Viewable, playable, chat-worthy — endless expansion of great content

During the family reunion season, iQIYI’s quality content is always present. According to data from the iQIYI Data Research Center, during the seven days before the 2026 Spring Festival holiday (hereinafter referred to as the “Spring Festival”), the total viewing time across all platforms on iQIYI continued to grow, with daily average viewing time on large screens increasing by 13% compared to before the holiday. The popular family drama “Time with Love” released during the Spring Festival broke the internal heat index of 8,000, entering the “Hall of Excellent Films”; “What a Proper Way” topped the drama channel chart in both daily average viewing time and heat index during the holiday. iQIYI-produced variety shows brought laughter to the new year, with “Shining Universe, Please Pay Attention” and “Tonight’s Happy Friends Show” boosting the daily average viewing time on the variety channel by 256% compared to before the holiday. Blockbuster movies in theaters sparked a wave of online “re-watching” of previous works, with the iQIYI Movie Channel’s daily average viewing time increasing by 44% compared to before the holiday.

Compared to previous years, audiences during the Year of the Horse Spring Festival no longer just watch content—they immerse themselves in the iQIYI-created “IP universe,” chatting with AI paper characters, visiting offline iQIYI parks, and purchasing IP merchandise. Data shows that during the holiday, over 3 million interactions occurred on iQIYI’s AI-powered virtual character interaction platform, Tao Dou World, with an 8% year-over-year increase in visitors. Since opening on February 8, the Yangzhou iQIYI Park, featuring immersive entertainment projects like “Taoist Tales of the Tang Dynasty,” “Lotus House,” and others, experienced a strong start during the Spring Festival, with significant increases in visitor numbers and total revenue compared to before the holiday. The park’s IP-themed merchandise, such as “Planting,” “Lotus House,” and “Dream of a Book,” attracted countless fans.

Good content has become interactive, participatory, and experiential. During the Year of the Horse Spring Festival, film and TV IPs came to life on iQIYI.

Classic IPs keep users “browsing repeatedly,” with comedy and variety shows delivering plenty of laughs

Whether it’s major dramas at the start of the year, timeless classics, or hit IPs, everyone can find their favorites on iQIYI. During the Spring Festival, period dramas remained popular among users. “Time with Love,” focusing on changing eras, launched on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year and maintained top-three popularity on iQIYI. High-quality dramas like “Peaceful Years” and “Tree of Life” ranked in the top five for both heat index and viewing time. As childhood classics, the Four Great Classical Novels accompanied multiple generations through another lively year during the Spring Festival. “Journey to the West” ranked in the top 7 for daily average viewing time, up 36% from before the holiday; “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” increased by 12%. Popular dramas in the “Hall of Honor” were watched repeatedly during the holiday. “Barrage,” “I Am a Detective,” and “Lotus House” all saw their daily average viewing times rise collectively compared to before the holiday.

Serialized development of popular IPs brought impressive results this Spring Festival. During the holiday, the “What a Proper Way” drama and manga collaboration was a standout, becoming a dark horse of the festival. The series “What a Proper Way” ranked first in daily average viewing time and heat index on the drama channel, with the highest heat index surpassing 9,000, entering the “Popularity Hall.” The related anime “What a Proper Way” saw a 249% year-over-year increase in daily average viewing time during the holiday, and the short drama of the same name ranked first in the short drama channel. “What a Proper Way” and its Thai version entered the top 10 of iQIYI’s international drama charts during the Spring Festival. From long dramas to anime and short dramas, “What a Proper Way” demonstrates the vitality of a good story, allowing users to “binge” within the same IP’s “parallel universe.”

Joy and laughter are eternal themes of the Spring Festival. Data from the iQIYI Data Research Center shows that half of the top 10 daily average viewing time on the variety channel during the holiday came from Spring Festival Gala programs, with “2026 CCTV Spring Festival Gala” ranking first, followed by “2026 Beijing Spring Festival Gala,” “2026 Jilin Spring Festival Gala,” “2026 Tianjin Cross Talk Spring Festival Gala,” and “2026 Henan Spring Festival Gala” in the top ten. Overseas Chinese viewers’ enthusiasm for Spring Festival Gala is high, with iQIYI International’s 2026 Gala live broadcast seeing a 177% year-over-year increase in total views. iQIYI-produced comedy variety show “Tonight’s Happy Friends Show” ranked second in the variety channel during the holiday after just two days of release, while “Shining Universe, Please Pay Attention,” released before the holiday, ranked second in daily viewing time and first in peak heat index during the festival, becoming a “digital snack” for the New Year.

“Online Spring Festival Blockbuster” Continues to Offer Diverse Content for a Big Celebration

During the Spring Festival, the average daily viewing time on the iQIYI Movie Channel increased by 44% compared to before the holiday. The excitement of offline theater releases spilled over online. The box office champion “Flying Past Life 3” was a hit, making previous installments popular on iQIYI. During the holiday, “Flying Past Life 2” saw a 371% increase in daily average viewing time, and “Flying Past Life 1” surged by 591%, climbing 40 places to enter the top 10 of the movie channel. The national security-themed series “Silent Glory” increased by 45% in daily average viewing time. The “Nezha” series of popular animated films reignited interest, with daily average viewing time on iQIYI increasing by over 30%, and “Nezha Conquers the Demon Sea” ranking 10th in the holiday’s movie channel heat list.

While new works from the theater blockbusters were popular, the iQIYI Movie Channel also launched new titles during the holiday, including “Northeast Police Story 3,” “Take a Break and Be Careful,” “You Can Do It!,” “Home,” and “Northeast Love Song: A Fire in Winter,” all entering the top 10 in daily average viewing time. The excellent performance of “Chasing the Wind” continued into the holiday, with daily average viewing time increasing by 136% compared to before.

The iQIYI Short Drama Channel saw an 18% year-over-year increase in daily average viewing time during the Spring Festival compared to 2025. The new holiday release “My Only Limit” quickly entered the top 10 in short drama viewing during the festival. When AI begins to help create mecha worlds, who can resist clicking to see? iQIYI’s self-produced AI animated drama “Mechanical Apocalypse, My Mecha Is a Little Strong” ranked sixth in short drama viewing during the holiday.

iQIYI’s animated content remained popular during the Spring Festival. “Ze Tian Ji,” “What a Proper Way,” “What a Proper Way Season 2,” and “The Grand Master Yearly” occupied four of the top seven spots in iQIYI’s anime heat list during the holiday. “Ze Tian Ji” increased by 26% in daily average viewing time, and “The Grand Master Yearly” saw a more than sixfold increase year-over-year. Popular children’s content like “Panda Detective” and top IPs like “Paw Patrol Season 11” and “Peppa Pig Mini Series Season 3” continued to captivate young audiences.

Dreamlike Interactions Inside and Outside the Screen, Technology Extends the Boundaries of Good Content

During the Year of the Horse Spring Festival, interacting with AI paper characters became a new way for users to find emotional companionship during the holiday. Beyond just watching dramas, young people began chatting with Zhang Xiaoman from “Time with Love” in Tao Dou World, or drawing New Year wishes with Yu Wanyin from “What a Proper Way.” During the holiday, interactions on Tao Dou World exceeded 3 million, with the “Little Lucky Draw” New Year limited activity increasing interactions by 5% compared to before the holiday. Watching and chatting remain popular ways to enjoy dramas; during the holiday, the total number of bullet comments on iQIYI reached about 140 million.

The lively scenes inside the screen are matched by exciting experiences outside. After the grand opening of iQIYI’s first offline park in Yangzhou, Jiangsu, on February 8, it experienced its first peak of visitors during the Spring Festival. Mainstream platforms like Ctrip, Meituan, and Dianping gave it an average rating above 4.8 stars. The “Ten Days of Diligence” luggage tag, “Lotus House” food and drink series, “Dream of a Book” themed collectible cards, and “Lotus House” Summer series cotton doll blind boxes became top sellers since the park’s opening.

Following online binge-watching of “Tales from the Tang Dynasty,” fans also visited the “Tales from the Tang Dynasty” themed street in the park—becoming a new way to celebrate the New Year. The influence of the “Tang Ghost” IP remains strong during the festival, with “Tales from the Tang Dynasty: Chang’an” and “Tales from the Tang Dynasty: Western Journey” both ranking in the top 15 of the drama channel. Short dramas like “Tang Ghost: Nine Layers of the Tower” and “Tang Ghost: The County Magistrate of Chang’an” ranked second and seventh in the short drama channel. Many users shared on social media that they “re-watched” the full immersive theater of “Tales from the Tang Dynasty” at Yangzhou iQIYI Park, even experiencing VR battles with real bows and arrows against eagle-faced men—truly thrilling.