©Kocca
South Korea’s Webtoon industry showed signs of a clear slowdown in the first half of 2025, with fewer titles released and several smaller platforms left the market. The result is deeper content and revenue among top platforms.
According to the report “H1 2025 Comics and Online Release Statistics”, the report was released on August 17 Korean creative content agency (KOCCA), which registered 8,123 Webtoons in the first half of the year, down 17.9% from 9,889 in the same period in 2024. The decline in the new version dropped even more sharply: 5,543 titles started, down 26.4% and down 26.4%, while the unique new series (excluding intersections) dropped 15.5% to 15.5% to 2,332222222222.5%.
Industry analysts point to structural pressures such as deteriorating profitability, rising production costs and genre concentration. The revenue sharing model between the platform and creators, coupled with a slowdown in advertising and subscription growth, squeezes studio profits. Meanwhile, labor, outsourcing and marketing costs continue to climb across the entire production chain.
Platform restructuring has also accelerated. As of mid-2025, the agency tracked 34 platforms, although some of them have been closed or announced plans for closure. peanut Finish Services on February 28, and Spoon Comics on March 31. comics Will be closure On October 31, Buffton was put To close on December 17. 10 other platforms (including Daum Sports Comics, Assistant, Talk Soda and Postypes) reported zero new uploads in the first half of the year.
In the active platform, the Naver series leads by 1,175 titles, followed by Lezi Comics (1,159) and Nate Toon & Book (665). As for the new title comparison cocoa Webtoon (97.2%), Naver Webtoon (93.4%) and Joara (91.2%) ranked the highest.
Despite the overall economic downturn, the growth of some platforms is still growing. WatchA nearly doubled its registered title (up 118.7%) and expanded the new version by 72.4%. Mr. KTOON and Mr. BLUE also reported double-digit growth. Analysts attribute it to niche markets, adult content and in-house production. In fact, adult-rated works (18+) accounted for 63.4% of all online pianos registered in the first half of the year, accounting for 59.5% of newly released.
Outside Webtoons, the wider comics field remains chaotic. The release of printed comic books rose slightly to 2,256 volumes (up 2.2%), but digital comics fell 4.5% to 4,357 volumes. The total number fell 2.3% year-on-year to 6,613 volumes.
The report concluded that the industry has entered the structural adjustment phase:
Statistics for 2025 show that the comics industry is continuing to grow negatively after 2024. The industry has clearly entered a period of restructuring and multiple strategies need to be adopted to overcome this slowdown.
source: Koca
