July 22 Short Drama Heat Watch: Wanyao S9 Breaks the Board, Live Action Holds Four Slots (2026)

Snapshot and cutoff

The latest complete public Hongguo heat board available for this edition is dated July 20, 2026—not a same-day July 22 scrape. Its ten rows put six AI/manhua titles against four live-action dramas, with Wanyao Tulu Zhuan Season 9 opening at 118.56 million Hongguo heat, well clear of the rest. 1

No complete, row-by-row July 21 or July 22 board is claimed here. A partial update is not enough to manufacture a new ranking, so the July 20 list remains the clean benchmark. Heat values below convert the chart's ten-thousand-unit display into millions.

The latest complete Hongguo top 10

Rank	Title	Genre	Format	Platform	Hongguo heat
1	万妖图录传第 9 季 / Wanyao Tulu Zhuan S9	Cultivation fantasy	AI/manhua lane	Hongguo	118.56m
2	昼以继夜 2 / Zhou Yi Ji Ye 2	Urban relationship drama	Live action	Hongguo	76.87m
3	咱家剑宗团宠小师妹第 2 季 / Zanjia Jianzong Tuanchong Xiaoshi Mei S2	Cultivation fantasy	AI/manhua lane	Hongguo	75.36m
4	渐染 / Jianran	Contemporary romance	Live action	Hongguo	72.48m
5	咱家剑宗团宠小师妹 / Zanjia Jianzong Tuanchong Xiaoshi Mei	Cultivation fantasy	AI/manhua lane	Hongguo	67.56m
6	傻女重生记，睁眼后盖房发家 / Sha Nü Chongsheng Ji	Rebirth and family entrepreneurship	AI/manhua lane	Hongguo	66.34m
7	与你情深，侵入余生第 4 季 / Yu Ni Qingshen, Qinru Yusheng S4	Romance fantasy	AI/manhua lane	Hongguo	65.46m
8	精神小妹也要修机甲吗 / Jingshen Xiaomei Ye Yao Xiu Jijiama Ma	Sci-fi and mecha	AI/manhua lane	Hongguo	63.51m
9	80 团宠，爹爹入赘我暴富 / Baling Tuanchong, Diedie Ruzhui Wo Baofu	Period family and wealth	Live action	Hongguo	61.18m
10	可否许我再少年 2 / Kefou Xu Wo Zai Shaonian 2	Youth and second-chance romance	Live action	Hongguo	59.96m

The format labels follow the available live-action/manhua split rather than treating every animated title as independently verified AI production. The split source uses near-variant renderings for several names—for example, 「予你深情入余生第四季」 and 「精神小妹也要停/修机甲吗」—so the table keeps the wording printed on the July 20 overall board. 2

Entry notes: what is moving each title

1. Wanyao Tulu Zhuan Season 9 — 118.56m

This is the board's clear outlier. Hongguo's official account said the series opened at 118.56 million heat on its first day, describing the result as a new record for manhua dramas; the release began at 00:10 on July 19. 3

The early Douyin signal is real but not directly comparable to Hongguo heat: the official 姜月初工作室 teaser returned 1.90 million plays and 25,326 likes in the snapshot used for this edition. That combination—an established fantasy franchise, a midnight full-release moment, and a record-sized opening signal—explains why the ninth season is not merely leading but widening the gap. 4

2. Zhou Yi Ji Ye 2 — 76.87m

The sequel is the strongest live-action title on the overall board and the top live-action entry in the split chart. It launched on July 17 and briefly reached the top of the Hongguo board before settling at #2 in the July 20 snapshot. 2 5

Its buzz is carrying two stories at once: a sequel with enough launch force to challenge the manhua block, and a high-cost live-action production now being discussed as a payback test. The Paper reported that six leading actors' one-day pay exceeded 220,000 yuan and that the 11-day shoot was expected to put actor costs above 2.5 million yuan; those are reported production figures, not an audited budget. 5

3. Zanjia Jianzong Tuanchong Xiaoshi Mei Season 2 — 75.36m

Season 2 sits only 1.51 million heat behind the live-action leader, keeping the fantasy/manhua lane firmly in the race. The split chart lists the sequel at 73.55 million, a different reading from the 75.36 million on the overall board; that gap is best treated as a source or timing difference, not as a new trend. 1 2

The practical signal is franchise stacking: the sequel is #3 while the original remains #5. Viewers are not choosing between an unknown title and a known one; the two entries reinforce the same cultivation hook and give Hongguo more than one surface for the property.

4. Jianran — 72.48m

Jianran is the second live-action entry in the split chart and the highest-ranked new-feeling contemporary romance in this board. It had more than two million reservations before launch, while a report cited 77.82 million Hongguo heat and one million collections on July 19—evidence of a strong opening, followed by the 72.48 million reading on the July 20 board. 5

That shape matters. Jianran is attracting attention at launch, but the available numbers do not support calling it a breakout that has already escaped the normal early-decay curve. Its position is a live-action hold, not a victory over the record manhua opening.

5. Zanjia Jianzong Tuanchong Xiaoshi Mei — 67.56m

The original remains #5, and the split chart places it third in the manhua lane. With Season 2 at #3, the property occupies two of the board's top five positions—a stronger signal than either installment's rank alone. 1 2

The buzz driver is therefore less a single launch spike than repeatable IP behavior. A sequel can lift discovery for the original, while the original gives the sequel a ready-made viewing context.

6. Sha Nü Chongsheng Ji — 66.34m

The title's promise is immediate: a rebirth story in which the heroine wakes up and builds a home and a livelihood. That compact reversal-and-build premise is easy to sample and easy to explain, which is a useful advantage in a crowded manhua field. The chart places it sixth, but no comparable title-level Douyin or Kuaishou metric was verified for this edition, so its position should be read from Hongguo alone. 1

It is a good example of the chart's middle: high enough to show demand, but without the cross-platform evidence needed to claim a broader breakout.

7. Yu Ni Qingshen, Qinru Yusheng Season 4 — 65.46m

The fourth season remains inside the top seven and is also listed in the manhua split chart. Its staying power comes from serial familiarity: a returning romance title does not need to spend all of its launch attention explaining the premise to an existing audience. 1 2

Because the source set uses multiple near-identical Chinese renderings, this entry is best tracked by its season number and chart position rather than by assuming that every spelling variant is a separate drama.

8. Jingshen Xiaomei Ye Yao Xiu Jijiama Ma — 63.51m

A mecha hook gives this title a clean point of difference from the board's larger cultivation cluster. The manhua split chart also places it among the leading entries, so its presence is not just an artifact of the overall list. 1 2

The interesting question is whether the sci-fi wrapper can build a durable lane of its own or is simply benefiting from the current platform preference for long-running animated serials. This board alone shows placement, not the answer.

9. Baling Tuanchong, Diedie Ruzhui Wo Baofu — 61.18m

This is the third live-action entry in the split chart and a useful counterpoint to the romance-led titles above it: its hook is period-family wish fulfillment with a wealth-building payoff. It reaches #9 overall and therefore keeps live action present in the lower half of the list, even as manhua takes the top six of the ten available split positions. 1 2

Its placement suggests that live action still has room when the premise is legible in one sentence and the reward structure is concrete.

10. Kefou Xu Wo Zai Shaonian 2 — 59.96m

The second-chance youth premise brings the fourth live-action title into the overall ten and the fourth position in the split chart. It is the cutoff entry, but not an isolated one: the gap between #9 and #10 is only 1.22 million heat, so the lower edge is competitive rather than empty. 1 2

That makes it a title to watch for the next complete board. A small upward move could change the live-action count at the cutoff even if the record leader remains out of reach.

Cross-platform check

The strongest directly verified secondary signal in this pass belongs to Wanyao Season 9's official Douyin teaser: 1.90 million plays and 25,326 likes in the retrieved snapshot. The number confirms launch attention, but it is not a substitute for Hongguo heat, and it should not be used to rank the other nine titles without comparable official snapshots. 4

Douyin clips for Zhou Yi Ji Ye 2 and Jianran were found, but the available figures were not comparable enough to publish as a cross-platform leaderboard. No directly verifiable Kuaishou title-level signal was available for this edition, so Kuaishou is not assigned a score or implied ranking.

What this board says about the market

1. AI/manhua leads through franchise depth, not just one hit. Six of ten places belong to the lane, and the top five include Wanyao Season 9 plus both seasons of the Jianzong property. The result is a stack of repeatable fantasy IP rather than a single isolated viral title.

2. Live action still owns the credible counter-position. Zhou Yi Ji Ye 2, Jianran, Baling Tuanchong and Kefou Xu Wo Zai Shaonian 2 hold four slots, including #2 and #4. But the reporting around actor costs and payback pressure shows why a high ranking is not the same thing as a healthy production model. 5

3. The real split is scale versus efficiency. Wanyao's 118.56 million opening resets the ceiling, while live-action titles are competing for durable mid-to-high positions with more visible cost exposure. The next complete dated board will show whether this is a temporary launch imbalance or the new summer operating pattern.

Bottom line

The July 20 board is not evidence that live action has disappeared. It is evidence that Hongguo's current top end is being set by AI/manhua franchises with exceptional serial scale, while live action survives where its premise is immediately legible and its launch can convert attention into retention. Until a complete July 21 or July 22 chart is available, that is the most defensible read of the market—not a synthetic same-day ranking.

Source note: Hongguo heat is the primary ranking signal in this article. Douyin is used only as a secondary launch-attention check; no Kuaishou number is presented without a directly verifiable title-level source. "} sue? Wait used str_replace tool not bash. Need correct JSON. It appears I accidentally sent malformed? Actually tool call? I used functions.str_replace_based_edit_tool but payload had command create, path, file_text. It may be huge and likely result? Let's see. Wait in assistant message content it says

July 22 Short Drama Heat Watch: Wanyao S9 Breaks the Board, Live Action Holds Four Slots