Was Quibi just ahead of its time? Quibi founder Jeffrey Katzenberg ultimately blamed the Covid-19 pandemic for his short-video app’s failure, but perhaps it was just too soon. New App Store data suggests that the idea popularized by Quibi – original shows cut into short clips that offer quick entertainment – is now making a comeback. In the first quarter of 2024, 66 short film apps such as ReelShort and DramaBox generated a record $146 million in global consumer spending.
According to app intelligence firm Appfigures, this represents an increase of over 8,000% from $1.8 million in the first quarter of 2023, when only 21 apps were available. Since then, 45 additional apps have entered the market, bringing gross consumer spending to approximately $245 million and reaching approximately 121 million downloads.
In March 2024 alone, consumers spent $65 million on short film apps, a 10,500% increase from $619,000 in March 2023.
According to Appfigures data, revenue growth began to accelerate in the fall of 2023, resulting in a huge jump in sales between February and March of this year, when global revenue increased 56% to $65.7 million from $42 million . Part of the revenue growth is, of course, due to the larger number of apps available, but marketing, advertising spending and consumer interest also played a role.
The top-grossing apps, ReelShort (No. 1) and DramaBox (No. 2), generated $52 million and $35 million, respectively, in the first quarter of 2024. That’s about 37% and 24% of the top 10 apps’ revenue, respectively.
The third-largest app, ShortTV, generated $17 million in global revenue in the first quarter, or 12% of total revenue.
What’s interesting about these apps compared to Quibi’s previous attempt to carve out a niche in this space is the quality of the content. That means it’s a lot, much worse than Quibi’s – and Quibi’s wasn’t always great. As TechCrunch wrote last year when describing ReelShort, the stories in the app are “like clips from low-quality soaps – or as if these mobile storytelling games come to life.”
Despite the terrible acting and poor script, the apps seem to have found some audience.
The U.S. leads the top markets in this cohort by far in terms of both installations and revenue. Overall, however, the charts differ in which countries download the content and which countries pay for it.
In terms of installations, Indonesia, India, the Philippines and Brazil are the top markets after the US, while the UK, Australia, Canada and the Philippines are the top markets next to the US by revenue
In the first quarter of 2024, short drama apps were installed nearly 37 million times, a 992% increase from 3.4 million in the first quarter of 2023. By downloads, ReelShort and ShortTV are the two apps with the highest share, with the former accounting for 37% of installs or 13.3 million. and the latter with 10 million installs or 27%. DramaBox, No. 2 by consumer spending, was No. 3 by installs with 7 million (19%) downloads.
Photo credit: App characters
In line with general app store trends, the majority of revenue (63%) is generated from iOS, while the majority (67%) of downloads come from Android.
Although this market is growing, these apps are nowhere near as attractive as their closest competitors – short-form videos and streaming videos. Short film apps accounted for 6.7% of total volume across all three categories combined, up from 0.15% last year. But the broader video app market brings in a lot more money.
For example, the top 10 apps in the three combined categories, which include apps like TikTok and Disney+, generated $1.8 billion in the first quarter.
Photo credit: App characters