Why 'Pursuit of Jade' Is Crushing the Competition: The 2026 C-Drama Streaming Landscape

"Pursuit of Jade" (逐玉), a period romance led by Zhang Linghe and Tian Xiwei, has become the most-watched Chinese costume drama of the first half of 2026, drawing more than 3.4 billion cumulative online views — roughly triple the total of its closest rival, according to the latest streaming data.

The gap is striking in a crowded season. Between January and June, Chinese platforms rolled out costume dramas across nearly every subgenre — political history, palace mysteries, fantasy romance, and "transmigration" comedies in which a modern protagonist wakes up inside a novel. While the champion cleared 3.4 billion views, the rest of the top 10 landed between roughly 600 million and 1.05 billion. Here is the full countdown, from the chart-topper on down.

Adapted from a popular web novel, "Pursuit of Jade" opens with a chance encounter in a snowstorm. Tian Xiwei plays Fan Changyu, a young woman of unusual physical strength who marries Xie Zheng — a marquis concealing his identity, played by Zhang Linghe — to keep her family afloat. What begins as a marriage of mutual calculation shifts as the two grow close, and when Xie Zheng's long-buried blood feud resurfaces, Fan Changyu takes up a blade and heads to the battlefield to find her husband and uncover the truth.

Much of the online praise has centered on the leads' looks and the drama's polished visuals, with some viewers crowning it the "ceiling of C-drama visuals." One commenter called the series "very friendly to the eyes," while another wrote that "the director filmed every actor beautifully." Audiences also embraced the pairing itself, describing it as a textbook case of "two strong leads — a handsome hero and a beautiful heroine," with an easy-to-follow plot suited to casual viewing.

The runner-up took a far riskier route. Starring Bai Yu, Zhou Yutong, and Zhu Yawen, "Swords Into Plowshares" (太平年) is set in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period — a turbulent 10th-century era of collapsing regimes that Chinese television rarely touches. It follows three historical figures, Qian Hongchu, Zhao Kuangyin, and Guo Rong, through war and dynastic upheaval, building toward Qian Hongchu's decision to surrender his territory to the newly founded Song dynasty.

Rather than romance, the series devotes its running time to court politics and institutional rebuilding, and viewers rewarded the ambition. One called it "a historical drama you don't fast-forward through — one you can savor again and again"; another declared, "For daring to film the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms alone, it deserves five stars," despite archaic dialogue and a web of factions that takes time to untangle.

Third place goes to a Tang-dynasty whodunit starring Bai Lu and Wang Xingyue. In "Unveil: Jadewind" (唐宮奇案之青霧風鳴), Princess Ningyuan dies mysteriously at a Lantern Festival banquet, and Bai Lu's noblewoman investigator Li Peiyi teams up with Wang Xingyue's court astronomer Xiao Huaijin to find the killer — only for one case to lead into another, edging toward secrets buried in the imperial harem.

The briskly paced story unfolds from Li Peiyi's perspective, and fans called it "a genuinely strong female-lead script — truly satisfying to watch." Others noted that the cases reach beyond simple manhunts, praising the finale's "touch of social-school detective fiction," while Bai Lu drew credit for showing both the steel and the vulnerability in her character.

"The Unclouded Soul" (逍遙), starring Tan Songyun and Hou Minghao, draws on a century-old feud between humans and spirits. Hou Minghao's long-sealed spirit lord Hong Ye awakens because of Tan Songyun's human girl Xiao Yao, and the two find themselves trapped in a Möbius-strip loop of fate that repeats and reverses.

Despite what some saw as thin promotion and scheduling, the loop premise stuck with viewers, who found it "fresh" and its meditation on destiny and free will "deep." Opinions split on the leads' visual pairing, but the sets, effects, and score won broad approval — one commenter praised the episodic stories and wrote that "the lighting, effects, sound, music, and costuming all show real care."

"The Heir" (家業) turns its lens on the Huizhou ink trade of the mid-Ming dynasty. Yang Zi plays Li Zhen, a daughter of a fallen ink-making clan who takes up the craft to rebuild the family business, facing pressure from inside and outside the clan while pushing against the era's constraints on women in a cutthroat market.

The craftsmanship theme and business-minded heroine set the drama apart from the season's fantasy romances. Viewers praised its depiction of the trade — "a moral backbone hammered out stroke by stroke, ink by ink," as one put it — and Yang Zi's portrayal of the heroine's resilience, with one commenter writing, "This is the female-centered storytelling I want to see." The drama's muted palette and production polish were also frequent talking points.

Comedy proved just as bankable. "How Dare You!?" (成何體統) sends a modern office worker, played by Wang Churan, into the body of a doomed imperial consort inside a novel — only for her to discover that the supposedly tyrannical emperor Xiahou Dan, played by Cheng Lei, is a fellow time-traveler. Once the two confirm each other's identities, they team up to rewrite their fates while fending off the story-world's cascading crises.

The clash between modern thinking and palace protocol reminded many of earlier transmigration comedies — one viewer said it "brought back a bit of the feeling of watching 'Go Princess Go' back in the day." Cheng Lei's emperor, by turns unhinged, devoted, and comic, became a fan favorite — "pure love and total madness at once," as one put it — and his scenes opposite Wang Churan are the drama's main draw.

"Glory" (玉茗茶骨) builds its story on tea-trade rivalry and family intrigue. Gulnazar plays Rong Shanbao, heiress to a tea empire, while Hou Minghao — in his second entry on this chart — plays a scholar who loses his memory and ends up as a stablehand in her household. The ambitious young mistress and the calculating, patient groom edge closer through cooperation, probing, and games of leverage, and their romance plays out as a running contest of wits.

Many viewers embraced it as a female-fantasy crowd-pleaser, applauding how firmly Rong Shanbao drives the plot — "a genuinely woman-centered feel-good drama; the heroine debuts at her peak," one wrote. Lines that flip traditional gender talk also fueled discussion: one viewer joked that the quip "wherever there are many men, there is trouble" was worth an extra star on its own.

Inspired by the classic tale "Painted Skin," "Veil of Shadows" (月鱗綺紀) follows nine-tailed fox sisters Lu Wuyi (Ju Jingyi) and Wu Wangyan, who infiltrate a noble household in the city of Luo'an while hunting a runaway fox demon — and stumble into a struggle over a dragon god's power. As rival factions surface, the characters keep trying to bend their fated endings; Zeng Shunxi co-stars.

Lavish styling and fantastical imagery are the drama's calling cards — "the visual effects really land, and the leads have chemistry," one viewer wrote. Reviews of the plotting were mixed, but the layered character identities kept audiences hooked: "The four-person ensemble is stunning — every character has multiple identities, it's practically a live-action mystery game," one commenter said.

In the xianxia fantasy "Fate Chooses You" (佳偶天成), Ren Jialun plays Lu Qianqiao, who must survive repeated trials of life and death to earn a chance at rebirth, while Wang Herun's Xin Mei carries a fate said to doom any husband. A sham marriage binds them together, and shared perils gradually turn the arrangement real — a growth arc that departs from the genre's usual celestial romance.

The saccharine-sounding title misled some viewers — "I thought it would be a clichéd costume romance, but the plot is actually solid," one admitted. Because the characters never linger in abstract immortal courtship, the drama earned the verdict that "grounded xianxia beats floating immortal battles," with its ensemble subplots and world-building drawing attention of their own.

Closing out the chart, "Love Beyond the Grave" (白日提燈) casts Dilraba Dilmurat as ghost king He Simu — immensely powerful and aloof in bearing, but playful underneath — opposite Chen Feiyu's young general Duan Xu, a man weighing his duty on the battlefield against his own fate. Their wary alliance slowly entwines their destinies.

Debate over the leads' age gap did not stop fans from embracing the characters and the production's scale: one called it "the peak of female-centered drama, where the male lead and supporting cast are still flesh and blood." The role also marks a departure from Dilraba's past costume-drama image — "He Simu is so vivid and adorable — Dilraba's most against-type costume role," one fan wrote.

Two of the season's most talked-about series sit just outside the chart. "The First Jasmine" (莫離), starring Bai Lu, has logged 316 million views, while Chen Duling's "Ashes to Crown" (翹楚) stands at 322 million, with both posting steady per-episode numbers. Because the two dramas premiered late in the half and are still updating, their totals were not counted toward the first-half rankings — and both are expected to keep climbing as new episodes go online.

​Original Article in Chinese​