a $150bn analyst figure covering mostly ad formats, and a ¥150bn China projection use different currencies, scopes and bases. None is a microdrama market size.
- QuestMobile: Chinese short-drama viewing shifts to standalone apps
Standalone apps reached 402m users in May, up 77.1% year on year, against 508m on WeChat mini-programs, up 25.4%. Douyin mini-program users fell 83.3% to 14m.
- Hongguo reaches 356m monthly users on a free, ad-supported model
ByteDance's Hongguo (红果短剧) was at 356m monthly active users by May 2026, up 79.1% year on year, per QuestMobile, against 304m in February.
- Austrian daily carries a $150bn vertical video claim as a market study
DerStandard reported a $150bn figure for vertical video outside China in 2026, up 41%. The number comes from an operator-authored report whose own microdrama sub-figure is about $4bn ex-China.
- DataEye puts China AI short drama at ¥40bn for 2026, up 138%
The figures were presented at WAIC on 20 July and had already appeared in a vendor column on 16 July. Of 221,900 AI and manga dramas launched in the first half, 1,055 passed 100m views.
- Holywater report puts vertical drama at $4bn outside China in 2026
Owl & Co estimates ex-China vertical drama revenue rising from $3bn in 2025 to $4bn in 2026. The behavioural data behind the report comes from one operator's two apps.
- DataEye counts 221,900 AI dramas in H1, 0.47% past 100m views
The vendor's ADX figures for the first half of 2026 put 1,055 titles past 100m views and about 12,000 past 10m, with more than 90% described as flops.
- Adjust and Sensor Tower publish a joint short-drama app report
The Short Drama Apps Report 2026, dated 23 June, is reported to show ReelShort ahead of Netflix on daily time spent and short-drama installs in Latin America up 913%.
- Sensor Tower acquired app-intelligence rival AppMagic in May
Sensor Tower announced on 12 May 2026 that it had acquired AppMagic, which becomes its product for small and medium-sized businesses. Both vendors are widely cited for microdrama app downloads and consumer spending.
- iQIYI's annual report puts its micro-drama library near 20,000 titles
The streaming platform's 2025 annual report on Form 20-F treats micro dramas as a defined business line, reporting roughly 20,000 micro-drama titles against more than 40,000 long-form titles.