Short dramas in numbers
How big the audience is, what it looks for, and what the apps charge. Search figures are Google's monthly counts for the United States; catalog figures come from the 7,572 dramas we track on ReelShort and DramaBox. Everything on this page is free to quote with a link.
Six findings
- More people in the US now search Google for DramaBox than for ReelShort: 110,000 searches against 90,500 in Aug 2026. In Aug 2024 it was 27,100 against 27,100.
- Searches for "vertical drama" went from 210 a month in Aug 2024 to 5,400 in Aug 2026, 26 times as many.
- Of the 1,313 drama titles that people type into Google, 89% bring up a suggestion that points to an unofficial copy.
- A ReelShort drama costs a typical $28.14 to finish with coins. A one-week pass is the cheaper way to finish 712 of the 833 dramas we priced.
- The free part is small on both apps: 17% of a typical ReelShort drama and 18% of a typical DramaBox drama.
- ReelShort's new releases turned to AI during 2026: 0 of 16 in Jan 2026, 201 of 221 in Sep 2026.
How many people search for each app
Google searches in the US for the app's name, per month.
| App | Aug 2024 | Aug 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| DramaBox | 27,100 | 110,000 | 4.1× |
| ReelShort | 27,100 | 90,500 | 3.3× |
| ShortMax | 12,100 | 18,100 | 1.5× |
| DramaWave | 10 | 22,200 | new since then |
| NetShort | 590 | 14,800 | new since then |
| GoodShort | 2,400 | 14,800 | 6.2× |
| PineDrama | 0 | 18,100 | new since then |
What people look for after a drama's title
We asked Google's search suggestions about 3,123 drama titles. For 1,313 of them, Google offered longer searches that start with the title, which means people type them. This is what those longer searches are looking for.
| Looking for | Titles | Share |
|---|---|---|
| An unofficial copy | 1,164 | 89% |
| The cast | 301 | 23% |
| Reddit threads | 279 | 21% |
| YouTube | 184 | 14% |
| Where to watch | 165 | 13% |
| The book it came from | 137 | 10% |
| The ending | 105 | 8% |
| A second part | 87 | 7% |
| Whether it is AI | 88 | 7% |
A title is counted once in each row it appears in, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
The questions people ask about the apps
| Search | Per month |
|---|---|
| is dramabox free | 5,200 |
| reelshort actors | 2,933 |
| reelshort cancel subscription | 2,493 |
| dramabox actors | 2,067 |
| dramabox cancel subscription | 1,967 |
| is dramabox legit | 1,700 |
| is reelshort legit | 1,600 |
| how to cancel reelshort | 1,400 |
| how to cancel dramabox | 1,260 |
| is reelshort free | 613 |
| is reelshort ai | 523 |
| reelshort vs dramabox | 113 |
Average of the three most recent months. Our answers: Is DramaBox free? · Is ReelShort free? · How to cancel · Is ReelShort legit? · Is DramaBox legit? · ReelShort vs DramaBox
The actors people search for
Short dramas have a small company of actors who appear again and again, and people search for them by name. These are monthly searches for the name itself, so a name shared with someone else famous will count their searches too.
| Actor | Dramas we list | Searches per month |
|---|---|---|
| Cameron Porras | 10 | 34,933 |
| Noah Fearnley | 4 | 24,467 |
| Luke Dodge | 9 | 22,200 |
| Katelyn Rose | 4 | 18,767 |
| Nikki Leigh | 4 | 17,000 |
| Neela Jolene | 6 | 14,800 |
| Savannah Coffee | 11 | 11,167 |
| Hannah Lowery | 7 | 9,133 |
| Ben Armstrong | 4 | 7,300 |
| Marc Herrmann | 20 | 6,200 |
| Katherine Gibson | 6 | 5,567 |
| Seth Edeen | 15 | 4,200 |
| Jesse Morales | 17 | 3,633 |
| Blake Lewis | 6 | 3,400 |
| Nicole Mattox | 10 | 3,367 |
Every actor we list, with their dramas.
What a drama costs, and how much of it is free
| ReelShort | DramaBox | |
|---|---|---|
| Dramas we track | 834 | 2,380 |
| Share of a typical drama that is free | 17% | 18% |
| New dramas in the last 30 days | 214 | 1,058 |
| Typical cost to finish with coins | $28.14 | No published price |
How ReelShort's new dramas were made, month by month
| Released in | Filmed | Motion comic | Labeled AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2026 | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| Feb 2026 | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2026 | 11 | 0 | 0 |
| Apr 2026 | 14 | 2 | 1 |
| May 2026 | 20 | 16 | 4 |
| Jun 2026 | 29 | 25 | 16 |
| Jul 2026 | 17 | 21 | 31 |
| Aug 2026 | 13 | 19 | 86 |
| Sep 2026 | 18 | 2 | 201 |
By ReelShort's own labels on each drama's page. Counts cover the dramas on ReelShort's public shelves when we checked.
Where the numbers come from
- Search counts are Google's own monthly figures for the United States, as published through Google Ads and retrieved with DataForSEO. Google rounds them into bands, so small differences mean little. The latest month available is Aug 2026.
- What people look for after a title comes from Google's search suggestions for each title, asked from the US in English on Oct 4, 2026. Suggestions show what people type; they do not say how often.
- Prices, free episodes and release dates come from each drama's public page on the app's own website, last checked Oct 4, 2026. How each figure is produced.
- What we could not measure: what happens inside the apps. View counts are the apps' own, and DramaBox does not publish a price per episode.
Use this data
You may quote any figure or reuse the tables and chart, with a link to this page (CC BY 4.0). Suggested credit: GASP, "Short dramas in numbers", gasptv.com/research, Oct 4, 2026.
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