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Vertical Drama: How China’s 7-Year Boom Is Shaping a Global Entertainment Wave

China’s “short dramas,” especially vertical micro-dramas designed for mobile viewing, first entered the public eye around 2018. With the…

Real Reel™

28 Jul 2025 — 3 min read

China’s “short dramas,” especially vertical micro-dramas designed for mobile viewing, first entered the public eye around 2018. With the rapid development of mobile internet, the rise of short video platforms, and the rollout of 5G, audiences were craving bite-sized entertainment they could consume in minutes, or even seconds.

Early short dramas were low-budget, fast-paced productions that spread quickly on social media, grabbing attention with over-the-top twists and constant “hook points.”

By 2020, the format was brought under regulatory oversight, and the industry began to professionalize. Then, in 2022, the sector exploded, production volume surged, genres diversified from romance to suspense to period pieces, and platforms raced to fill libraries, attracting a flood of new studios and talent to build out a full production ecosystem.

By mid-2025, China’s vertical short drama market has been developing for roughly seven years, with 2022 marking the start of its high-growth phase.

The numbers tell the story: in 2023, the market reached 37.39 billion RMB (roughly $5.2 billion USD), a staggering 267.65% increase year-on-year. By 2024, it had climbed over 50 billion RMB (about $6.8 billion USD), and user numbers jumped another 14.8% in just six months to reach 662 million , nearly 60% of the country’s entire online population.

Analysts project the market will continue its rapid expansion through 2027, potentially surpassing 100 billion RMB (around $14 billion USD) and solidifying short dramas as a cornerstone of China’s entertainment economy, linking streaming platforms, advertisers, and even e-commerce in one massive ecosystem.

The short drama wave hit overseas a few years later. Around 2022–2023, apps like ReelShort and DramaBox, originally developed by Chinese teams, brought the format to the U.S. and Europe. The addictive, cliffhanger-driven style resonated instantly with global audiences. By 2024, short drama apps overseas had racked up tens of millions of downloads and generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.

By early 2025, U.S. downloads had surged to 370 million, with revenues hitting roughly $700 million — a 500% year-over-year jump.

Similar momentum is emerging in the UK, Latin America, and Southeast Asia, with local actors, studios, and investors now jumping in. Though it started later abroad, the growth curve is uncannily similar to China’s boom years.

If we simply follow China’s growth trajectory, international markets could easily sustain annual growth rates of 20–25% over the next several years. By 2027–2028, revenue from outside China could reach $7 billion and beyond. But that’s likely a conservative forecast. Smartphone penetration in markets like the U.S. and UK is already above 80%, and users spend more time online with well-established habits of watching mobile-first content.

Even more crucially, audiences in these markets are comfortable paying for digital entertainment, subscription models and microtransactions are second nature thanks to services like Netflix, Disney+, and Spotify.

This combination of infrastructure and consumer readiness means that, once local storytelling and marketing strategies fully align with the short drama format, growth could outpace even China’s early years.

In short, the next two to three years could see vertical short dramas evolve from a niche import into a global entertainment phenomenon. What began in China is rapidly being adapted, reimagined, and scaled abroad, and the framework being built now will likely define how this format lives and thrives on a global stage.