iQIYI Dominates China's Streaming Market with Record H1 2026 Content Performance — iQIYI Inc.

Event summary

iQIYI accounted for 10 of the 16 newly released long-form dramas with an S+ rating from Enlightent in H1 2026.
Three iQIYI dramas surpassed 10,000 on its popularity index, including 'Pursuit of Jade' with a peak of 10,604.
iQIYI's variety show 'HAHAHAHAHA 6' set a new peak popularity index record and topped Enlightent's chart 68 times.
Original Chinese animation viewing duration surged 98% year-on-year, with playback volume growing 63%.
The platform's micro drama library surpassed 50,000 titles.

The big picture

iQIYI's H1 2026 performance underscores its leadership in China's streaming market, leveraging a deep content pipeline and strong franchise loyalty. The company's ability to consistently produce high-rated dramas and variety shows reinforces its position against competitors, while its expansion into animation and micro dramas highlights strategic diversification. The scale of iQIYI's content output and audience engagement suggests sustained market dominance, but the challenge will be maintaining this momentum amid evolving viewer preferences.

What we're watching

Content Pipeline Depth: Whether iQIYI can sustain its creative output across multiple genres and formats.
Audience Retention: How the platform's diversified content strategy will affect long-term user engagement.
Competitive Response: The pace at which competitors like Tencent Video and Youku adapt to iQIYI's dominance.