During the 2026 Spring Festival, how did users engage with iQiyi to capture joy? As families gathered for reunion, iQiyi's quality content remained ever-present. Data from iQiyi's research center indicates that over the first seven days of the holiday period, total viewing time across all platforms continued to rise, with average daily viewing time on large screens increasing by 13% compared to pre-holiday levels. The family-friendly series "When Time Had Feelings" achieved a peak popularity score exceeding 8000 after its release, entering the "Masterpiece Hall," while "How Inappropriate" topped the series channel in both average daily viewing time and popularity during the holiday. iQiyi's original variety shows brought laughter to the new year, with "Universe Blink, Please Notice" and "Tonight's Comedy Friends Show" driving a 256% surge in average daily viewing time for the variety channel compared to pre-holiday figures. The theatrical release of new films sparked a wave of online catch-up viewing for previous installments, leading to a 44% increase in average daily viewing time for iQiyi's movie channel. Compared to previous years, audiences during the Year of the Horse were not just passive viewers but immersed themselves in the "IP universe" created by iQiyi, engaging in chats with AI characters, visiting the offline iQiyi theme park, and purchasing IP merchandise. Data shows that during the holiday, user interactions in iQiyi's Tao Dou World, where AI technology enables interaction with virtual characters, exceeded 3 million, with visitor numbers up 8% year-over-year. Since its official opening on February 8, the Yangzhou iQiyi乐园, featuring immersive entertainment projects like "Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty," "Lotus Tower," and "The Knockout," saw a significant increase in visitor traffic and total revenue during the holiday, with limited-edition merchandise from IPs like "Let's Farm," "Lotus Tower," and "A Dream in a Volume" gaining widespread popularity. Quality content became interactive, participatory, and experiential; during the Year of the Horse, film and TV IPs came to life on iQiyi.

Classic IPs prompted repeated viewing, while comedy variety shows delivered strong humorous impact. From new year series and timeless classics to blockbuster IPs, everyone found their favorites on iQiyi. Period dramas remained popular during the holiday. "When Time Had Feelings," focusing on societal changes, maintained a top-three popularity ranking on iQiyi after its release on the fourth day of the new year. Quality series like "Peaceful Years" and "Tree of Life" ranked in the top five for both popularity and viewing time in the series channel. The Four Great Classical Novels, childhood classics for many, accompanied multiple generations through another lively holiday. Average daily viewing time for "Journey to the West" surged into the top seven of the series channel, up 36% from pre-holiday, while "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" saw a 12% increase. Highly-rated series in iQiyi's "Hall of Honor" were revisited repeatedly during the holiday, with "The Knockout," "I Am a Detective," and "Lotus Tower" all showing collective growth in average daily playback time compared to pre-holiday levels. Series development of popular IPs yielded impressive results this Spring Festival. "How Inappropriate" demonstrated significant cross-media synergy, emerging as a dark horse. The series topped the charts in both average daily viewing time and popularity, with a peak score over 9000 entering the "Popularity Hall," and drove a 249% year-over-year increase in average daily viewing time for its同名 anime during the holiday. The同名 short drama also ranked first in playback time on the short drama channel. Both "How Inappropriate" and its Thai-dubbed version entered the top ten most-watched TV series on iQiyi's international platform during the holiday. From long series to anime and short dramas, "How Inappropriate" showcased the vitality of a good story, keeping users engaged within the "parallel universe" of a single IP.

Joy and laughter are perennial themes of the Spring Festival. iQiyi data revealed that half of the top ten variety shows by average daily viewing time were Spring Festival Galas, with the "2026 CCTV Spring Festival Gala" ranking first, followed by galas from Beijing, Jilin, Tianjin, and Henan in the top ten. Overseas Chinese showed heightened enthusiasm for watching the galas, with cumulative live views of the 2026 Spring Festival Gala on iQiyi's international platform growing 177% year-over-year. iQiyi's original comedy variety show "Tonight's Comedy Friends Show" entered the variety channel's top two in popularity within two days of its holiday release. "Universe Blink, Please Notice," released before the holiday, claimed the second spot in average daily viewing time on the variety channel during the holiday, with peak popularity ranking first, becoming a popular choice for holiday entertainment.

The "online Spring Festival lineup" featured a continuous stream of excellent films, offering diverse content for users. Average daily viewing time on iQiyi's movie channel increased 44% compared to pre-holiday. The success of the theatrical Spring Festival releases boosted online viewership of earlier films. The box office champion "Pegasus 3" drove significant interest in its predecessors on iQiyi. During the holiday, average daily viewing time for "Pegasus 2" surged 371%, while "Pegasus 1" saw a 591% increase, with its popularity ranking climbing 40 places to break into the movie channel's top ten. The release of Zhang Yimou's national security-themed film "Silent Awakening" spurred a 45% increase in average daily viewing time for the similarly themed series "The Silence of Glory." The popularity of the national animated film series "Nezha" reignited, with average daily viewing time on iQiyi rising over 30% during the holiday, and "Nezha: The Devil's Chaos in the Sea" entering the top ten in popularity on iQiyi's movie channel. Alongside catch-up viewing for theatrical releases, iQiyi's movie channel debuted new films for the holiday, including "Eastern Police Story 3," "Make It Carefully When Free," "You Can! You Go!," "Playing House," and "Northeast Love Song: A Fire in Winter," all entering the top ten for average daily viewing time. The strong performance of "Chasing Shadows" continued into the holiday, with average daily viewing time increasing 136% compared to pre-holiday. Average daily viewing time on iQiyi's short drama channel grew 18% year-over-year. The new holiday release "My One and Only Limited" immediately entered the top ten for viewing time on the short drama channel. When AI helps "draw" a mecha world, who can resist taking a look? iQiyi's self-produced AI comic-drama "Mechanical Apocalypse, My Mecha Is a Bit Strong" ranked sixth in viewing time on the comic-drama channel during the holiday. iQiyi's original anime maintained strong popularity. "Fighter of the Destiny," "How Inappropriate," "How Inappropriate Season 2," and "The Great Ruler Annual Edition" claimed four of the top seven spots in popularity on iQiyi's anime channel during the holiday. Among them, "Fighter of the Destiny" saw a 26% increase in average daily viewing time, while "The Great Ruler Annual Edition" grew over sixfold year-over-year. iQiyi's self-produced animation "Little Panda Super Detective vs. Kapibabara," along with top IPs like "PAW Patrol Season 11" and "Peppa Pig Mini Series Season 3," continued to captivate young audiences.

"Dream linkages" between on-screen and off-screen experiences extended the boundaries of quality content through technology. During the Year of the Horse, interacting with AI character "buddies" became a new form of emotional companionship. Beyond watching series, young users engaged in chats with characters like Zhang Xiaoman from "When Time Had Feelings" or drew New Year's fortunes offered by Yu Wanyin from "How Inappropriate" in the Tao Dou World. During the holiday, interactions in iQiyi's Tao Dou World exceeded 3 million, with the New Year-limited feature "Little Lucky Draw" seeing a 5% increase in interactions compared to pre-holiday. Watching while chatting remained a popular viewing method, with total bullet chat interactions on iQiyi reaching approximately 140 million during the holiday. The excitement extended beyond the screen. Since its grand opening on February 8 in Yangzhou, Jiangsu, iQiyi's first global offline theme park welcomed its first peak in visitor numbers during the holiday, with user ratings on major platforms like Ctrip, Meituan, and Dianping exceeding 4.8. Merchandise such as the "Ten Hardworking Heavens" luggage tags, "Lotus Tower" acrylic refrigerator magnets, "A Dream in a Volume" collectible cards, and "Lotus Tower" blind box dolls ranked among the top five best-selling items since the park's opening. Watching "Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty" online while visiting its themed area in the iQiyi乐园 offline became a new holiday trend. The influence of the "Tang Guai" IP remained strong during the holiday, with both "Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty: Chang'an" and "Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty: Journey West" maintaining positions in the top 15 for series popularity, while short dramas "Tang Guai Legends: Nine-Story Tower" and "Tang Guai Legends: Magistrate of Chang'an County" ranked second and seventh in playback time on the short drama channel. Many users expressed on social media that they revisited the full-sensory theater experience for "Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty" at the Yangzhou iQiyi乐园 multiple times, describing it as incredibly thrilling.

The 2026 Spring Festival, symbolizing the galloping Horse, illustrated through iQiyi's entertainment data a new landscape in national cultural consumption: content is not just for watching but also for playing, chatting about, and taking home. As technology fuels imagination, the boundaries of quality content are expanding limitlessly.