The shows are terrible, but the money is real. Microdrama apps - TikTok-style platforms serving up minute-long episodes of pulpy romance and drama - just pulled in over $1.5 billion in consumer spending last year, and the market's exploding. ReelShort hit $1.2 billion in gross revenue in 2025, up 119% year-over-year, while DramaBox doubled its 2024 numbers to reach $276 million. Now TikTok's jumped in with its own microdrama app, and Hollywood's taking notice with fresh funding rounds.
Five years after Quibi's spectacular $1.75 billion flameout, vertical video drama is printing money - just not the way Hollywood expected. ReelShort and DramaBox are minting billions with shows that make soap operas look like prestige TV, and the formula's deceptively simple: hook viewers with pulpy romance, then deploy every addictive monetization trick from the mobile gaming playbook.
The numbers tell the story. ReelShort pulled in roughly $1.2 billion in gross consumer spending in 2025, up 119% from the previous year, according to app intelligence firm Appfigures. DramaBox followed with $276 million, more than doubling its 2024 revenue. The apps serve up bite-sized episodes - think "college student secretly works at strip club, mysterious teacher finds out" - then gate the good stuff behind tokens, ads, or $20 weekly subscriptions.
TikTok just validated the category by launching PineDrama, its own standalone microdrama app. Meanwhile, GammaTime - a new platform from Hollywood veterans - raised $14 million with backing from Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, Kris Jenner, and Kim Kardashian, Deadline reported. The money's flowing because these apps cracked something Quibi couldn't: they're not trying to be Netflix.
"How are they succeeding where Quibi failed? They're basically OnlyFans for the female gaze," Eric Wei, CEO of Karat Financial and creator economy expert, told . "They do romantasy, where the titles are all like, 'My Alpha.' This is like '50 Shades of Grey,' but for vertical video."
