Observation on AI dramas and manhua-adapted dramas: Newly launched dramas have recorded a 20% growth, the entire industry is facing the dual squeeze of "capacity expansion and traffic ceiling", with Buming Culture, Daduoduo Animation and Guangyu taking a strong lead among all production parties.
In July 2026, the domestic AI drama/manhua drama industry landscape is accelerating differentiation, presenting prominent characteristics of "technology-driven capacity expansion, dual-core driving of 3D manhua dramas and AI simulated human dramas, and centralization of top-tier content".
AI Drama/Manhua Drama Data on Douyin Native Platform
(1) Performance of New Dramas
The number of new dramas on Douyin rebounded to 45,000 after hitting the low point, rising by 20%. From the perspective of the number of new dramas, data from the industry version of DataEye-ADX shows that about 45,300 new AI dramas/manhua dramas were added on the Douyin native platform in July, an increase of about 20% compared with 37,700 in June under the same statistical caliber, marking a rebound from the decline.
In terms of the view count of new dramas, data from the industry version of DataEye-ADX shows that the figure once again hit a new high in July, and newly launched dramas contributed more than 160 billion incremental views, a slight increase from 155.78 billion in June, with a growth rate of about 3%, slowing down from the previous rapid growth.
The hit drama rate remains low and drops slightly. In terms of the hit rate of new dramas, there are still 251 new dramas with views exceeding 100 million, and the 100-million-view rate reaches 0.55%; there are more than 9,000 dramas with incremental views exceeding 1 million, and the 1-million-view rate is 20.69%. The number of AI dramas/manhua dramas with incremental views above 1 million has risen sharply, increasing from 4,414 in June to 9,380 in July.
In addition, the ceiling of single-drama views of AI dramas and manhua dramas remained at a high level above 900 million in July. Compared with the 2.1 billion incremental views of the new drama ceiling in June, the incremental views of top new dramas in July dropped significantly, but compared with May, it still maintained a relatively stable state.
DataEye Research Institute believes that the number of new dramas in July increased by 20% month-on-month, but the incremental views only increased by 3% slightly, and the signal of "supply exceeding demand" is already very clear. The number of mid-tier dramas at the million-view level has doubled, indicating that the mid-tier content is rising collectively, but the average traffic of a single drama is diluted;
At the same time, the ceiling of top hit dramas dropped from 2.1 billion+ to 900 million+, and the 100-million-view rate did not increase with the growth of supply, reflecting that traffic distribution is shifting from "top tier taking all" to "strong performance of upper mid-tier and mid-tier content", but the expansion speed of the overall traffic pool can no longer keep up with the capacity growth rate. The industry is moving from the dividend period of "getting traffic immediately after new launch" to the stock competition period where "refined operation is required to stand out".
(2) Genre Distribution
AI simulated human dramas contribute 60% of the total views. From the perspective of new drama genres, in terms of the number of dramas, the new drama supply of AI simulated human dramas reached 27,400 in July, a slight increase from 26,600 in June. In terms of view count, AI simulated human dramas contributed more than 61.26% of the incremental views, leading by a large margin.
The supply of new 3D manhua dramas increased significantly again compared with June, rising from less than 9,000 in June to 16,300, with a total view count of 61.516 billion, accounting for 37.83% of the incremental views of new dramas.
In addition, the new drama supply of 2D manhua dramas reached 1,318, and the number of newly launched silly manhua dramas reached 300, accounting for 0.33% and 0.38% of the incremental views of new dramas respectively.
In terms of supply growth rate, the month-on-month growth rate of AI simulated human dramas in July was about 2.93%, while the month-on-month growth rate of 3D manhua dramas was about 82.89%, which shows that the growth of AI simulated human dramas slowed down significantly compared with 3D manhua dramas.
From the performance of top new dramas, the 3D manhua drama *The Nanny's Inner Voice: The Lu Family's Life-saving Guide* has achieved 939 million incremental views this month, ranking first in the Douyin native top 100 list in July; the 3D manhua drama *Collecting Oysters on Typhoon Day, They Call Me Unscrupulous* ranks second with 800 million incremental views;
The AI simulated human drama *Grandpa Won't Pick Up Chopsticks Before We Bow 7 Times* ranks third with 730 million incremental views, produced by Xi'an Box. *At My Engagement Party, Two Beggars Broke In* with Guanshan Taibao as the copyright holder ranks sixth with 680 million incremental views.
(3) Theme Distribution
From the perspective of the number of new dramas by theme, the theme types with more than 5,000 dramas are counterattack, urban daily life, modern setting, and fantasy brainstorm respectively. There are about 8,800 ongoing AI manhua dramas of counterattack theme, followed by AI manhua dramas of urban daily life theme, with about 7,700 ongoing dramas.
From the perspective of the view count of new dramas by theme, the view count of new dramas with urban daily life and modern setting themes surpassed the "counterattack" theme, and both of their incremental views exceeded 50 billion in July.
On the one hand, urban face-slapping rights protection content broke out in a concentrated manner, and urban rights protection + wealthy family recognition dramas where ordinary people fight back in public after being offended are the main type of incremental dramas in July. This kind of content has strong emotional tension and direct sense of substitution, which meets the instant pleasure demand of short video users; on the other hand, the rise of realistic strong female lead themes, the proportion of female users in AI drama and manhua drama consumption and their willingness to pay continue to increase, driving the view count of urban dramas with modern setting to rise.
In addition, the incremental views of themes such as rural, fantasy brainstorm, and time travel are all between 19 billion and 30 billion. The incremental views of themes such as modern romance, superpower, overbearing president, rebirth, wealthy family feud, era, farming, and ancient setting all exceed 10 billion, among which the farming theme is nearly 17 billion, which is a new theme type that has risen rapidly in the past 3 months.
The farming theme showed a cooling signal in late July, and farming and fishery dramas in the daily ranking continued to recede, but the incremental views of nearly 170 billion still verify the market space of "healing + light conflict" content.
DataEye Research Institute believes that: theme rotation accelerated in July, and "counterattack" is no longer the only option. Urban daily life and modern setting surpassed counterattack with stronger realistic substitution and emotional resonance, indicating that the audience's aesthetic is shifting from "pure pleasure" to "pleasure + empathy". The incremental views of nearly 170 billion still verify the market space of "healing + light conflict" content.
It is worth noting that composite themes such as suspense + family affection are opening up new opportunities, expanding the theme boundary through the dual drive of suspense setting and emotional resonance, and "theme integration and innovation" will be the key variable to stand out in the second half of the year.
(4) Related Enterprises
From the perspective of distribution platforms, in terms of the number of related dramas, Fanqie, Jiuzhou, Hema, and Zhangyue firmly occupy the top 4 positions, and the number of new dramas launched in July all exceeded 100. Among them, Fanqie has 4,880 new dramas, with incremental views exceeding 82 billion, far exceeding other distribution platforms.
Jiuzhou has 939 new dramas, with incremental views of 6.423 billion, ranking second. Hema and Zhangyue rank third and fourth respectively, with 229 and 124 new dramas launched.
It is worth noting that the new distribution platform "Chaoxi" performed well, with a total of 9 new dramas launched this month. In terms of incremental views, it is far ahead of other platforms with similar number of new dramas. The incremental views of new dramas on "Chaoxi" reached 371 million, ranking fifth.
It can be seen that the hit drama methodology accumulated in the field of live-action short dramas is shifting to AI dramas and manhua dramas, and more and more live-action drama teams will cross-border into the AI drama sector with a "new identity" in the second half of the year, becoming a new variable in the industry.
From the perspective of production companies, the one with the largest number of related dramas is Zhumeng Media , with a total of 58 dramas; followed by Yingmi Technology , with 44 related dramas. But from the specific view count of new dramas, Fengma Vision has the highest view count of new dramas, and the total incremental views of its 6 new dramas reached 1.161 billion. Followed by Wuhan Yunjing, 8 new dramas contributed more than 900 million views in total.
Among them, the AI simulated human drama *At My Engagement Party, Two Beggars Broke In* produced by Fengma Vision and copyrighted by Guanshan Taibao has 684 million incremental views, ranking 5th among the new dramas launched in July;
From the perspective of copyright holders, Guanshan Taibao ranks first steadily with 6 new dramas and 1.161 billion incremental views. Followed by Yanyan Story, with a total of 34 new dramas, the incremental views reached 917 million. Zhengchuan ranks third, with a total of 8 new dramas, and the incremental views reached 832 million.
AI Drama/Manhua Drama Data on Hongguo Platform
The AI dramas and manhua dramas on Hongguo platform showed an accelerated expansion trend of "low at first and high later" in 2026. After the accumulation period from January to March in the first half of the year, it showed strong growth and explosion since April.
(1) Number of Listed Dramas and Popularity
From the perspective of listed dramas, a total of 475 new AI dramas and manhua dramas entered the top 30 of the daily ranking in July, an increase of 97 compared with June, with a month-on-month growth of 25.66%. With the full outbreak of the summer season and the iteration of new models, the supply has reached a record high.
At the same time, the popularity ceiling and listing threshold of AI dramas and manhua dramas on Hongguo rose simultaneously. Among the manhua dramas on Hongguo in July, the peak popularity of listed dramas all exceeded 4600, and the peak popularity of 2 3D manhua dramas exceeded 100 million.
The popularity ceiling in July has been raised to above 100 million, and the listing threshold for the top 100 manhua dramas has been raised to 52 million.
From the perspective of popularity performance, the total peak popularity of listed AI dramas and manhua dramas in July reached 246.73 billion, an increase of 50 billion from 196.71 billion in June, with an increase of 25.43%.
(2) Genre Distribution
From the perspective of the genre of listed dramas, the number of AI simulated human dramas is only 182, accounting for 38.32%, a slight decrease from last month. At the same time, the number of listed 3D manhua dramas exceeds 280, accounting for more than 60%.
At the same time, in terms of total peak popularity, the total peak popularity of 3D manhua dramas exceeds 150 billion, accounting for 61.18%, ranking first in both quantity and popularity, becoming the genre with rapid growth this month.
