India, 17th June 2026 — The mobile entertainment playbook is being rewritten. While traditional long-form streaming platforms stabilise, a new wave of bite-sized, mobile-first vertical video content known as Short Drama is rapidly capturing consumer attention and advertiser dollars across the Indian Subcontinent. New data from AppsFlyer’s State of Subscriptions for Marketers 2026 report reveals that Android user acquisition (UA) ad spend for Short Drama subscription apps surged 423% in the Indian Subcontinent, as global app publishers aggressively rotate budgets away from saturated Western markets. The shift is structural: the Indian Subcontinent grew by 95% in subscription-paid installs, accounting for 49% of the entire global net paid install growth delta.
Sanjay Trisal, General Manager of INSEA & ANZ, AppsFlyer, said: “The mobile-first consumer base in the Indian Subcontinent has officially crossed a tipping point. For many years, the industry defaulted to a North America-first growth mentality, but now the data tells a different story. The region’s scale, engagement, and appetite for mobile content have made it the most compelling destination for UA investment globally, and the Short Drama category is the clearest proof of that.”
Key findings from AppsFlyer’s State of Subscriptions for Marketers 2026 report include:
Global trends:
- Android UA ad spend for Short Drama subscription apps surged 423% in the Indian Subcontinent. At the same time, marketers simultaneously pulled back in mature regions, slashing Short Drama budgets in North America by 40% and in Southeast Asia by 39%, as advertisers rotate dollars toward higher-efficiency markets like India.
- Global paid installs for the Short Drama category grew 155% year-over-year, making it one of the fastest-growing app verticals.
- Despite rapid expansion, the Short Drama market remains intensely concentrated, with the top five apps capturing more than 90% of all UA spend globally, reflecting high barriers to entry for emerging publishers.
India in focus:
- The Indian Subcontinent grew by 95% in subscription-paid installs, accounting for 49% of the global net paid install growth delta, making it the largest contributor to worldwide paid app expansion.
- India’s dominance extends beyond entertainment: Android UA ad spend for Education apps in the Indian Subcontinent grew 184%, with paid install growth for Education apps up 66% year-over-year, concentrated almost entirely within the region.
- Publishers in the Short Drama space are actively testing hybrid monetisation models in India specifically, pairing subscriptions with in-app advertising to convert the sheer volume of downloads the market generates.
Sanjay added: “For brands looking at where to deploy their next dollar, the Indian Subcontinent is without doubt a strategic imperative. Access to precise, granular data will be the differentiator. Brands that can accurately read demand signals and attribution patterns in India will be the ones that capture disproportionate growth.”
About the Report: The findings are drawn from AppsFlyer’s fully anonymous, aggregated global dataset covering 1.7 billion paid installs of subscription apps and $2.1 billion in total UA ad spend, analysed from October 2024 through February 2026.
To download the full State of Subscriptions for Marketers 2026 report, visit: https://www.appsflyer.com/resources/subscription-marketing-report/
About AppsFlyer
AppsFlyer is the Modern Marketing Cloud that helps businesses transform complex data into clarity and growth. For more than a decade, the global leader in mobile attribution, AppsFlyer today empowers over 15,000 businesses worldwide to break down silos across omnichannel measurement, deep linking, data collaboration, and autonomous AI workflows, giving brands the foundation to make smarter decisions, faster. To learn more, visit www.appsflyer.com.
