Microdramas released on major platforms are increasingly being generated by AI, according to a new report from Owl & Co.
Two-thirds of vertical drama releases outside China in the third quarter of 2026 from 20 top platforms were AI generated, according to the consulting firm’s latest “What We Watched on Vertical” report, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Compare that with the the percentage of AI-generated stories released in the first quarter of the year (3 percent) and the second quarter (28 percent), and it’s clear that AI storytelling is increasingly dominating the sapce.
The development echoes the format’s evolution in China, where microdramas were first popularized and where AI-generated titles have flooded the platforms in recent months. More than 95 percent of titles released in the first three months of 2026 in the country were reportedly made using AI.
And it follows U.S. workers in the microdrama industry recently speaking out about the ways that the technology has reshaped the business. In September, workers in the industry told THR that they were observing fewer job opportunities as well as unscrupulous use of the technology on their work.
The prevalence of AI in microdramas is reflected in the top-performing titles that Owl & Co. found for the latest quarter on apps that require viewers to pay for their stories. Only one live-action title — ReelShort’s My X-Ray Vision Sees Right Through You — broke the list of the top five highest-performing verticals in terms of minutes watched. And just two live-action titles (My X-Ray Vision Sees Right Through You and ReelShort’s You’ve Been Replaced, First Love) made the top 20.
Top AI-generated titles, meanwhile, included the number-one best performer, ReelShort’s The Great and Powerful Genie, about a hot genie required by a wish to marry a woman for five years. It was followed by the popular DramaBox fantasy title Deny Me, Dragon King and another DramaBox dragon yarn, Married to the Hidden Dragon King.
Overall, Owl & Co. found its tracked apps yielded 63 billion microdrama views in the third quarter and two billion viewing hours. TikTok‘s free PineDrama app was on the ascent, accounting for more than half of all views in the quarter. That’s notable, considering that PineDrama has been live for less than a year. The app is aggressively building its library, adding 15,501 new titles in the quarter, accounting for a more than 300 percent increase compared with the previous quarter.
As for paid apps, DramaBox came out on top with 36 percent of views, followed by ReelShort with 29 percent, NetShort with 20 percent and DramaWave with 11 percent.
All is not lost for human performance, however. Despite the prevalence of AI dramas in viewers’ feeds at the moment, the Owl & Co. report noted that China is already showing “a pullback towards live action.” The report’s dataset additionally found the number of stories featuring human performers growing alongside the increase of AI titles. And at ReelShort, “we observed live-action titles have a higher chance of remaining in the top 10 percent by views 30 days after release than AI titles,” the report stated. In other words, there is some early evidence that, long term, viewers may express more sustained interest in dramas portrayed by human actors rather than AI-generated performers.