Micro-drama revenues in China are set to surpass the country’s domestic box office this year, according to a report by Media Partners Asia (MPA).
The report focuses on the global serialized short-form drama economy, which also found that revenues in China for micro-dramas have climbed from $0.5B in 2021 to $7B in 2024, and are expected to exceed $16.2B by 2030, with a 11.5% compound annual growth rate (CAGR).
By 2030, advertising will contribute 56% of revenues, with subscriptions at 39% and commerce at 5%.
Outside of China, the global micro-drama market generated $1.4B in 2024 and is forecast to reach $9.5B by 2030, with a 28.4% CAGR.
Revenue mix globally will remain subscription or in-app purchase-led at 74%, but advertising will rise to 25% and commerce to 1% by 2030.
In China, micro-dramas have become “mainstream,” with revenues set to exceed $9.4B in 2025, with more than 830 million viewers consuming microdramas. From this audience, nearly 60% pay or transact.
China’s industry is anchored by three major players: ByteDance (Red Fruit), Tencent (WeChat Video Accounts) and Kuaishou (Xi Fan). Each has built dedicated apps, separate from premium long-form video, and tightly integrated with social and payments ecosystems. These platforms leverage IP pipelines from COL, China Literature, and Tomato Novel, converting web novels into serialized vertical dramas.
The report found that the Chinese micro-drama market is also entering a new phase with the rise of premium micro-dramas, carrying budgets of $400,00 to 600,000 each, and with franchise potential.
Artificial intelligence has already been integrated across the value chain, from personalized discovery, faster iteration, and genre testing, to branching storylines and viral loops. Globally, AI is used primarily for localization and dubbing, but its role in compressing costs is expected to grow significantly.
Outside of China, the U.S. is the most lucrative market for micro-dramas, with revenues reaching $819M in 2024, and projected to rise to $3.8B by 2030.
Audience adoption in the U.S. is driven by affluent, urban women aged 30 to 60, who gravitate towards stories around romance, CEO arcs, and revenge-driven narratives.
DramaBox reported $323M in revenue and $10M in net profit in 2024. Competitor ReelShort achieved greater scale (around $400M in 2024) but is loss-making due to heavy marketing costs and amortization, according to MPA’s report.
Outside of China and the U.S., Japan is emerging as the largest APAC market (besides China), with revenues forecast to top $1.2B by 2030, supported by LINE Pay integration and growing local production.
Southeast Asia and Latin America are promising growth regions, while India is in an exploratory phase with local and international platforms, according to the report.
“Micro-dramas have evolved from a niche experiment to a multi-billion-dollar global category,” said Vivek Couto, Executive Director of MPA. “Production is cheap, but distribution is costly, and success depends on speed, scale, and repeatable IP. China’s ecosystem shows what’s possible when content is integrated into social and payments rails, while the U.S. is proving the viability of global expansion.
“Markets such as Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia, and Latin America are emerging. The winners will be operators that control their distribution and monetization infrastructure, manage customer acquisition costs, and build sustainable IP pipelines,” he added.
