Microdrama revenues outside of China are expected to hit $3.6 billion this year, rising to $9.5 billion by 2031, according to Media Partners Asia (MPA), with ReelShort among a handful of dominant players, generating revenues of more than $1 billion this year.
MPA’s ReelShort / Crazy Maple Studio: Inside the US$1B Micro-Drama Machine report charts ReelShort’s financial trajectory to 2028 and offers up an assessment of the overall microdrama category.
In the U.S., microdrama revenues are projected to reach $1.5 billion this year, rising to $3.7 billion in 2031. Across the AsiaPac, outside of China, revenues are expected to triple to $2.4 billion.
Dominant player ReelShort has grown from $97 million in revenues in 2023 to $400 million in 2024 and $785 million last year. This year, it is on track to reach $1.05 billion in revenues, a 34% gain, rising to $1.4 billion in 2027 and $1.7 billion in 2028. The company will also emerge from last year’s $12 million loss to hit a $40 million profit this year, rising to $225 million in 2028.
Marketing and user acquisition costs, one of the sector’s biggest hurdles, will account for 44% of ReelShort revenues by 2028, down from 55% last year. MPA says this is due to franchises and sequels, telco partnerships, internal billing via its web store and direct channels, production efficiencies and the maturing of the paid social auction system.
Consumer payments and subscriptions lead in terms of the revenue mix, accounting for between 85% and 90%. Subscriptions already account for 60% to 70%. Advertising will generate 15% of revenues by 2028.
At present, Asia generates about 12% of ReelShort’s revenues and is the company’s fastest-growing region, estimated to deliver 14% of revenues in 2027. Partnerships, such as the one with AIS, have been key to the company’s rising scale in the region.
Asia and LatAm together account for 60% of the company’s estimated 70 million global monthly users, but generate just 19% of revenues, while North America makes up 59% of revenues.
ReelShort has a 29% share of a highly consolidated microdrama market, ahead of DramaBox’s 21%, DramaWave’s 13%, NetShort’s 10% and GoodShort at 6%, with the balance spread across 300 smaller apps.
Commenting on the findings of the study, Vivek Couto, CEO and executive director of the MPA, noted, “Micro-drama has begun to be an earnings story rather than a growth story. Marketing costs are coming down as hit franchises bring audiences in without paid support, platform fees are falling as operators move billing onto their own web stores, and advertising is entering the mix at high margin. ReelShort is showing that the model can scale and make money at the same time. What decides the next phase is distribution and unit economics, not necessarily content volume.”
Myat Pan Phyu (May), lead analyst for micro-drama and vertical video at MPA, added, “User acquisition is the swing factor. It falls from 55% of revenue in 2025 to 44% by 2028 on our model, and
every percentage point is worth around US$10.5 million of EBITDA at this year’s scale. The reason is that less of the growth now has to be bought in the paid-social auction. Franchises bring audiences in on their own, and telco distribution adds subscribers at almost no acquisition cost. Thailand has shown that quickly, and the partnerships in Indonesia and the Philippines, along with Japan and Korea from the fourth quarter, should contribute for a full year in 2027.”
