Counterattack, God of War, Time Travel... The short drama industry is showing a trend of diversification and quality, with young audiences aged 25 to 44 accounting for 57%.

  Baidu survey shows that the market size of micro-short dramas increased by 27.5% year-on-year in 2024, and the number of micro-short dramas launched in the whole year hit a new high. The number of existing micro-short drama-related companies has also shown a rapid growth trend.

  IP boutique short drama debuts

  At the beginning of 2025, many IP short dramas such as "In the Name of Love", "The Rise of the Sun", "The Disguised Game", "The Time of the Sun Falling", and "The Great Momentum". In addition, Qiong Yao's classic IP "My Fair Princess" will also be adapted into the short drama "My Fair Princess". Industry insiders predict that with the advent of the era of fine short dramas, 2025 is expected to become the first year of high-quality short dramas in IP, and many first series of short dramas will be born.

  The short drama industry has gone from the budding period before 2018 to the exploration period from 2018 to 2019, and then to the growth period from 2020 to 2021, and the explosion period from 2022 to early 2024, and now it has entered the 2.0 era of transformation.

  Driven by external management and endogenous development logic, short dramas have transformed from audio-visual "products" to "works", the industry size continues to increase, user scale, market size, scale of practitioners, and content supply have reached new highs, and production methods, business models, etc. have also undergone fundamental changes. Policy management and guidance of short dramas are normalized, and short dramas are promoted to the development of high-quality, professional and standardized.

  The overseas trip of short dramas has also become a new highlight. North America has become the largest overseas market for short dramas, and it is expected that the overseas short drama market will have greater room for growth in the future. DramaBox, ShortTV, ReelShort and other applications performed outstandingly in the cumulative downloads and revenues from January to August 2024, with DramaBox's cumulative revenue reaching US$89.54 million.

  Emotions and dreams are popular topics

  Who says short dramas need to "one conflict in three seconds, and one reversal in five seconds"? The opposite short drama still topped the hot list. The Sichuan dialect drama "Home and Outside" does not rely on bloody reversals and does not have celebrity special effects. It slowly tells the stories of ordinary people. In the play, Cai Xiaoyan knitted sweaters for her stepdaughter for three episodes. The two went from competing with each other to slowly accepting each other, just like the real family story around people.

  On the other hand, celebrities switched to short dramas, and their strength was to perform "59 years old is the age to break through." "The Afternoon Rose" starring Li Ruotong focuses on the inspirational stories of middle-aged women returning to the workplace, showing their balance and choice between the workplace and family. This type of subject is relatively rare in micro-short dramas, filling the gaps in traditional TV series and long micro-short dramas. By carefully depicting the tenacity and turnaround of middle-aged women in the workplace and life, it conveys the power of women's self-growth.

  The survey shows that in content creation, the short drama industry is showing a trend of diversification and quality. The needs of different groups such as urban blue-collar workers, small town youth, backbone forces in new first-tier cities, female users, and male users have been met, with young users aged 25 to 44 accounting for 57%. Keywords such as counterattack, God of War, Time Travel, and President have become the top consumer themes, and emotions, counterattack, and God of War themes are sought after by users. These themes and keywords reflect the audience's attention and love for topics such as emotions, dreams, and struggle.

  Mobile playback spreads to large screens

  It is worth noting that in addition to using mobile phones as the main playback position, short dramas have also begun to spread to large screens such as TVs. Recently, at the 2025 Capital Audiovisual Program Spring Festival Short Drama Hi-Creation Day event, industry insiders said that young audiences and young people under the age of 18 have a strong interest in large-screen short dramas, especially in ancient costumes and romance themes. For example, through data analysis, Mango TV found that large-screen short dramas have huge market potential among young people.

  As short dramas shift from vertical screens to large screens, the transformation of creation and standards have reorganized them into the focus. Vertical short dramas focus on fast-food and fragmented viewing experience, while large-screen short dramas need to pay more attention to emotional expression and virtual presentation. Creative adjustments from vertical screens to large screens need to be reconstructed in the narrative rhythm and lens language to adapt to different viewing scenes. Some Internet video platforms are trying to create a production model that integrates IP horizontal and vertical screens, exploring content integration innovation.

  In addition, traditional TV media have put forward high-quality resources to embrace the trend of "micro-short drama +" and explore the industrial layout of "integration of large and small screens". Text/Reporter Chen Si

[Editor in charge: Susan]