Users can watch manhua dramas in the game, and related works once reached the highest TOP 2 on the bestseller list. Tencent, NetEase and Guangzhou-based game developers are all making layouts in this sector. Is a new "game + manhua drama" model emerging?
Recently, DataEye Research Institute found that *Crazy Water World* under Yishijie has begun to implant short drama/manhua drama content in the game.
DataEye Research Institute believes that different from the common one-way industry link of "diverting traffic from manhua dramas to games", this attempt of *Crazy Water World* re-blurs the boundary between manhua dramas/short dramas and games: games are no longer just the traffic landing pages of manhua dramas, and manhua dramas are no longer just advertising materials.
Based on this case, DataEye Research Institute will conduct a detailed analysis of the integrated track of "game + short drama/manhua drama" combined with the layout of game manufacturers.
01
Performance of *Crazy Water World* on bestseller list: Top 2 on WeChat Mini Games, Top 17 on APP
According to Diandian Data, the APP version of *Crazy Water World* recently reached the 17th place on the iOS bestseller list at its peak.
DataEye-ADX shows that the WeChat Mini Games version of *Crazy Water World* has remained stably within the top 13 of the bestseller list for nearly 180 days, and once reached the 2nd place on the list.
It can also be seen from the delivery data that the material delivery volume of the WeChat Mini Games version of *Crazy Water World* has started to increase recently.
In terms of materials, *Crazy Water World* is also continuously delivering manhua drama materials, which are still related materials in the form of "Xiao Pang + sea survival".
At present, *Crazy Water World* has two built-in manhua dramas named *The World Is Flooded, I Dominate the Apocalypse With Water Purifiers* and *Crazy Water World: I Win Big With the Infinite System*.
02
AI manhua drama mini-game *The Legend of Zhen Huan: Return* enters the top 45 of WeChat Mini Games bestseller list
Coincidentally, DataEye Research Institute also found another AI manhua drama mini-game *The Legend of Zhen Huan: Return*. This is a combined product of 2D fighting and manhua drama, which has entered the mini-game bestseller list, and its plot is completely produced in the form of AI manhua drama.
*The Legend of Zhen Huan: Return* entered the WeChat Mini Games bestseller list on October 9, and once reached the 45th place on the list at its peak.
In terms of materials, *The Legend of Zhen Huan: Return* is mostly spread in the form of AI manhua drama small theater.
03
The combination of games and manhua dramas is an irresistible general trend
After years of development and integration, the correlation between games and short dramas has become increasingly close at present. More and more manufacturers are beginning to try more combinations between games and short dramas.
For example, some time ago, the National Radio and Television Administration released the 2026 September national filing and publicity of TV dramas (web dramas) for filming and production. In this list, the independent category of "interactive drama" officially appeared. The 30-episode web drama *Cadillacs and Dinosaurs: Chinese Secret Realm* became the first sample of this form included in the normalized management of drama series.
NetEase and Tencent are also gradually increasing their investment in the short drama market.
NetEase: In the early years, the editor "Song Dynasty Painting" of NetEase Game *A Dream of the Song Dynasty: Rivers and Lakes*, and the editor "Leihuo Painting" of Leihuo Game *Naraka: Bladepoint*, allowed players to spontaneously produce short drama-style content through the built-in editor; in addition, the IP manhua drama *The Spear Goes to Lifelong* jointly produced by Jiuzhou Culture and the mobile game *A Dream of the Song Dynasty: Rivers and Lakes* and distributed by Jiuzhou Culture was officially launched on all platforms.
Tencent: Tencent's manhua drama platform Huolong Manhua recently launched the interactive mini-game channel "Play Now". From the perspective of game content, the "Play Now" section of Huolong Manhua has a total of 13 products, covering multiple gameplay types such as "find the difference", "pour the water bottle", "simulation management", "chess and cards", and "screw driving". It is worth noting that in the game *Super Vision King*, 18 interactive games are also built in, and each game is marked with a label indicating that it is derived from the Huolong Manhua IP. Moreover, the interactive game also provides the function of watching advertisements to unlock additional hints.
In addition, DataEye Research Institute counted the mini-games launched in the first half of this year (selecting some products), and found that in addition to Tencent's *QQ Classic Farm* ranking high, most of the products launched in the first half of this year are either in the middle of the ranking or have fallen out of the list.
It can be seen that the current game market is generally facing a common problem: the cost of traditional user acquisition traffic continues to rise, the material involution is serious, and the ceiling of user retention for a single gameplay is obvious. Many users acquired by products lose quickly in the early stage, the payback period is extended, and it is difficult to continuously seize users' fragmented time by relying solely on gameplay.
However, the user pool of short dramas/manhua dramas is huge, and the user portraits of the two are highly overlapping: they prefer light-weight, fast-paced content with low understanding cost, which is suitable for fragmented scenarios such as commuting, queuing, and waiting. In the past, the industry practice was to cut short dramas into advertising materials and place them on short video platforms.
But the shortcomings of this model are very obvious: users are attracted by the plot, have no awareness of the game itself, the jump loss rate is high, and the user expectations are mismatched, resulting in unstable conversion quality.
Based on this, DataEye Research Institute combined relevant data and the current integration of games with short dramas/manhua dramas, and made three judgments on the "game + short drama/manhua drama" track:
Judgment 1: Two-way integration will be divided into two mainstream routes, adapting to different types of products
The first route: The game body carries short dramas, focusing on retention and IP operation, represented by *Crazy Water World*, which is more suitable for medium and long-term products with a large number of waiting CD such as simulation management, survival construction, and idle hanging. Such products naturally have a large number of fragmented waiting windows, and short dramas can take up the gap time, strengthen the world view, and are suitable for manufacturers with long-term IP operation plans and willingness to continuously produce content.
The second route: Short drama platforms embed light interactive mini-games, focusing on traffic monetization and content adjustment, represented by Tencent Huolong Manhua's "Play Now", which is adapted to manhua drama and short drama APPs. Mini-games are used as adjustments between drama watching, relying on the short drama traffic pool to realize advertising monetization, and the products are mainly super casual and puzzle light gameplay.
The underlying logic of the two models is different. The former is to expand the content of game products, while the latter is to enrich the entertainment form of short drama products. The category adaptation boundary is clear, and forcibly applying the model will most likely not achieve the expected effect.
Judgment 2: Assembly line short dramas that rely purely on AI to reduce costs are difficult to form competitiveness, and content is the barrier
The explosion of AI real-person short dramas in *Crazy Water World* and various AI manhua dramas lies in the fact that AI has greatly lowered the production threshold. In the past, high-cost drama content can now be independently and continuously updated by game manufacturers to support the demand for high-frequency new releases in games.
However, DataEye Research Institute has observed that a large number of assembly line AI short dramas have the problems of thin character settings and disconnection from the game world view. They can attract clicks in the short term, but cannot improve player stickiness in the long term. The truly valuable content is customized short dramas that are deeply bound to the game IP setting and carry players' emotions. That is to say, AI is only a production tool, and content planning and IP understanding are the core barriers.
Judgment 3: The incremental value of the track in the short term is concentrated in casual categories, and the integration space for heavy games is limited
For competitive and hardcore MMO products, the core demands of users are focused on matches, dungeons, and social combat. Users have low tolerance for waiting, and the scenario foundation for built-in short dramas is weak. Forcible implantation will easily destroy the sense of immersion.
While simulation survival, idle, and simulation management categories are naturally adapted. At the same time, manufacturers can no longer use the traditional user acquisition ROI as the only criterion, and need to establish a new index system: in addition to DAU and payment, they also need to track composite indicators such as "drama viewing penetration rate, retention after drama viewing, and search popularity". Measuring only by advertising click revenue will underestimate the long-term value of IP; only looking at the play volume will easily ignore the interference to the core gameplay of the game.
In general, from short drama traffic diversion, to built-in dramas in games and built-in mini-games in manhua dramas, to the official inclusion of interactive dramas in filing supervision, the boundary between games and short dramas is continuously dissolving. This is not a short-term marketing hotspot, but a long-term trend in the era of fragmented entertainment where different content forms penetrate each other and compete for user time.
This also provides an important enlightenment for the industry: After the traffic dividend is exhausted, growth no longer only comes from external user acquisition, but also from in-depth content cultivation within the product.
The products that can succeed in the future will definitely not be a simple splicing of games and short dramas, but an integrated content ecosystem with a unified world view and complementary scenarios. With the maturity of the AI production link and the stability of the regulatory framework, it is expected that more mid-sized and small manufacturers will enter the market for trials, and the track will gradually move from the "material tool" stage to a new battlefield of long-term IP operation.
This article is from the WeChat official account "DataEye" (ID: DataEye), author: Yj, published with authorization from 36Kr.