[Streaming Media Network]Summary: 50,000 AI comics, overturn 648 B games?
In 2026, AI (comics) dramas will be ranked C.
The development of AI technology has caused a new round of impact on the entertainment industry. On March 18, Yaoke Media signed two AI actors. Earlier, a blogger broke the news that in future projects, no real actors will be included in the second male lead or lower, and all will be done by AI. For a time, the news that “AI replaces humans” was widely circulated.
The prophecy learned from other channels that the news of “replacement of all male actors below with AI” is not very true, but AI’s deeper involvement in film and television production is the general trend. This phenomenon is not just a trade-off between live-action short dramas and AI projects. Forecasters believe that AI will replace B-game husbands before replacing real people. After the Spring Festival, Tencent Video’s Fire Dragon comic series actually promoted “B-game comics”, and the number of collections of several B-game-themed dramas was overwhelmingly ahead.
“It costs 648 to draw cards, and I have to clock in and do my daily routine as if I were at work. Am I in love or working for a game company?” When Wu Jing, a current player, decided to uninstall the top B game on her mobile phone, she did not quit “cyber love”, but chose a similar AI Otome manga, “Dozens of the same husbands to choose from. No need to wait for the card pool, isn’t it nice?”
While game manufacturers are still thinking hard about how to retain players with more sophisticated art, AI comics that cost only tens of thousands of yuan have accurately targeted those tired pan-entertainment users. Tens of billions of women are entering the gaming market, ushering in new changes.
#This article has interviewed three relevant people, who are also the 106th-108th interviewees of “Entertainment Capital” in 2026
Women heading to the track and just looking good
As mentioned in last year’s China Game Industry Annual Conference and the “Female-oriented Game Research Report”, women-oriented games are becoming one of the fastest growing tracks in China’s game industry. Judging from statistical data, the market size of female-oriented games will also exceed 10 billion in 2025. It seems to be prosperous and everything is good.
However, if you look from the big track to the products, you will find that there are also many hidden worries under the prosperity of the female market.
The industry leader “Love and Deep Space” is still leading the way, and from December last year to the Spring Festival this year, it launched many new activities and new gameplay, but players are not so willing to pay for various attempts to fold paper. This kind of non-payment is not only reflected in the growing negative voices of the community, but also intuitively reflected in the card pool performance.
The Lunar New Year in 2026 will be late, causing the Spring Festival holiday to overlap with Valentine’s Day. With the merger of the two festivals, manufacturers will naturally have to make a fuss about the flower shop to stimulate the sales of the card pool. Gufengchi has always been the best-selling representative of women on the track.
“The Love of the World”, which opened in February, is the first ancient-style film in “Love and Deep Space”, and it has a full lineup. The Hung Family Ban, one of the two pillars of Hong Kong action movies, was invited to provide action guidance for the male protagonist. The lyrics, music, and singing related to Kachi are all well-known in the ancient music circle.
Gufengchi, which invited many foreign aids and stacked several buffs, did not drain the players’ wallets as expected. According to statistics, the revenue of “Love and Deep Space” in February was 208 million yuan, down 21%, and also the lowest revenue in the history of this series of games.
The decline of other female-oriented games during the Spring Festival is not so alarming, but as prophets have said many times, the current female-oriented track is already a pattern of “one super and many weak”. Except for the monthly turnover of “Love and Deep Space” which can be stable at the order of 100 million yuan, the other leading members are basically spinning at the level of 10 million yuan. Only during super large events such as anniversaries, with the stimulation of krypton gold benefits, the turnover can reach the 100 million yuan level.
Judging from the overall trend of the industry, especially the category of second-tier games, prophets even have the feeling that the past event of “all the second-tier players will be silent in 2022” will soon happen again.
This kind of “thousands of horses are silent” does not refer to the sharp drop in the revenue of top products. For example, even if “Love and Deep Space” performs poorly, the monthly revenue will still be stable in the range of 100 million yuan. What it refers to is that the product’s ability to expand its circle has shrunk and it is difficult to reach the general population.
Female games, especially B games, have a tradition of fighting in the community. Once upon a time, B games in the four major countries were in a dilemma where passers-by only dared to watch and did not dare to join in because the social rules were many and unfriendly. After “Love and Deep Space” broke through the circle with 3D men, it brought a new group of players to the track who were not bound by various rules of the community, and the circle once expanded. But since last year, the old problem of social fights with too many rules has returned, and newcomers no longer dare to fall into the trap easily.
Judging from the new project reserves, it is difficult for us to have too many optimistic ideas about the female-oriented track in 2026.
At present, the industry is paying more attention to “Under the Night” (“Codename: Bang Bang”), which uses the “18-year ban” as a sign to attract customers. Judging from the plot and gameplay currently released, it has not made a disruptive breakthrough. Let’s not say whether the “18-ban” banner will attract the attention or rectification of relevant departments. The “18-ban” alone can attract new players, especially those who have never played female-oriented games, and their capabilities are limited. As for the idol games we have reported before, there are other alternatives on the market.
Therefore, it will be difficult for women to emerge on the track in the next year and lead the track to break new records.
How can a 50,000-yuan AI comic steal 648’s “cyber husband”?
AI comics will eat up part of the market and users of female-oriented games. Some people may dismiss this judgment and think that the two are not of the same magnitude at all. But in fact, judging from the specific performance of AI comics during the Spring Festival, we will find that this possibility is very high.
From the perspective of genre, AI comic dramas are mainly male-oriented. This year’s Spring Festival, several AI comic dramas with names on the audience side are also standard male-oriented themes, but changes are taking place.
Among the top 5 Fire Dragon comics during the Spring Festival, there are two standard female channel works, both of which are Otome themes. One is “Miss, what did you change to Demon Butler”, and the other is “The B Game System Awakens, I’m Going Crazy in the Star.”
Just by looking at the names, you can tell that these two works are taking the route of one woman versus many men, with the heroine taking the lead. When you click on it, the male protagonists in the drama always give people a familiar feeling – as if they kneaded the faces of several Yiyu husbands together and created a homogeneous body. These two works have been performing very steadily on the rankings, and “Yuyou System Awakening” even rushed to the top of the list in March.
In pursuit of victory, the Fire Dragon comic series simply launched the “Fire Dragon Otome Universe” recently. The total interaction volume of 13 works exceeded 160,000, which shows the market potential. The prophet also found the person in charge of the Fire Dragon comic series to learn more about the situation.
Fire Dragon Comics revealed that the first one to become popular on the platform was “Miss, what did you tune the Demon Butler to”. After it went online, it quickly received heated discussions and high status from users, and soon broke the collection record. This lively situation has also led to the decision of Fire Dragon Comics to gradually introduce more female-themed content. “These contents performed well on the platform and maintained a high degree of discussion and playback volume.”
The most popular Hongguo comic series is still Qing Yishui’s male channel. But among the TOP5 on the recommendation list, there is a movie called “Divorce as soon as I get the certificate!” Star Commander is in a hurry! “, the male protagonist’s face makes people feel like “he is an old friend.”
Drama Chacha shows that during the Spring Festival, female channels won 8 of the top 10 live-action AI weekly lists, and female channels won 5 of the top 10 comic TV series weekly lists. As the potential of female users is further proven and released, the proportion of female videos in the market will increase again.
The themes of female-oriented AI content are highly overlapped with female-oriented games, especially B-games. They all focus on emotional experiences and rely on virtual companionship, emotional regulation, and self-growth to attract users. But from the perspective of production cost and cycle, AI comics are faster and cheaper than game products.
The development of new productivity has led to the continuous reduction of the cost of AI comics. Some practitioners revealed that compared with traditional production, the cost of AI comics has dropped by 90%, and some leading studios can reduce the cost to about 300-500 yuan per minute.
Calculated this way, a 100-minute AI comic drama only costs 50,000 yuan.
The development of games for women is a costly endeavor. No matter how careful the project team is, it is impossible to make a game with 50,000 yuan. What’s even more disturbing is that the “exclusive husband” that players spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars to draw, and AI comics can be mass-produced for 50,000 yuan, without players having to clock in and complete tasks every day to “maintain relationships.”
Judging from the richness of content, the gameplay of some female-oriented games is also very simple. At the end of the game, the only fun is to draw cards and watch the plot. “It’s all about the plot, so it’s better to watch AI comics. At least it saves money.”
Two years ago, after breaking out of the entertainment industry with “Love and Deep Space”, Wu Jing, now acting as her elder sister, joined the ranks of raising a cybernetic husband. After more than half a year, the novelty wore off, and playing the game became “a torture like clocking in”.
The card pool of “Love and Deep Space” is not cheap. Even working people like Wu Jing feel that it is a bit irrational to directly spend 648 to recharge every time they open the pool. They have to accumulate tokens by doing daily tasks, participating in activities, etc. “But doing the same things every day is really boring.”
At the end of last year, she had already thought about quitting, but she had no replacement. “A few years ago, I saw a lot of media talking about AI comics, so I took a look at it out of curiosity and found that the male protagonist is very sophisticated, similar to a B game, and the plot is not shoddy. On the contrary, the female lead in the B game is like a ‘fake heroine’, but not as versatile as a comic.”
What AI comics have taken away from women is not the core players who have extremely high requirements for plots, illustrations, character expressions, etc., and who have a strong desire to speak out, but those casual players and general groups who are inherently swaying and do not join the community. On one side is the AI comic “emotional value without money”, on the other side is the B game “check in and complete tasks every day”. The result of light players voting with their feet is already obvious. And this group of people happens to be the key to whether women can go outward and how far they can go.
Regarding this point, the prophet also obtained evidence from the communication path of the female-oriented content of the Fire Dragon comic: “There is no special action, but because some high-quality female-oriented content naturally attracts female users to spread word of mouth, such as Dream of Red Mansions Theater and other content, which promotes overall growth.”
It is worth noting that there is a high wall built by heavy B-game players on the road to expanding AI women’s content.
For core players, B Game Husband is not only a virtual character, but also a belief – they will fight for the integrity of the character’s personality and argue for copyright ownership. When AI comics enter the market with a male protagonist who “seems to be an old friend”, it can easily trigger resistance among core players.
At present, prophets have seen that some netizens on social platforms complained about “Why do they copy “Love and Deep Space” in everything?” Players have not exploded yet, but the AI comic series has not attracted their attention.
This strong rejection mentality may hinder the review and dissemination of AI female-oriented content through reporting and public denunciation. After all, the core players of B-game have strong organizational skills and willingness to speak out. Once serious players seize the opportunity and focus on attacking, it is likely to slow down the pace of their expansion.
The current sporadic scoldings on Weibo and Xiaohongshu about “Why are you copying “Deep Space” in everything?” are an early warning of this kind of emotional mysophobia.
This reveals the fatal weakness of AI content in the expansion of women into the track: AI is good at creating “replacements”, but what women hate the most among core users is “replacements”. This strong rejection mentality is very likely to evolve into organized reporting and public denunciation in the future. For the AI comic team, how to walk the tightrope between “generating popularity” and “preventing backlash” will be the life and death test they must face next.
Don’t make super big products, have more room for imagination
Talking about female-oriented games, with the impact of AI comics, are there any opportunities for female-oriented games with a low category ceiling?
Of course there is, but the way of thinking about the problem may have to change.
One fact that must be recognized clearly is that women’s demands for emotional experience products are inherently personalized and segmented. In the past, there were few products for women’s emotional consumption on the market, and super giants were born because things were rare and valuable. Today, manufacturers face competition not only from within the industry, but also from other products outside the industry, including but not limited to entertainment products and offline entertainment.
Instead of becoming a giant, it is better to find the unmet needs of a specific group and achieve the ultimate from this point of view.
During this year’s Spring Festival, the success of women’s mini-program game “My Garden World” is related to seizing demand. This game topped the mini program best-selling list for seven consecutive days during the Spring Festival, beating SLG games “Three Kingdoms: Ice Age” and “Endless Winter.”
Its gameplay is not complicated either, just plant flowers, raise flowers, send flowers, and has business elements and match-3. “My Garden World” can succeed because it grasps two points.
1. Absolutely light casual people. The gameplay is simple, and there is no need to download a separate app. In a family-friendly scene like the Spring Festival, you can play it at any time in your busy schedule, without needing to spend the whole time savoring the game content.
2. There is an entity to give back to those in need. At that time, independent apps such as Alipay, Pinduoduo, and Taobao had a “farming trend” for a while. Users planted and watered the land every day, and finally received physical fruits, toilet paper, etc. “My Garden World” also applied “playing games to get real things” – players planted flowers in the game and could receive flower express delivery in reality.
Li Yue was dragged into playing “My Garden World” by relatives during the Spring Festival. She said that she had no interest in daily chemicals such as toilet paper, and “I don’t open Alipay and Taobao every day, and I often forget to go online.” But WeChat is different. It is used every day, so “you can play the mini program as soon as you pull it, and you will never forget it. And what girl doesn’t like to receive a bouquet of flowers?”
Similar to other mini-games, “My Garden World” adopts a mixed monetization strategy – in-app purchases + advertising. In order to simplify the tedious sowing and watering operations, the game provides paid functions such as “one-click planting”, which are usually sold in the form of monthly cards. There are always those who are impatient and choose to spend money to “ripen”.
Another female-oriented game that attracted attention during the Spring Festival is “In the Name of Shining” by Zulong.
Zulong issued an announcement to all employees that VVANNA Studio was officially upgraded to VVANNA Business Department during the development of “In the Name of Shining”. To put it simply, “In the Name of Shining” has made money for the company and has good prospects, so the company promoted it to a business unit and will allocate more resources to it in the future.
How is the content of “In the Name of Shining” doing? The answer Xiaoyu got from the player base was: few. It only takes five minutes to go online every day and there is nothing to do, but it is irreplaceable – it has the ultimate technical ability and is friendly to mobile phone users.
When “Infinite Warmth” was in public beta, many people thought that the revenue of “In the Name of Shining” would drop sharply, because “Infinite Warm” not only had costume changes, but also had a large world that enriched the gameplay. However, this was not the case. After the open beta of “Infinite Warm”, “In the Name of Shining” “The Name of Liang” is not doing badly. On March 18, VVANNA’s business department sent an internal email, saying that the number of single-day paying users of “Yishan” reached a new high in nearly a year, and the revenue on the first day of the third anniversary version event hit a new high in a year, and it entered the top 10 best-selling list in mainland China.
The reason is also very simple. They have firmly captured the group of users who “match clothes anytime and anywhere”. Through the iteration of the “outfit” subdivision gameplay, we will give these users a sense of freshness, such as further splitting of clothing parts, increasing dyeing areas, launching a manicure system, and more special poses for taking photos.
Frankly speaking, both “My Garden World” and “In the Name of Shining” can only be “one of the princes” and cannot achieve greater development and break the circle. The former’s gameplay threshold is not high and can easily be imitated and replaced, but its approach of “linking online and offline, using small items that women like to increase stickiness” has strong reference value.
The latter has a strong advantage in technology and is also establishing its own image as a “female-friendly manufacturer” on social platforms. But this image itself is a double-edged sword. Players will praise you today because the manufacturer donates money to girls, but tomorrow it may be because a male employee comes to the project team to “pave the way for bro again.” As an old player, Xiaoyu also wants to say one more thing: “Yishan”‘s bulky roll technology is more suitable for you.
Faced with the impact of AI comics seizing the emotional consumer market with low cost and fast pace, women-oriented games still need to return to the precise needs of anchoring fragmented scenes, and use light interactions and rigid needs scenes to extend user connections. After all, the ultimate appeal of women’s emotional consumption is always the deep satisfaction of “being valued, being able to participate, and having exclusive rights.” This is the irreplaceable difference between games and one-way content products – AI comics can provide “companionship” but not “preference”. This may be the last moat for women to play games.
Editor in charge: Li Nan
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