why korean dramas more popular than chinese dramas ???

I’ve watched a lot of Korean dramas. I’ve started watching Chinese dramas more recently. I’ve probably watched about a dozen, maybe 20-25 if I count the ones I'm currently watching or have dropped. I can't say for sure why Korean dramas are more popular, but I'll list some possible reasons.

1. I think Korean dramas have been popular for a while, but it seems to me Chinese dramas are becoming more popular only recently. These days it’s impossible not to see tons of Chinese shows on a site like Viki. Five years ago, I can’t really remember seeing any non-Korean shows there. People have to be aware of something to try it and like it (I think I first noticed Chinese dramas around 2016-2017). Access is definitely one of the reasons Japanese dramas aren't very popular. I think it's easy to find Chinese dramas now, but in the past I think more Korean dramas might have been available (I can't be sure though, since I never actually looked for Chinese dramas in the past).

2. Hallyu. The domestic market is very small, so Korea has put a lot of effort into marketing their content overseas (it’s also a soft power strategy promoted by the government). I don’t think China has done this. Moreover, kpop and kdramas feed into each other. A lot of people get into dramas because an idol they like is also an actor. Cpop isn’t nearly as popular internationally as kpop.

3. Dubbing. It’s never bothered me that much, but I think a lot of people find it hard to get used to. Even if you don’t mind it, it cheapens the show.

4. The bad special effects in xianxia dramas. While there are Korean dramas with terrible special effects (e.g.  Faith and The Legend), they are mostly old historical dramas that aren't very popular anyway. Very few of the “best” Korean dramas rely on special effects, and the special effects in newer dramas are getting better. Many more of China’s “best” dramas rely on special effects that look very fake to anyone accustomed to Hollywood production, and that could make it hard to get into the drama.

5. Korean actors are better. To be fair, I’m judging based on a relatively small sample size of Chinese dramas, but (with the exception of The Rise of the Phoenixes, which had some great performances) the acting in the Chinese shows I’ve seen has been very mediocre, sometimes bad. Of course there are some mediocre Korean actors, but it’s pretty rare to find a drama where the entire cast is lackluster (e.g. Bride of Habaek). Even idol dramas sometimes aren’t too dismal when it comes to acting (e.g. Hwarang, the idols did better than I would have expected, and while overall the acting was mediocre, we at least got a stand out performance from Park Hyung Sik). The best Korean dramas have casts full of great actors (e.g. Mr. Sunshine). 

6. Korean rom coms are, on average, a bit better. Again this is based on a relatively small sample size. Chinese rom coms are pretty similar to Korean ones, but I've heard people complain (and I agree) they're often too long and spend too much time on uninteresting secondary relationships (I sometimes have these complaints about Korean ones as well, but not as often). The biggest difference, however, is probably that Korean rom coms are often actually funny. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed watching a Chinese rom com. Moreover, considering rom coms often sink or float on the charm and chemistry of their leads, having better actors definitely helps as well (see 5).

7. Getting into Chinese historical dramas can be a bit difficult. This is what I’m struggling with now. I’d really like to watch more Chinese historical dramas, because I loved The Rise of the Phoenixes. However, every other Chinese historical drama I’ve watched has been pretty bad (mediocre at best) and nowhere near the quality of The Rise of the Phoenixes. It also can be hard to tell what I’m going to get before starting the show. Like I might think it’s a serious drama, but then it turns out to be a rom com in period costume. I'm sure there are other historical dramas that I'd like, but finding the right one doesn't seem so easy. Somehow, I never really had trouble getting into sageuks. 

8. Getting into xianxia and wuxia might not be easy either. As I mentioned previously, the special effects can be a turn off (see 4). However, there is also the additional issue that most Western viewers don’t have any familiarity with Taoism or concepts like qi or cultivation. While I’ve never found these dramas very confusing, they probably can be confusing to some people.

9. The production value of Korean dramas is really high. This wasn’t the case ten years ago, but these days pretty much any kdrama you watch is going to have good/great cinematography, locations, costumes, etc. Some kdramas are absolutely gorgeous. While some Chinese shows (e.g. The Rise of the Phoenixes) have top notch production, on average I think Chinese shows seem cheaper.

10. Korean OSTs are better. Actually, this is not my opinion. I’ve liked the OSTs of a couple Chinese shows I’ve watched a lot. However, this is what someone else (who actually prefers Chinese dramas) said to me, so I guess there are some people who feel this way.

Koreans are much warmer and place a greater value on that. It appeals to people’s hearts. The ocean is stronger than the city. Just to make you extra sick. kuku

Yeah~I totally agree with what everyone is saying. I think Korea has really put forth an effort to promote kdramas overseas and they were easier to access for the past decade or so. Within the past few years, I've seen Chinese media put more effort into uploading shows onto western sites like Netflix, Viki, and even Youtube now. 

It can be challenging to finish a Chinese drama, especially a historical one that last more than 20+ episodes. It has to be done really well.

I've also noticed that a lot of Chinese shows that are available online might not be the best because their airing networks tends to be online-based, like Tencent video, iQIYI, etc. Shows on these networks seem to be just okay, with average actors and production. Dramas that air on major Chinese networks like Hunan TV, Dragon Television, Phoenix, etc. seem to have better actors and better film productions. 

I'm down to watch both kdrama and cdramas though. However, Kdramas seem to retain my interest more than cdramas at the moment. 

I think it has to do with the current globalisation of Korean culture too. Recently, kpop has been on the rise worldwide, which in turn makes people to be more interested in Korean culture. Also many kpop stans start watching dramas because of kpop idols in the first place and they usually start by watching Korean ones. In short, I think that it's due to the recent expansion of kpop across the world.

I think a major reason is just subs. Up until maybe 2-3 years ago, it was very hard for people to get subtitles for Chinese dramas. Just not enough dramas were getting subbed or it was a very long wait between episodes being subbed. This was especially the case with historical/costume dramas, where the vocabulary and references made it even harder for subversive. And there are still a lot of interesting new c-dramas being released without anyone subbing them.

There are a few Chinese dramas that I have enjoyed, but I prefer Korean.  These are my reasons - 1) dubbing (I wouldn't mind it so much if the voices weren't so irritating and the sound effects of people walking, eating weren't so loud); 2) Chinese dramas tend to have so much filler to make more episodes.  I find a lot of wasted stuff (maybe that's just an attention problem on my part); 3) I find the acting in the Korean dramas better, for the most part.

xinya has good points.

The hallyu was created to push korean content and culture to the world stage. China hasn't done anything similar.
And market in korea is much smaller, so they have to make the content attractive for global audiences.  That way they make up for production costs.

China's market is so big, 1400 million people vs 50 million in korea, so they are focusing only on their own home market with their chinese content and don't bother with adapting their content to be attractive to much smaller global market of potential interested audience. The global market for chinese content OUTSIDE of China is perhaps a fraction of domestic chinese market. So it doesn't make sense for chinese content maker to cater to global audiences only to potentially make their content not as attractive for the much larger domestic market.

Also, the chinese language is (my personal opinion) rather difficult language to listen to. So I think for global audience, outside of china, they are not keen on watching chinese content because of the language.
But for korean language, it's a more defined so you can grasp the structure a little better even though you don't understand. Also there are certain korean words that are cliche famous and fun, oppa, saranghae, etc. I haven't heard similar cultural words being used in chinese content.

But for global audience, there's another point. The political system in China, and the censorship of content and self-censorship of content. When watching especially contemporary content I am keenly aware of this. This fact may not be motivating for people outside of China, especially in democratic countries, to watch chinese content.
Korean content doesn't have this kinda censorship/self-censorship, so the creative freedoms are much better in korea, and korea is democratic.

Not that this _should_ be a factor, but for me personally I did consider this. But I do watch a lot of chinese content now, but mostly historical. And that's also a point, that creative freedoms for historical content, xianxia etc, are much greater than for content with a contemporary setting.