Microdramas are succeeding because they apply a centuries-old formula — the cliffhanger — to the ubiquitous smart phone that Emarketer estimates accounts for 99 minutes of video viewing each day for the average American. Episodes range from 45 seconds to two minutes long, leaving little time for lengthy plot set-ups.
“You're dropped right into the middle of the story, so it grabs your attention right away,” said Lily Darragh Harty, director of production at Inkitt CandyJar, a platform for romance microdramas.
Some 66 million monthly active users watched microdramas last year in the U.S., more than double the 26 million in 2024, according to research firm Omdia. Women aged 25 to 55 make up the core user base.
The little-known studios behind the phenomenon are raking in dollars. CandyJar, a two-year-old platform that releases a new romance about once a week, is on track to generate more than $100 million in annual sales. The company declined to disclose profit. According to its executives, each microdrama series typically spans 50 to 75 episodes, and takes about three months to produce at a cost of between $100,000 to $300,000. A typical half-hour sitcom costs between $2 million and $4 million per episode.
CandyJar’s "romance-forward" platform attracts a 99.9% female audience, said Elana Zeltser, director of creative development for Inkitt CandyJar. Titles include “The Bad Boy Wants Me,” “Mafia Temptation,” and “My Sexy Devil,” a melodramatic high school romance in which one-time enemies — a dance team captain and football quarterback — fall in love.
The themes are uncomplicated and the dramatic beats hit you over the head. The term microdramas is apt: they’re sitcoms and romcoms stripped down to the basics, a sketch of a show rather than a fully fledged drama.
Other platforms are more diverse. Males account for 30% of the users on MyDrama, according to a new poll by Owl & Co. The biggest growth is among viewers ages 22-27, who are attracted by a widening variety of microseries genres, including sci-fi/fantasy and horror, Owl found.
Microdramas typically offer the first few episodes for free before charging through weekly subscriptions at around $8 to $20 to access each service.
Meagan Johnson, an influencer from Chicago, discovered microdramas on Facebook and now spends hours glued to them. She has spent as much as $200 a month.
“I fell into the social-media advertising trap that vertical dramas rely on to find new users,” she said. “That just kind of catapulted me down the rabbit hole of watching them.”
TikTok’s broad reach has made it a haven for microdramas where viewers can discover new series without encountering the barrier of a paywall. Actress, writer and producer Issa Rae launched her first microdrama, the thriller “Screen Time,” on TikTok, where it attracted 500 million views in a month.
“For her, it’s important to reach as large an audience as possible, so that she can see if this format is sticky — and she can get the direct audience feedback,” said Dawn Yang, TikTok’s global head of entertainment partnerships.
Maria Rua Aguete, head of media and entertainment at Omdia, said TikTok, Instagram Reels, Facebook and YouTube Shorts act as "the new trailers," driving users into apps.
ReelShort, one of the largest producers, recently saw its daily mobile viewing time jump 40% in the second quarter to about 38 minutes, more than mobile viewing for Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or Disney+, according to Omdia analysis of Sensor Tower data.
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