July 25 Short Drama Top 10 Watch: AI Retakes the Board, While Today's New Entrants Wait (2026)

The latest complete board is July 23; today's signal is not yet a full ranking

Data cutoff: July 25, 2026 at 08:00 China Standard Time. The newest public, row-by-row Hongguo snapshot I could verify is the July 23 board, posted by a Sina-verified entertainment account at 18:53 that day. It puts two AI/manhua franchises at the top, brings live action back to four of the ten rows, and gives us a cleaner picture of what is changing than a mixed-date ranking would. 1

No complete July 24 or July 25 Hongguo table was publicly verifiable in this run. A July 25 article does reproduce a separate official-board list dated through July 18, while newer reports give only partial readings, so neither has been merged into the ranking below. 2 3

The latest complete Hongguo Top 10

The Sina board displays heat in ten-thousand units; the table converts those readings to millions. Platform means the platform represented by the chart: Hongguo. AI/manhua entries are labeled rather than folded into the live-action count.

Rank	Drama	Genre	Format	Platform	Episodes	Hongguo heat
1	Wanyao Tulu Zhuan Season 9 / 「万妖图录传第 9 季」	Cultivation fantasy	AI/manhua	Hongguo	107	76.78m
2	Jianzong Xiaoshimei Season 2 / 「咱家剑宗团宠小师妹第 2 季」	Sect and cultivation fantasy	AI/manhua	Hongguo	486	76.39m
3	Tiger Mom Arrives, the Whole Family Falls in Line / 「虎妈驾到，全家反骨仔乖乖立正」	Family-conflict comedy	Live action	Hongguo	72	74.41m
4	Jianran / 「渐染」	Contemporary romance and second chance	Live action	Hongguo	71	69.63m
5	Reborn, Who Still Pretends to Be a Rich Heir / 「都重生了，谁还装富二代」	Rebirth and urban wish fulfillment	AI/manhua	Hongguo	71	68.04m
6	Zhou Yi Ji Ye 2 / 「昼以继夜 2」	Urban relationship drama	Live action	Hongguo	89	66.76m
7	Deep Love for You, Entering the Rest of My Life Season 4 / 「予你情深，侵入余生第 4 季」	Romance serial	AI/manhua	Hongguo	Not verified	62.88m
8	Fanren Baishi Shu Season 4 / 「凡人百世书第 4 季」	Rebirth cultivation fantasy	AI/manhua	Hongguo	108	62.81m
9	Jianzong Xiaoshimei Season 1 / 「咱家剑宗团宠小师妹」	Cultivation fantasy	AI/manhua	Hongguo	Not verified	62.20m
10	Shen Xiaojie Ta Bu Gan Le / 「沈小姐她不干了」	Workplace revenge and female-led comeback	Live action	Hongguo	Not verified	61.60m

The chart source identifies live action at ranks 3, 4, 6, and 10; the other six rows are described in the surrounding reporting as AI/manhua or belong to the AI serials covered by the cited metadata. The heat values and ranks above come from the same July 23 snapshot, not from the July 24 partial readings. 1

Entry notes

1. Wanyao Tulu Zhuan Season 9 — 76.78m

The ninth season keeps the long-running cultivation engine at No. 1, with a dragon-transformation trial, a five-immortal war, and a heroine who moves through the story as a fighter rather than a passive observer. Public metadata lists 107 episodes and a July 19 Hongguo premiere; a separate July 24 report gave the series a 118.56m seven-day composite reading, but that is a different update condition from the July 23 row-by-row board. 4 3

The buzz is therefore doing two jobs at once: serialized world-building keeps returning viewers inside the app, while the latest season supplies a fresh escalation instead of asking the audience to learn a new universe.

2. Jianzong Xiaoshimei Season 2 — 76.39m

Season 2 trails Wanyao by only 0.39m on this snapshot. The available listing describes a 486-episode AI/manhua serial built around a half-demon cultivation setup, a known sect world, and a heroine-centered found-family hook. 5

Its strongest signal is not simply that it is high; it is that the title has enough franchise depth to keep attention close to the chart leader while serving a lighter, more companionable version of cultivation fantasy.

3. Tiger Mom Arrives, the Whole Family Falls in Line — 74.41m

This is the highest live-action title on the board. The drama is described as a 72-episode family-ethics comedy starring Hu Chunyuan and Liu Qingxin, with household conflict and a forceful mother figure supplying the immediate hook. 6 7

Its No. 3 position matters because it is not relying on an AI serial's accumulated seasons: direct family conflict remains the clearest live-action route into the same high-frequency recommendation lane.

4. Jianran — 69.63m

Jianran is the board's cleanest contemporary-romance counterweight to the fantasy-heavy AI rows. The launch report describes a 71-episode story about a divorced financial director meeting a younger former lover after he has become her chairman, with a 77.82m opening heat and more than 2.6m reservations. 8

The title's No. 4 finish shows that a live-action drama can stay visible after the opening spike when the premise combines an instantly legible relationship wound with a second-chance payoff.

5. Reborn, Who Still Pretends to Be a Rich Heir — 68.04m

This AI/manhua title takes the rebirth formula into urban wish fulfillment: a character returns after losing everything, while the rich-heir disguise delays the full reveal. Public metadata lists 71 episodes, and another July analysis places the title inside Hongguo's AI-heavy upper tier. 9 3

At No. 5, it shows that the AI wave is broader than cultivation: the same production model can carry a modern money-and-status fantasy when the reveal structure is fast enough for short episodes.

6. Zhou Yi Ji Ye 2 — 66.76m

The sequel is the second-highest live-action entry, supported by cast recognition and a large ensemble. A launch report lists 89 episodes and a 95.82m first-day Hongguo reading; the title's later 66.76m position is a useful reminder that launch heat and retention are separate tests. 10

It remains in the upper half because a sequel can start with built-in demand, but the board does not show it converting that opening burst into a top-two hold.

7. Deep Love for You, Entering the Rest of My Life Season 4 — 62.88m

This returning romance serial is placed inside the AI/manhua side of the board, but a readable public source did not independently confirm the episode count for this exact season. Its value in the snapshot is the placement itself: a romance franchise remains in the lower top ten while cultivation, rebirth, and family conflict take most of the oxygen.

There is no comparable Douyin or Kuaishou title-level signal verified for this row, so the chart supports a Hongguo ranking, not a claim of cross-platform reach.

8. Fanren Baishi Shu Season 4 — 62.81m

Season 4 uses a reincarnation system in which the protagonist carries knowledge and ability across lives. Baidu Baike lists 108 episodes, making it another long-run AI/manhua serial rather than a one-week novelty. 11

Its No. 8 finish adds depth to the AI side of the board, but the available evidence does not yet show whether this is a durable hold or the tail of a launch burst.

9. Jianzong Xiaoshimei Season 1 — 62.20m

The original season gives the Jianzong property two rows in the same ten, alongside Season 2 at No. 2. That is a visible franchise effect: a sequel can send viewers back into the older catalogue instead of simply replacing it.

The first season's episode count was not independently confirmed in a readable source during this pass. The ranking supports catalogue spillover, but it cannot tell us whether the two seasons are being watched for identical reasons.

10. Shen Xiaojie Ta Bu Gan Le — 61.60m

The cutoff title is a live-action workplace-revenge story about a woman who stops absorbing unpaid responsibility and starts pushing back against an abusive manager. A July 25 secondary roundup labels it urban workplace, female-led comeback, and anti-male-lead revenge; public listings disagree or remain silent on the exact episode count, so it is left unverified here rather than normalized from a conflicting 59/60-episode listing. 2 12

That emotional premise is unusually direct for this board. At No. 10, the title is a reminder that the live-action comeback lane is not limited to romance: workplace grievance can also supply the immediate, quotable payoff that short drama needs.

New July 25 signals that are not ranked yet

Two releases are relevant to today's watch, but neither has a same-format heat score that would justify inserting it into the ten rows.

Shanhai Universe: The Clear-Turbid War / 「山海宇宙·清浊之战」 is scheduled to open on Hongguo on July 25. It is an AI-animated short drama co-created by students and faculty at Jilin Animation Institute, built around a reworked Eastern-mythology world with Zhulong, Xuanwu, Qiongqi, Taotie, and Baize; the source does not provide an episode count or a heat value. 13
The Secret of the Royal Family Season 2 / 「皇室家族的秘密第二季」 is scheduled for July 25 on Hongguo and other platforms. The announced format is a suspense short drama mixing family power struggles, business conflict, and Ru porcelain culture; the announcement does not provide a verified episode count or a comparable heat reading. 14

These are watchlist entries, not ranked substitutes. A release date and an interesting premise can create a launch burst; they cannot replace a dated, row-by-row heat value.

What the July 23 board says

1. AI is still winning on franchise depth, not just novelty

Six of the ten rows are AI/manhua, and the list includes Wanyao Season 9, Jianzong Seasons 1 and 2, Fanren Season 4, and a fourth-season romance serial. The pattern is less about one breakout than about a catalogue model: repeatable worlds, high episode inventories, and sequel or back-catalogue consumption keep filling recommendation space.

2. Live action has moved from survival to a four-row test

Live action is no longer confined to the middle of the board. Tiger Mom reaches No. 3, Jianran holds No. 4, Zhou Yi Ji Ye 2 remains No. 6, and Shen Xiaojie enters at the cutoff; that is a stronger showing than the previous seven-AI, three-live-action snapshot, but it is still not a takeover.

3. The next useful comparison is retention, not launch noise

The July 24 partial report puts Wanyao Season 9 at 118.56m on a seven-day composite reading, Zhou Yi Ji Ye 2 at 76.87m after a 95.82m first-day reading, and Jianzong Season 2 at 73.35m. Because those values do not come with a complete table using the same visible conditions as the July 23 board, they should be read as movement signals, not stitched into a new ranking. 3

Data note: this issue uses the latest complete public row-by-row Hongguo board verified in this run, dated July 23. Heat values are converted from the source's ten-thousand-unit display into millions. No comparable, all-title Douyin play-count snapshot or Kuaishou title-level score was verified for these ten rows, so the cross-platform comparison remains incomplete rather than being filled with approximate data.

Sources

Source note: Sina's July 23 post is a public chart reproduction rather than a direct export from Hongguo. Secondary sources are used for title metadata and launch context only; they are not treated as replacements for the dated heat board.

July 25 Short Drama Top 10 Watch: AI Retakes the Board, While Today's New Entrants Wait