YouTube is making Shorts bingeable as microdramas hit 6.5 billion views

Shorts get an episode guide

YouTube began rolling out Shorts Series on Sept. 23, letting creators arrange vertical videos into seasons and episodes, add custom thumbnails and play installments in sequence. The feature is available in YouTube Studio and to viewers on web, mobile and TV; YouTube says it should make serialized Shorts easier to discover and continue watching. blog +1

Microdramas are fictional serials told in short, phone-shaped episodes, often ending on cliffhangers. YouTube reported more than 6.5 billion microdrama views in the first half of 2026, with watch time up more than 50% year over year. These are platform-wide views, not a count of unique viewers. blog +1

A phone format moves to the living room

YouTube says microdrama views on TVs rose more than 90% year over year in the same period. It did not disclose the size of that TV audience, so the growth rate shows direction, not absolute reach. blog +1

Creators including Kinigra Deon and GOKKO CLUB were already making multipart Shorts stories, YouTube says. Tubefilter reports the episode structure is designed to help viewers continue from one clip to the next, including on television. blog +1

A huge view count, a smaller app audience

Omdia's Q4 2025 mobile-usage analysis found U.S. ReelShort users spent an average 35.7 minutes a day in the app, versus 24.8 minutes for Netflix. But the comparison is time per user: ReelShort had 1.1 million U.S. monthly mobile users, against about 12 million for Netflix. The figures measure different platforms and do not show microdramas replacing streaming. omdia

Omdia estimates global microdrama revenue will grow from $11 billion in 2025 to $14 billion in 2026, with the U.S. contributing $1.5 billion. These are category-wide forecasts, not YouTube audience or revenue. omdia

Who gets paid after the cliffhanger?

The pay-to-continue model is drawing competitors: Reuters reported that aTwist launched Sept. 3 with 10 original microseries in eight countries. It offers selected episodes free, with coins or a subscription to unlock full seasons. reuters

Dedicated microdrama apps charge to unlock later episodes or seasons; YouTube Shorts instead relies on advertising and creator revenue-sharing. Forbes notes that YouTube has not disclosed the absolute size of its microdrama TV audience, leaving the commercial significance of the reported surge unclear. forbes

Shorts Series is rolling out across screens, but YouTube has not reported how many people use the feature or whether episode organization changes watch time. Whether a six-billion-view format can keep viewers watching—and make the next installment pay—remains unmeasured. blog +1