📱 Micro-Dramas Experience Explosive Growth

While utilities and entertainment services retained their traditional lead in total installations, vertical micro-dramas posted the most dynamic expansion. The category surged by a record 95.5% year-over-year, recording 1.45 billion downloads worldwide.

Emerging markets proved to be the primary engine of this boom, accounting for 83% of global downloads. The top three regions were Southeast Asia (518 million), Latin America (355 million), and the Asia-Pacific region (330 million). Europe, North America, and the Middle East collectively represented just 17% of the total volume.

Monetization in the micro-drama sector relies predominantly on a hybrid model (57.6%) combining advertising with in-app purchases. Ad-only models are favored by 39.9% of publishers, while pure microtransactions account for 2.5%. Contextual video ads yield the highest returns: eCPM for rewarded video views outperformed the Android baseline by 11.4 times, with interstitial videos exceeding it by 7.8 times.

The short-form drama category leads all other sectors in creative density, averaging 1,887 ad assets per application. Over the past year, the number of actively advertised apps in the category rose by 132%, accompanied by a 151% increase in promotional ad inventory. While average Cost Per Install (CPI) exceeded the Android baseline by 2.3 times, regional variance was significant—ranging from 0.9x in Southeast Asia to 5.9x in Europe.

Mintegral analysts emphasize that rapid category growth does not automatically guarantee profitability. Publishers are advised to evaluate four critical factors before scaling: market demand, ad competition density, user acquisition costs, and monetization potential.

“The non-gaming app landscape is undergoing rapid transformation. Publishers that combine automated, ROI-driven traffic acquisition with engaging ad formats are successfully balancing scale with long-term profitability,” noted Mintegral CEO Eric Fang.