Insightrackr has released the September 2025 Global Short Drama App Download and Revenue Rankings based on its monitoring data of the global mobile market.
These rankings are derived from Insightrackr's proprietary estimates of app download volume and gross revenue, listing the Top 15 Short Drama Apps by Downloads and the Top 15 Short Drama Apps by Revenue. This report further deconstructs the user acquisition and ad creative strategies of selected standout apps from the past month.
This Month's Case Studies: Freeshort, DramaReels, DramaJoy
Top 15 Short Drama Apps by Downloads
The competitive landscape of the global short drama market witnessed significant shifts in September 2025. ReelShort claimed the top spot, climbing two ranks to lead the download charts, backed by a solid 8% MoM growth in downloads. In contrast, former front-runners DramaBox and Kuku TV each saw declines of approximately 20% MoM, causing both to drop one position in the rankings.
Within the elite Top 5, the most notable performance came from FlareFlow, under COL Group. The app achieved a remarkable 90.76% MoM surge in downloads and jumped nine spots, forcefully entering the upper tier. Following its official endorsement by COL Group on August 24th, this robust growth likely represents a concerted market push.
Top Short Drama App Downloads – September 2025
In the mid-tier of the rankings, Freeshort (Rank #7) and DramaReels (Rank #9) stood out as the month's breakout stars. Freeshort's downloads skyrocketed by 656% MoM, propelling it 23 ranks upward. DramaReels demonstrated an even more dramatic ascent, with a staggering 1273.75% MoM increase in downloads and a 33-rank leap, solidifying their status as undeniable growth leaders.
Performance in the lower tier was more varied. The Indian short drama app DashReels, a standout in August (Click to Read), failed to maintain its momentum, experiencing a download decline exceeding 20% MoM.
Top 15 Short Drama Apps by Revenues
Significant reshuffling also characterized the revenue charts. The previous month's leader, NetShort, saw its revenue plunge by 51.28% MoM, falling to third place. This allowed DramaBox and ReelShort to each advance one position, securing first and second place, respectively.
Meanwhile, Kuku TV (previously #4) suffered a drastic 71.63% MoM revenue drop, tumbling to 10th place and earning the title of the month's biggest decliner.
Top Short Drama App Revenue – September 2025
Amidst these shifts, FlareFlow emerged as a revenue dark horse, boasting a 125.86% MoM revenue increase. This surge, coupled with its download growth, confirms a highly effective market offensive in September.
ByteDance's short drama app, Melolo, also posted impressive gains, with revenue growing 101.97% MoM, signaling strong and promising traction.
Top Short Drama App UA Strategy Analysis
01 Freeshort: Dramas and Movies
According to Insightrackr data, Freeshort launched on Google Play in late March and initiated its ad campaigns by late April. Its volume of active daily ad creatives grew steadily, peaking at around 200 creatives per day in mid-August. This intensive campaign period lasted until mid-September before beginning to taper off.
For traffic acquisition, Mintegral served as Freeshort's primary channel, accounting for nearly 70% of its ad impressions, with AdMob a distant second at nearly 30%. Drilling into sub-sources, the webnovel app My Passion: Good Novel Books was the top source, contributing 7.83% of impressions, followed by classic casual games like Ludo, Solitaire, and Sudoku.
Overview of Freeshort’s Advertising Strategy and Creative Approach
Freeshort's ad distribution showed a balanced global footprint. However, its downloads were primarily driven by cost-effective markets like Indonesia, Mexico, and the Philippines, suggesting a primary reliance on In-App Advertising (IAA) for monetization.
Conversely, the United States demonstrated high user value, contributing 10.86% of total revenue, making it the second-largest income source just behind Indonesia (11.33%).
|
The Legend of A Bastard Son |
My Bestie Watches as My Prince Spoils Me |
A review of Freeshort's recent ad creatives reveals a focus on promoting Chinese-adapted series. Key promoted titles include The Legend of A Bastard Son and My Bestie Watches as My Prince Spoils Me.
Creatively, Freeshort employs diverse tactics. While many ads use directly edited climax scenes from the series, a significant portion incorporates unrelated video clips in the crucial first few seconds. This technique is a strategic counter to ad fatigue, designed to hook viewers immediately and boost CTR.
02 DramaReels: Dramas and Series
DramaReels, a free, ad-supported short drama app from Skywork AI, launched in December 2024. As previously analyzed by Insightrackr (Click to Read), it entered a heavy promotion phase in January, with daily ad creatives exceeding 1,200. By August 2024, this volume had subsided to under 100 creatives per day. However, DramaReels significantly ramped up its campaigns again in mid-September, with daily volumes recovering to around 180.
Channel-wise, beyond Facebook, AdMob is DramaReels' most critical supplementary traffic source, with TikTok also contributing a measurable share of ad impressions.
Overview of DramaReels’ Advertising Strategy and Creative Approach
Unlike its heavy focus (over 40%) on North America in January, DramaReels' September ad distribution was far more balanced globally. Despite this even spread, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Mexico collectively drove roughly 40% of its total downloads. Furthermore, Indonesia alone accounted for nearly half of the app's total revenue. It's also noteworthy that Turkey emerged as the second-largest revenue contributor at 7.19%, highlighting its substantial monetization potential.
|
Popular Scenes |
Dikenler Arasında Aşk |
In terms of ad creative strategy, DramaReels utilizes common IAA playbooks: combination of popular scenes, AI-dubbed voiceovers in local languages, and prominent pop-ups or stylized text highlighting key selling points like "Free."
Conversely, Insightrackr also identified a subset of minimally processed creatives. One example features the series Dikenler Arasında Aşk, which premiered in China in June and appeared in the Turkish market by September.
This particular creative is over 3 minutes long—essentially a full episode—with minimal editing, retaining the original Chinese audio and only adding Turkish subtitles and an app icon. This format typically indicates a testing phase for content-market fit.
03 DramaJoy
Published by indie game studio, DramaJoy launched on Google Play in late June. It demonstrated strong performance in September, racking up an estimated 3 million downloads, securing the #17 rank on our list, and achieving over 120% MoM download growth.
Insightrackr data reveals that DramaJoy's ad campaigns follows a distinct cyclical pattern. A concentrated campaign in late July peaked at nearly 500 daily creatives before subsiding through August. A new push began in mid-September, surpassing 550 daily creatives at its peak. For channels, Mintegral has become its primary supplementary traffic source alongside Facebook.
Overview of DramaJoy’s Advertising Strategy and Creative Approach
While its ad distribution is broadly global, its downloads are heavily concentrated in Mexico, Colombia, and the Philippines, underscoring the strong growth potential of Latin America and Southeast Asia. From a monetization perspective, the United States is its most valuable market, generating 13.71% of total revenue, demonstrating effective monetization in high-value regions.
|
Spanish Creative |
Portuguese Creative |
DramaJoy's key creative differentiator is its heavy investment in localization. For its Latin American campaigns, nearly all creatives—featuring both Western and Chinese-produced series—are fully AI-dubbed into Spanish or Portuguese, significantly lowering the barrier to entry for local viewers.
Furthermore, DramaJoy deviates from the standard formula. It prefers longer, continuous video clips (1-3 minutes), only introducing an AI voiceover to reinforce key selling points and CTAs in the middle or towards the end. This strategy fosters deeper user immersion and narrative engagement compared to fragmented edits.
As competition intensifies, deep regional market intelligence and the capacity for rapid creative iteration will be the ultimate differentiators.
For more global mobile marketing data and trends, follow Insightrackr or Signup Now for a free trial.