13 Fireflies

Still too early to tell but feeling a little wonky at present. The heat index is trending lower than "Are You The One" and it debuted really low on Yunhe (first day only, so again, gotta wait some more). Word of mouth seems a bit mixed?? But if it solidifies in a good direction it could be one of those dramas that start low and go high. Gotta wait a couple more days to get a clearer picture.

Douban is not as easily manipulated as other platforms such as this one and the ratings on that platform absolutely do matter in C-Ent. It's one of the main industry benchmarks. That being said, this score is pretty mediocre.

Yeah, a drama can open with a low number of ratings, but if the overall broadcast is a flop it will not have a long tail so the number of ratings will not increase significantly. Are you new to cdramas? It isn't a matter of opinion, it's a matter of data and that isn't some subjective view, it's an objective fact, just as 1+1 =2. But let's leave it at that for everyone's sake.

Dashing Youth is also considered a flop in China, by the way so that's not a good example. As Beautiful As You is a modern (tv) drama, which is analyzed differently, so I am reluctant to compare that drama to this one. The Double was a smashing success, so the number of ratings currently reflects that (over 100k).

Look, I genuinely don't wanna get into some fight about this because it could go on forever...but the number of ratings matters, not just the actual score. 12k is pretty low considering the drama basically already had the superpoint ( chaodian aka fast track). I'm beyond happy for people who enjoyed this drama, this isn't really about that and for what it's worth, it's not going to affect the leads' resources in the least but I oftentimes see a lot of misconceptions from international fans regarding Douban and the right way to frame results on that platform.

I just replied to duber above. It remains to see if the drama can keep rising, and do it faster. The current trend is about the same as iQiyi's "Follow Your Heart" which ended up with 15 million average playback views.

Not really, 26,000 isn't such a huge number, though at least the drama hasn't deathcrossed yet (today's heat dropping lower than yesterday's). A lot of this stuff depends on the budget and expectations for a drama. This is a summer S+ costume drama based on a relatively popular IP that avoided the Olympics, so most people believe Tencent had high expectations for it even though neither actor is traffic.

I really really don't wanna sound like I'm bashing Are You The One, but 26k is about 8k on iQiyi or Youku, which is only moderately high, and it took almost a week to get there. In relation to Maoyan and Datawin, again -- these indexes aren't the best way to measure a drama's success, they're peripheral stats. The reason the platform's own index matters more is just because it correlates to actual views which then get tracked on Yunhe. This drama might end up hitting 30k on the heat index, i don't know, but the current trend is sluggish. How fast a drama is able to rise in heat and views also matters to predict the final outcome.

It's tough explaining charts tbh, but generally speaking, you gotta understand what each chart is measuring exactly. The most important method used to track a drama's "success" is by using the platform's own heat index + tracking the Yunhe and Kuyun daily effective playback views. Yunhe is more reputable than Kuyun, but both are analyzed together. Charts like Datawin matter, to figure out how "popular" a drama is..how much buzz it has (attention from the audience) and that does matter...but taken into context. A drama's buzz could be negative or positive, for example, an actor can start trending because his acting is being criticized. "Popularity" charts are also influenced by the level of marketing and hot searches being bought.

6.5 isn't as low as a lot of people expected or predicted but it's only rated by 12k people, so it's not going to have a high reference value for the industry. People are mostly focusing on it having only 6 million average views per episode, which means it might not even reach 10 million by the time the hot broadcasting period is over --- truly terrible, especially for a summer slot xianxia drama, even lower than Fox Spirit. Even with the lack of marketing, the industry expects the baseline for costume dramas to be higher than this, considering Jing Tian is an 85 flower with a good acting reputation and the male lead just broadcasted a drama that boosted his popularity. Not here to assign any blame by the way, just talking numbers.

This drama is far from being a success in China though? In fact it's being discussed precisely because the data isn't very good. It's still increasing in viewers but far too slowly so the trend is a bit worrying.

It's hard even replying to you because your English level means your comments come across as nonsense, but everything you just posted tells me you indeed know nothing about Chinese social media and entertainment. You're clearly not on Weibo, and have never been a part of Chinese fan circles.

If you actually knew the industry, you wouldn't even think of debating me on the issue of Wang Hedi's bankability. And again, I'm not even a fan of his, it's just a fact. A year ago producers in China were interviewed by a major media outlet and they all agreed that in regards to the 95 generation, only Wu Lei and Wang Hedi are top echelon (this is leaving aside all the film actors, like Liu Haoran, Wang Yibo, Yu Shi, or Guo Qilin, because those are always more reputable). But for traffic, and specifically idol dramas (which is a lower level than film) a top actor is someone who is able to get first or second billing in an S+ tier production and then deliver a hit drama (45 million + Yunhe V30 at least) with a score well above 7.0 on Douban and a long tail.

I have no idea what your beef with Wang Hedi is, but apparently most ZLH fans seem to hate the dude, so of course you're going to go off and rant absolute nonsense. For people who actually know the industry it's hilarious to read. Like for example you claiming to teach me (an actual data analyst and fan circle administrator) while using a list produced by some random youtube channel about critically acclaimed chinese actors. Do you honestly believe I'm comparing Wang Hedi to someone like Hu Ge? Are you out of your mind? I'm talking about top 95 generation traffic and bankability. I'm speaking of a specific subset, to which ZLH also belongs because that's usually how actors are evaluated in China, according to their generation. I don't even know why I'm wasting my time with someone so obviously ignorant. Joke's on me.

I'm not trying to defend OP but, look, a lot of people criticize ZLH in China precisely for this reason. In fact, it's a common grivance against him. I get that you're a fan, and you're absolutely entitled to have a good opinion of his acting and expressions but as someone who mostly hangs out on Chinese social media, it's truly bizarre to see the phrase "you're the first person saying his facial expressions is off". Sorry I just had to say something.

Define "top actor"? Give us some names so we can gauge how much you know. I'm absolutely not a fan of ZLH, (not a hater either) but it's a lie that he only receives low budget dramas. Why in the world would the production label The Princess Royal S++? He has a lot of work because he has capital behind him and they're trying to promote him hard right now and there's nothing wrong with that. Other actors have been working hard as well, it's just that overseas Zhang Linghe is better known because most of his stock has been costume dramas and they've all aired within the last 12 months.

Define "top actor"? Give us some names so we can gage how much you know. I'm absolutely not a fan of ZLH, (not a hater either) but it's a lie that he only receives low budget dramas. Why in the world would the production label The Princess Royal S++? He has a lot of work because he has capital behind him and they're trying to promote him hard right now and there's nothing wrong with that. Other actors have been working hard as well, it's just that overseas Zhang Linghe is better known because most of his stock has been costume dramas and they've all aired within the last 12 months.

That person knows nothing about Chinese Entertainment, what a lowinfo moron.

"equivalent to top dogs" what the hell are you on? Also, in what world is Zu Zhengxi (Jeremy) a "top dog"? Ren Jialun and LYX, I can kinda see it, especially Jialun, but LYX is more debatable. Wang Hedi out of work? Dude, I'm not even a fan of his, but do you know anything about C-Ent?

Wang Hedi is one of the absolute top line actors in the 95 gen category, and able to command capital along the likes of Wu Lei. He's for sure, one of the people with most popularity and sheer traffic in China. He's not shooting costume idol dramas anymore because he's moving into film and other more serious dramas. He's most definitely not out of work.

Only someone who knows absolutely nothing about the industry would say Wang Hedi is "low ends" and "out of work" or even dare say he's in some way inferior to Zhang Linghe. I get that you hate others talking smack about your fave, but don't make it worse by saying stupid crap about others.

It's not doing well in China

Saw the first eight episodes are available on the international app again?

Not to be a nag, but this drama is objectively not doing well data-wise. Now, you can chalk that up to the Olympics, and surely that's what ZLH fans are doing (fairly or not, I'm not here to pass judgement on that) + blaming the platform's glitches + accusing iQiyi of suppressing the drama, but the consensus among drama watchers is that the plot just isn't strong enough.

As someone who gave up after 8 episodes, all I'll say is, not a lot of people are even talking about this drama in China but to the extent there's discussion, some claim iQiyi just used this drama as cannon fodder, I tend to believe they genuinely assumed the audience for this drama doesn't overlap with the main audience for the Olympics, considering this drama is mainly aimed at very young females and there are no other xianxias or any other female-targeted costume dramas airing now.

Maybe that was misguided on their part, but I can see how they tried to rush this into the closing summer window before school starts, especially trying to feed off the residual heat of The Princess Royal . The problem is that window is very short, and The Princess Royal doesn't have a long tail. Investing in marketing makes zero sense because they won't get much value out of hot searches right now, but with Jing Tian's popularity and ZLH's newly acquired buzz, it technically should have been enough to carry the drama to at least 20 million V30 but idk if that's possible anymore.

Couldn't agree more with everything you said. I tried, but I had to give up after ep 8.

Same, tbh.. the bright spot for me so far is Chen Guanhong, it feels like he livens the screen as soon as he pops up.