Microdramas shake up mobile viewing as $11 billion format eclipses Netflix

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By: Dakir Madiha

Microdramas shake up mobile viewing as $11 billion format eclipses Netflix

Microdrama platforms are now capturing more daily viewing time on mobile phones in the United States than established streaming services, underlining how ultra-short scripted series are redefining video habits on small screens. New figures from research firm Omdia, based on Q4 2025 Sensor Tower usage data presented at MIP London, show that ReelShort users watch an average of 35.7 minutes per day on the app, compared with 24.8 minutes for Netflix, 26.9 minutes for Amazon Prime Video and 23 minutes for Disney+ on mobile. Omdia estimates that the global microdrama business generated about 11 billion dollars in revenue in 2025 and could climb to 14 billion dollars by the end of 2026 as consumption spreads beyond its core Asian markets.

The surge in daily usage masks a significant difference in audience scale between traditional streamers and these newer apps. Netflix still counts a far larger mobile user base in the US, with tens of millions of monthly active users, while ReelShort’s audience remains in the low single-digit millions, meaning microdrama platforms are winning on intensity of engagement rather than reach. Omdia analyst Maria Rua Aguete argues that short, serialized dramas of only a few minutes per episode have shifted from niche experiments to a central driver of time spent on mobile video. Similar patterns are emerging in other markets, where local short-drama apps have begun to match or exceed the daily mobile usage of major subscription platforms.

China still dominates the sector, accounting for the bulk of global microdrama revenues thanks to its vast mobile audience and an ecosystem of apps built around fast-paced, pay-per-episode storytelling. Outside China, the United States has quickly become the most important growth market, with Omdia projecting US microdrama revenues of around 1.5 billion dollars in 2026, equivalent to roughly half of all revenues generated beyond Chinese borders. App-tracking firms report that ReelShort, owned by Silicon Valley-based Crazy Maple Studio, a subsidiary of Chinese media group COL Digital Publishing, recorded close to 1.2 billion dollars in gross consumer spending in 2025, more than doubling year on year. Across the category, short-drama apps are estimated to have produced nearly 3 billion dollars in global in-app revenue last year, reflecting triple-digit annual growth.

Major streaming services are moving quickly to counter the attention shift by adopting mobile-first, vertical video formats inside their own apps. Disney+ used its Tech and Data Showcase at CES 2026 in Las Vegas to confirm that it will roll out a short-form vertical video feed in the United States, mixing original bitesized programming, highlights from existing series and films, and clips adapted from other platforms to encourage frequent daily visits. Netflix, which has already experimented with mobile-only vertical feeds, plans a major redesign of its mobile interface with a prominent vertical short-form feed integrated into the app later in 2026, presenting swipeable clips from its catalogue in a format familiar to users of TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels. For Omdia, these initiatives show that microdrama-style vertical video is becoming a logical extension for subscription platforms that want to capture more mobile time without displacing their longer, premium shows.