Bite-sized drama boom

When Kevin Chen, a 24-year-old blogger-turned-actor from Penang, Malaysia, was invited to play a leading role in The Lady from the Northeast, curiosity was part of what drew him in.

Chinese micro-dramas had already become familiar entertainment among his acquaintances back home.

"Nowadays, many of my friends in Malaysia really enjoy watching Chinese micro-dramas," Chen said.

"Perhaps because everyone's pace of life is getting faster and faster, micro-dramas can be finished in a comparatively short time, making them very suitable for passing short periods of time."

Widely believed to have emerged in 2018 before entering a period of explosive growth from 2022, micro-dramas — usually shot vertically, with episodes lasting just a few minutes — have rapidly become one of China's most popular entertainment formats, both at home and overseas.

According to China's National Radio and Television Administration, the number of micro-drama users nationwide has exceeded 800 million, roughly 57 percent of China's population. In the first eight months of 2026, 430,000 micro-dramas went online, 13 times the total for all of 2025.

Market growth has been just as striking. In 2025, the sector's market size surpassed 100 billion yuan ($14.9 billion), nearly double the 50.4 billion yuan recorded in 2024 — the year when micro-drama revenue first exceeded the total box-office revenue of films released in domestic theaters.

Growing popularity at home has been accompanied by rising interest overseas.

"The world is paying great attention to Chinese audiovisual works. Chinese micro-dramas have become a literary and artistic genre fancied by international audiences," He Biao, vice-minister of the National Radio and Television Administration, said at a State Council Information Office briefing in late September.

DataEye, a data analytics and research company, has found that monthly active users of micro-drama apps in overseas markets reached 258 million in mid-2026. It forecasts the overseas micro-drama market will exceed $6 billion in 2026, with AI-generated dramas and animated dramas accounting for more than $4 billion, or nearly 70 percent of the total.

Lin Qiwen, vice-president of Data-Eye, said that the United States, Japan and Canada ranked as the top three markets by in-app purchase revenue for overseas micro-drama apps from January to July this year, together accounting for nearly half of the total.

Audience tastes also vary by market.

"For American audiences, stories with strong female leads are among the most popular," Lin said.

For example, a story about a young woman who loses everything, rises again and regains control within a wealthy family would appeal to American audiences.

In Southeast Asia, however, romances set in ancient China or stories centered on family tensions — such as conflicts between a woman and her mother-in-law — may have greater appeal, he explained.

Those differences have also shaped production models. Chinese micro-dramas distributed in Southeast Asia can often be translated and subtitled, but those targeting Western markets generally require greater localization.

"Southeast Asian countries share cultural similarities with China, but for American and European audiences, Chinese companies usually hire locals to remake the scripts while letting Chinese teams be in charge of the formats — after all, the Chinese side has more experience in boosting streaming traffic," Lin said.

As Chinese companies pursue wider markets, emerging economies have also shown growing interest in downloading Chinese apps for micro-drama viewing.

India, Indonesia and Brazil ranked among the top three markets, accounting for 21.5 percent, 19.4 percent and 9.4 percent, respectively, in the first seven months of this year, according to DataEye.