China’s short-drama industry is undergoing a rapid transformation driven by artificial intelligence, with AI-generated actors and storylines becoming increasingly common and beginning to reshape the market for traditional productions and human performers.
According to The Paper, AI-generated short dramas accounted for more than half of the daily Top 100 popular short dramas for the first time in May this year. By August, their share had climbed to around 70%.
The surge has also been reflected in viewing figures. Over the past month, three AI-generated short dramas recorded peak popularity scores exceeding 100 million, while no traditional live-action short drama had crossed the same level for nearly two months.
The growth in production has been even more dramatic on Douyin. In August 2025, the platform reportedly launched 655 AI short dramas. One year later, the number had soared to 74,313, representing an increase of more than 100 times and accounting for around 75.4% of all new short dramas released that month.
By July this year, a new AI short drama was reportedly being uploaded to Douyin every 36 seconds, highlighting just how quickly the technology has lowered the barriers to producing short-form entertainment.
AI dramas are currently concentrated in genres such as comeback stories, time travel and fantasy. A research report released by Guosen Securities earlier this year found that the core audience for illustrated dramas, or “manhua dramas”, is largely between 24 and 30 years old, with male viewers accounting for about 86%.
This audience profile differs from that of traditional live-action short dramas, which are more popular among women aged 30 and above.
While AI has opened the door to cheaper and faster production, the boom is also putting pressure on established filming centres. Hengdian in Zhejiang, one of China’s major hubs for short-drama production, recorded about a 75% year-on-year decline in the number of short dramas entering production during the first quarter of 2026.
Other major short-drama production hubs, including Zhengzhou and Xi’an, have also reportedly seen some filming locations sitting unused as the demand for traditional shoots weakens.
Human actors are feeling the impact as well. A review of 45 leading short-drama performers from platforms including Red Fruit and Douyin found that the number of productions they starred in had fallen by nearly 25% compared with the same period last year.
However, the explosive growth in AI-generated content does not mean everyone in the industry is making money. Lower production costs have encouraged more creators and companies to enter the market, resulting in intense competition and turning AI short dramas into an increasingly crowded “red ocean”.
Lin Qiwen, vice-president of marketing agency DataEye, said many industry players had initially assumed that AI would lower production costs and barriers while improving profitability.
Instead, he said, the reduction in production costs had not necessarily translated into higher earnings for creators and could even lead to losses appearing more quickly as competition intensifies.
DataEye’s 2026 First-Half AI Drama and Illustrated Drama Data Report found that 221,900 AI dramas were launched on Douyin during the first half of this year.
Yet only 1,055 of those productions achieved more than 100 million views, accounting for just around 0.48% of the total.
Using 50 million views as a reference point for reaching break-even, only around 1.3% of AI short dramas managed to cross that threshold.
In other words, only about one in every 77 newly released AI short dramas reached the report’s reference break-even level, illustrating just how difficult it has become to stand out despite the dramatic fall in production costs.
