2026 H1 AI Drama Market: The market size of domestic AI dramas and manhua dramas will reach 40 billion RMB, and only 1.3% of new dramas can reach the break-even line.
General Overview: The domestic AI short drama and manhua drama market size will reach 400 billion yuan
(1) The domestic AI short drama and manhua drama market size will reach 400 billion yuan in 2026
Considering advertising consumption, non-performance advertising models and capital investment comprehensively, DataEye Research Institute conservatively estimates that the annual market size of domestic AI short drama and manhua drama will reach 400 billion yuan.
Among them, the market size of domestic AI short drama and manhua drama has reached 220 billion yuan in the first 5 months. The supervision of AI short drama and manhua drama will become stricter in the second half of the year, and the overall market tends to expand overseas.
DataEye Research Institute predicts that among the 400 billion yuan market in 2026, the market size of AIGC video large models in the field of AI short drama and manhua drama will exceed 200 billion yuan. Considering the monthly unique visitors of AI tool web pages such as Jimeng, Keling and LibTV in the first half of the year, and integrating the data of certified AI short drama and manhua drama practitioners and enterprises on Juchacha, DataEye Research Institute estimates that the number of practitioners and individual creators related to AI short drama/manhua drama exceeds 500,000, which is an emerging field driving entrepreneurship and employment.
(2) User size explodes, growing to 600 million beyond expectations
The user size of domestic manhua drama in 2025 was only about 120 million. In the first half of 2026, the user size of domestic AI short drama and manhua drama is expected to quickly exceed 600 million, doubling the previously estimated 280 million and achieving higher-than-expected growth.
The main reasons for the surge in users are: The maturity of technology brings huge production capacity of AI hyper-realistic human dramas, as well as platform incentives and recommendations, which realize the rapid conversion of pan-entertainment users.
DataEye Research Institute estimates that as of the first half of 2026, the core and pan-user size of domestic AI short drama and manhua drama has shown a blowout trend. By the beginning of 2027, the user size of AI short drama and manhua drama is expected to reach 700 million, becoming the mainstream Internet content carrier.
Douyin native data: New dramas in the first half of the year exceeded 220,000
(1) Only 1.3% of new dramas on Douyin reach the break-even line
In the first half of 2026, the total number of new AI short dramas and manhua dramas on Douyin reached 221,900, of which 1,055 had more than 100 million views, with a 100-million-view rate of 0.48%. Since March, the number of new dramas has decreased slightly month by month.
If 50 million views are taken as the baseline for break-even, a total of 2,886 new dramas crossed the line in the first half of the year, accounting for 1.3% (it should be noted that this is only a sample of this portal and does not represent the whole industry and all channels. Since a drama may be launched on multiple platforms, the proportion of profitable dramas must be higher than this proportion).
With the gradual improvement of industry regulatory policies, in the future, the number of new AI short dramas and manhua dramas will continue to stabilize at 30,000 to 50,000, entering a stage of steady new drama launch from the blowout outbreak.
(2) AI hyper-realistic new dramas account for more than 60%
In terms of new drama types, the market was dominated by 2D and 3D manhua in January and February, and AI hyper-realistic dramas exploded in March, accounting for 65%.
Affected by mature technology and a large number of practitioners entering the industry, AI hyper-realistic dramas achieved explosive growth in Q2, with their proportion expanding from 57% to 70%. The proportion of 3D manhua remained stable at 20% in Q2, while silly manhua was squeezed to 4%.
(3) New dramas in the first half of the year amassed 500 billion views
In terms of total views of new dramas, the cumulative views in the first half of the year reached 515.738 billion. The monthly views soared from 10 billion to 100 billion and grew steadily.
Considering that the number of new dramas decreased slightly month by month while the views of new dramas grew steadily, this reflects that the pulling effect of top hit content is increasingly significant, and the distribution of platform algorithms continues to be centralized.
(4) 3D manhua views increased by more than 16 times
In terms of the distribution of new drama views, the proportion of AI hyper-realistic dramas once expanded from 17% to 80% in April and May, but shrank back to 68% in June due to industry supervision and platform orientation.
The proportion of 3D manhua was once squeezed to 6.7% in March, but gradually increased to nearly 30% in June. In terms of views, 3D manhua's views in June increased by more than 16 times compared with January.
(5) Fanqie, Jiuzhou and Hema take the lead
In terms of the pattern of distribution platforms for Douyin native AI short dramas and manhua dramas, Fanqie occupies an absolute leading position with a view increment of 229.7 billion, accounting for 67.9% of the total view increment of the top 15 platforms.
Jiuzhou ranks second with a view increment of 66.874 billion, and Hema ranks third with 22.806 billion. In addition, Zhangyue, Maiya, Zhuyun, Huasheng, Shanhai and other platforms also performed prominently.
(6) Yingmi Technology, Yunfan and Yunjing lead the industry
From the perspective of the number of dramas associated with producers, Yingmi Technology has the highest number of associated AI manhua dramas, with a total of 91, which has obtained 3.863 billion views. The second is Donggehua Media, with a total of 43 dramas.
From the perspective of view increment of producers, Yingmi Technology still ranks first, Hangzhou Yunfan ranks second, and the cumulative view increment of 24 manhua dramas has reached more than 2 billion. Wuhan Yunjing ranks third. Xi'an Lingxi Pictures ranks top 4 with only two new dramas, with a cumulative view of 1.556 billion.
(7) Adapting online novels into AI short dramas and manhua dramas is the mainstream
The ranking of copyright holders of Douyin native manhua dramas reflects the influence of IP online novels on content competitiveness.
In addition to the "invisible" overlord Fanqie, Yanyan Stories ranks first with a view increment of 8.473 billion, Ai Kan Interactive follows closely with 5.425 billion, and Shuqi Novels ranks third with 3.962 billion.
Traditional online novel platforms such as Yuewen and Shuqi Novels occupy an important position in the copyright holder list, which confirms the mainstream status of the content production path from online novel IP to manhua drama adaptation.
(8) View increment in Zhejiang and Beijing exceeds 100 billion
From the perspective of the associated views of copyright holders in various regions, the view increment of copyright holders in Zhejiang and Beijing both exceeded 100 billion, ranking in the first echelon. Guangdong ranks first in the country in terms of the supply of 704 drama copyrights.
From the perspective of launch supply, Guangdong ranks first by a large margin with 704 new dramas, with associated views reaching 6.442 billion.
From the perspective of views, although copyright holders in Zhejiang only hold the copyright of 285 dramas, they have driven a view increment of 177.99 billion times, and the average views per drama ranks first in the country.
Copyright holders in Beijing performed the most balanced, with the copyright of 543 dramas, and the cumulative view increment reached 130.46 billion times.
(9) Survival-themed and farming-themed dramas are on the rise
Through the category attribution of high-frequency words, we can clearly insight into the supply priorities of three core audiences: The first type is marriage and emotional content, which is the largest basic market, mainly concentrated in AI hyper-realistic human dramas. For example, the frequency of drama names containing "rebirth" has reached 12,000 times.
The second type is Xianxia and fantasy themed content, the word "Xianxia" appears 2,291 times, and the word "demon" appears 1,559 times. Most of them contain words such as "immortal, god, demon, demon, ascending, crossing the tribulation", which is the core of current male-oriented content, presented with a grand world view combined with 3D visual effects.
The third type is "survival-themed" and "farming-themed", such as "exile", "extreme cold/heat", "famine", etc., which establish an extreme living environment, and let the protagonist use the counterattack narrative of "leveling up and fighting monsters" to achieve a cool experience effect.
Hongguo platform data: The total peak popularity in the first half of the year exceeded 800 billion
(1) The total peak popularity in the first half of the year exceeded 800 billion
In the first half of 2026, the peak popularity of the listed dramas of Hongguo manhua drama showed a "V-shaped" trend of first suppressing and then rising every month. The cumulative peak popularity in the first half of the year exceeded 800 billion, and the cumulative number of listed manhua dramas exceeded 1,800.
The number of listed dramas in May reached 367, with a cumulative peak popularity of 181.86 billion. In June, the number further rose to 378, with a total peak popularity of 196.71 billion. The popularity of some top AI dramas even surpassed that of live-action dramas for the first time, directly driving the overall peak popularity of the market in the second quarter to increase.
