The microdrama trend is accelerating as U.S. studios chase mobile-first audiences and brands from Crocs to Maybelline experiment with two-minute vertical dramas. Foresight Factory’s data shows U.S. viewership more than doubling in a year, making this a category worth tracking now.
Microdramas go mainstream: Short-form series attract viewers and brands
Hollywood has a new competitor for your attention, and it lasts about as long as it takes to brew a coffee.
Reuters recently reported that U.S. studios are increasingly chasing microdramas – ultra-short, vertical video dramas built to be watched on a phone – as the traditional TV business faces a steady decline.
Traditional TV business in the U.S. is still massive, at about $125 billion, but PwC projects that market will shrink by as much as $15 billion a year in the coming years because of continued cord cutting, which helps explain why studios are paying such close attention to a format that barely existed a few years ago.
Meanwhile, the global microdrama market generated an estimated $8-11 billion in 2024/25, with China accounting for around 83% of revenue. The category is forecast to exceed $20 billion by 2030, with growth increasingly driven by international markets – particularly the US, Japan, Latin America and Southeast Asia – expanding at a CAGR of around 28% outside China versus a maturing 11.5% within it.
In the U.S. specifically, the format is expected to generate $1.5 billion in revenue in 2026, rising to nearly $2 billion in 2027. U.S. viewership numbers back this up. Some 66 million monthly active users watched microdramas in 2025, more than double the 26 million in 2024, with women aged 25 to 55 making up the core user base. That is the kind of adoption curve that gets a boardroom’s attention, particularly one watching cord cutting eat into a $125 billion business.
What are microdramas, and why are they winning fans?
Microdramas are short, serialized video stories, typically one to three minutes per episode, designed for mobile consumption and watched vertically on smartphones. The format was pioneered in China under the name duanju, and it sits in the content middle ground between the low-commitment scroll of social media and the deeper narrative engagement of conventional TV drama.
Part of the appeal for brands is how flexible the format is. Microdramas are being used to promote everything from coffee shops to makeup, and monetization is driven by a mix of subscription, pay-per-episode unlocks and, increasingly, advertising. Zoom out further and the opportunity looks even bigger: vertical video as a whole, including TikTok, is projected to reach $150 billion in global revenue this year, excluding China, according to researcher Owl & Co.
For consumers, microdramas combine entertainment that feels native to social platforms with genuine narrative depth. Their rise reflects a shift in how people relate to storytelling: attention is fragmented, and microdramas have found a way to meet consumers exactly where they are – on their phones – rather than asking them to reorganize their free time around a different screen.
How is the microdrama category evolving?
Competitor activity moves fast, and staying on top of these changes is a strategic challenge. Foresight Factory tracks and quantifies commercial categories on its dynamic intelligence platform Collision – from microdramas to K-beauty and RTD cocktails – to give you an always-on view of the supply and demand data driving growth.
When it comes to microdramas, you can see in the charts below that microdramas are accelerating when it comes to the share of media articles that mention the topic. Commercial activity connected to fantasy and comedy microdramas have grown the most in the last year.
Which brands are already leaning into the microdrama trend? | Brand innovation spotlight
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Canal 13 exports two-minute soap operas built for mobile
Vertical mini-novelas draw millions of views and the channel’s first overseas sale | Chile
Chile’s Canal 13 committed to releasing a new vertical mini-novela (soap opera) every month at the start of 2026, and successfully exported the series El obrero que enamoró (“The worker who made me fall in love”) to Spain’s Atresplayer in June.
Each microdrama series runs 25 to 30 episodes of roughly two minutes, streamed free across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube Shorts, Facebook and the broadcaster’s own 13Go app and mininovelas hub, funded entirely through organically woven branded content instead of subscriptions.
Project lead Nicolás Figueroa said the format suits commutes and waiting rooms, where “today everything is fast paced and audiences have little time to sit calmly in front of a screen.” The breakout hit, Enamoradas (“In love”), became Chile’s first LGBTQ+ vertical telenovela and its most watched mini-novela to date.
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Crocs launches branded microdrama
Footwear brand taps into short-form storytelling to engage younger consumers | USA
In February 2026, Crocs launched Charmed to Meet You, a five-episode, scripted microdrama distributed via vertical video platform ReelShort.
Inspired by a real Crocs employee’s love story, the series follows Lexi, a single woman in her early 20s, who discovers her neighbor’s plain Crocs outside his apartment door and begins leaving Jibbitz charms on them, sparking a flirtatious Valentine’s Day romance told through one- to two-minute episodes.
“I think what Crocs is proving is that you can really, truly make it story-led versus just looking at these mediums as ad buys where you run your own content”, said Alanna Strauss, Head of Content at CAA’s Entertainment Partnerships team.
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Beauty brand’s Christmas microdrama
The actors from a viral holiday movie are reunited to promote concealer | USA
In November 2025, Maybelline launched “Maybe This Christmas”, a five-part microdrama reuniting Lacey Chabert and Dustin Milligan, co-stars of Netflix’s 2024 hit “Hot Frosty.” The series follows two New York neighbors whose window romance evolves into a mystery when Chabert’s character transforms into an inflatable Mrs Claus lawn ornament at night.
Maybelline’s Instant Eraser Concealer is woven throughout the narrative as both product and plot device, becoming a feature of the couple’s meet-cute and being referenced or seen in each part of the series.
The campaign runs across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook as well as ReelShort, a dedicated short-form drama platform. Paid support includes Peacock’s Thanksgiving parade broadcast and Hallmark Channel’s holiday lineup. It was created with Ryan Reynolds’ agency Maximum Effort.
Frequently asked questions about the microdrama trend
Q: What is a microdrama?
A: Microdramas are short, serialized video stories, typically one to three minutes per episode, designed for vertical viewing on smartphones. The format originated in China, where it is known as duanju, and sits between the low-commitment scroll of social media and the deeper narrative engagement of conventional TV drama.
Q: How big is the microdrama market?
A: The global microdrama market generated an estimated $8-11 billion in 2024/25, with China accounting for around 83% of revenue. Forecasts put the category above $20 billion by 2030, with growth increasingly driven by international markets including the US, Japan, Latin America and Southeast Asia.
Q: Why are U.S. studios investing in microdramas?
A: With the traditional U.S. TV business, worth around $125 billion, projected to shrink by as much as $15 billion a year due to cord cutting, studios are turning to microdramas to reach mobile-first audiences. U.S. microdrama viewership already jumped from 26 million monthly active users in 2024 to 66 million in 2025.
Q: Which brands have used microdramas for marketing?
A: Brands including Crocs, Maybelline and Chile’s Canal 13 have launched branded microdramas or vertical mini-novelas to reach younger, mobile-first audiences, using the format to build engagement beyond traditional advertising.
Track category growth as it evolves
The insights from this piece came from Foresight Factory’s category pulse series on Collision – live and dynamic pages that triangulate data across consumer, competitor and culture to give clients an up-to-date read on where growth is headed next.
Members get access to continuous tracking of the signals shaping categories like this one, connected back to the bigger consumer demand spaces driving them, so they always have a finger on the pulse of how and why industries are shifting – and what it means for them.
