Tencent Ushers in the AI Animation Era with 10 Million Views in Four Days
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With a tenfold reduction in costs and a threefold increase in efficiency, China’s tech giant Tencent has released two AI-generated animated dramas, which have surpassed 10 million total views across platforms in just four days.
China’s tech giant Tencent has released two AI-generated animated dramas—My Healing Game and Traditional Martial Arts (Chuanwu)—which have surpassed 10 million total views across platforms in just four days.
Both projects were developed using Bytedance's Dreamina, an artificial intelligence production tool, with a seven-member creative team led by young directors. My Healing Game is based on a hit novel, while Chuanwu adapts a top-ranked comic from Tencent Animation, part of Tencent’s Yuewen Group, the largest online literature and entertainment ecosystem in China.
Each AI drama contains 40–90 episodes, each lasting about 90 seconds. A single month of production can generate around 30 minutes of content, equivalent to a full quarter of traditional animation output.
With AI workflows like Dreamina, production cycles have shrunk dramatically. One of Tencent’s technology partners, Yuguang Tongchen Technology, produced three high-quality AI dramas in just two months, including one original work and two S-tier IP adaptations—all rendered in up to 4K resolution.
For comparison, Tencent’s recent blockbuster Lord of the Mysteries, a traditionally produced anime adaptation, required nearly 1,000 keyframes per minute and up to 26,000 frames per episode, resulting in enormous time and cost burdens. Despite its success—debuting on IMDb with a 9.3 rating and ranking Top 3 globally—such productions can take up to a decade to complete across multiple seasons.
The cost savings are equally dramatic. Traditional anime-style short dramas typically cost ¥30,000–¥150,000 per minute (around $4,100–$20,500 USD). In contrast, AI-generated works can be produced for just ¥2,000–¥5,000 per minute (roughly $270–$680 USD)—a fraction of the expense.
This shift represents a potential breakthrough in China’s massive animation and short-form video industries, both of which have been booming alongside the country’s streaming platforms like Bilibili and Tencent Video.
For China’s entertainment industry, this signals more than a new production method—it could mark the beginning of a new era, where artificial intelligence transforms storytelling itself.
