Zhang Linghe and Tian Xiwei's period romance Pursuit of Jade is the most-streamed Chinese drama of 2026 so far, racking up 3.59 billion online views. That puts it more than 1.5 billion views clear of the runner-up, the opera saga The Lead, while the crime sequel Crime Crackdown 2 takes third.
The figures come from a top 10 list compiled by Taiwanese beauty and lifestyle outlet Beauty美人圈, which ranked this year's mainland Chinese series that have passed 1 billion online views. The cutoff matters in a year the industry has described as a "winter" for film and television, with several heavily promoted titles failing to take off. Only 10 dramas cleared the mark, and Jing Boran's The Early Spring, one of the year's most talked-about romances on Netflix, scraped in at ninth with 1.072 billion views.
Where the list cites ratings, they come from Douban, mainland China's best-known film and television review site, where users grade titles out of 10.
Pursuit Of Jade Opens A 1.5 Billion View Lead
No other drama this year comes close to Pursuit of Jade. Its 3.59 billion views are roughly 75% higher than the 2.043 billion logged by second-place The Lead, and more than double the total of every show ranked third or lower. Much of the early buzz centered on the striking looks of its two leads.
The series comes from the director behind the costume drama Blossom. Tian plays Fan Changyu, a butcher's daughter who has lost both parents and must keep the family business going. Zhang plays Xie Zheng, a marquis who has fallen from grace and lives under a false name while chasing a blood feud dating back 17 years. The two meet in a snowstorm and agree to a marriage of convenience, each with private motives, only for the arrangement to turn into real love.
Literary And Historical Dramas Earn Top Douban Scores
The runner-up won its place on prestige rather than romance. The Lead, produced by filmmaker Zhang Yimou and starring Zhang Jiayi and Liu Haocun, adapts a novel that won the Mao Dun Literature Prize, one of China's top literary honors. It traces half a century in the life of Yi Qin'e, a star of Qinqiang, the traditional opera of northwest China, from her childhood herding goats to her rise as a leading lady of the stage. The show scored 8.2 on Douban, and beyond its 2.043 billion online views it also drew strong ratings on broadcast television.
The best-reviewed drama of the year ranks eighth. Swords Into Plowshares, starring Bai Yu and Zhou Yutong, holds the highest Douban score of any Chinese series released in 2026 and logged 1.103 billion views. Set in the turbulent Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period of the 10th century, it skips romance in favor of court politics and reform, following the choices of Qian Hongchu, Zhao Kuangyin, and Guo Rong. The story ends with Qian handing his territory over to the Song dynasty. The history and web of relationships take time to absorb, but history buffs praised the solid script and sweeping visuals.
Closing out the list in 10th place is Born with Luck, with 1.058 billion views and a Douban score of 8.2. Wang Xiao and Tian Xiwei, who appears on the chart twice, star in the adaptation of a novel by crime writer Zijin Chen, whose earlier books became the series The Long Night and The Bad Kids. This time the tone is more comic. Police officer Zhang Yi'ang, away from frontline detective work for years, is sent to Sanjiangkou to follow up on an anonymous tip and zeroes in on a gang run by local tycoon Zhou Rong. The town's bumbling crooks end up scheming against one another, handing the police one solved case after another.
Two Franchise Sequels Break Into The Top Five
Crime Crackdown 2 placed third with 1.659 billion views. Huang Jingyu, known in English as Johnny Huang, and Wang Chuanjun lead the suspense series, which has no story link to the first installment. Police officer Qin Feng and Liu Tianye, who rises step by step to become the biggest crime boss in the city of Hanzhou, are as close as brothers yet stand on opposite sides of the law. The plot spans cross-border smuggling, financial money laundering, and virtual currency, with a large and tangled cast of characters. The first season scored 7.0 on Douban and the second 6.8.
Fifth place went to The Nine Gates, with 1.276 billion views. The show follows The Mystic Nine, the 2016 hit that paired Chen Weiting, known in English as William Chan, with Zhao Liying. Chen returns as Zhang Qishan, the commander revered as "Buddha Zhang," with Zeng Shunxi as co-lead and Chen Yao among the new additions. As trouble stirs again in the city of Changsha, Zhang and Wu Laogou team up with Huo Xiangu and the rest of the Nine Gates clans on a new adventure. The sequel keeps the Republic of China era flavor and eerie, supernatural air of the original, and was one of the few Chinese dramas to break out during the 2026 summer season.
The Epoch Of Miyu Emerges As 2026's Dark Horse
The biggest surprise of the year is The Epoch of Miyu, which finished fourth with 1.331 billion views. Wallace Chung and Zhu Zhu star in a love story about mature adults. On her 10th wedding anniversary, Xu Miyu realizes how much she has swallowed to keep her marriage intact and decides to divorce. Starting over as a hotel room attendant, she meets Ji Feng, the hotel's new general manager, and the two take on workplace challenges together. The plot leans melodramatic, but its realistic picture of office life is a major reason viewers kept watching.
Song Weilong released two modern dramas this year, Shine on Me and Love For You, and the former did better, landing seventh with 1.157 billion views. Adapted from a novel by Gu Man, it follows Nie Xiguang, who nursed an unreturned crush on business school standout Zhuang Xu in college. After graduation she takes an entry-level job at a solar power company her family has invested in, where she meets Lin Yusen, a deputy general manager brought in from outside. The early episodes focus on the heroine's ties with the second male lead, and the love triangle that develops later makes the story increasingly gripping.
The Early Spring, starring Jing Boran and Sun Qian, is one of the few modern romances this year to win both strong word of mouth and high viewership. Shang Zhitao, who has an unremarkable academic record, unexpectedly lands a job at a top advertising agency, only for her sharp-tongued boss Luan Nian to suggest she quit on her first day. She grits her teeth through the pressure and grows into a capable employee as the two are drawn to and pull away from each other. Late in the series the boss swallows his pride and works to win her back, a turn that kept viewers hooked.
Tan Songyun's Maid Drama Could Still Climb
Sixth place belongs to Against the Current, with 1.212 billion views, and it is the only title on the list whose total is likely to keep rising. The household intrigue drama, one of the most discussed Chinese series in recent weeks, was still in its initial run when the list was compiled.
Tan Songyun, known in English as Seven Tan, plays a maid who claws her way up from the bottom of a wealthy household, with Liu Xueyi as her co-star. Supporting players including Li Meng and Zheng Hehuizi give the ensemble real depth. The pacing is steady, the inner-court power struggles deliver plenty of payoff, and the show carries a touch of the atmosphere of Dream of the Red Chamber, the classic Chinese novel of a great family's rise and decline.
Across the chart, the pattern is clear: a single breakout romance dominates, while literary adaptations, crime sequels, and grown-up love stories each found enough of an audience to cross the 1 billion mark in a difficult year.
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