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8,123 webtoons were registered in 1st half of 2025, down 17.9%

In the initial half of 2025, South Korea's webtoon market experienced a decline. There were fewer new releases and some smaller companies left the market, leading to more content and revenue being concentrated among top platforms.

Based on the "H1 2025 Comics and Webtoon Distribution Statistics" report published on August 17 by the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA), there was a decrease of 17.9% in webtoons registered in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024. New releases also experienced a significant drop of 26.4%, while unique new series (excluding cross-posting) declined by 15.5%.

According to industry experts, there are several factors contributing to declining profits in the entertainment industry. These include increasing production costs, intense competition within genres, and reduced revenue-sharing agreements with platforms and creators. Additionally, slowing growth in advertising and subscriptions has put pressure on studios' profits. As production costs rise across the board, marketing and labor expenses also continue to increase.

The number of platforms available for tracking by the agency has increased due to platform restructuring. By mid-2025, there were 34 platforms being tracked, though several have already shut down or announced plans to do so. Peanutoon stopped service on February 28th, while Spoon Comics ended on March 31st. Comico will shut down on October 31st, and BuffToon is set to close on December 17th. Additionally, ten other platforms reported zero new uploads in the first half of the year, including Daum Sports Cartoons, DiaToon, Talk Soda, and Postype.

According to recent data, Naver Series has the most active titles among all platforms, with 1,175 titles. Lezhin Comics comes in second place with 1,159 titles. Nate Toon & Book has the third-most active titles, with 665 titles. In terms of new title ratios, kakao Webtoon has the highest percentage of new titles, followed by Naver Webtoon and Joara.

Although there was generally a decline in the industry, certain platforms experienced growth. Specifically, Watcha experienced a significant increase in registered titles (an increase of 118.7%) and new releases (an increase of 72.4%). Ktoon and Mr. Blue also experienced double-digit growth. Experts believe that this was due to a greater focus on niche markets, adult content, and in-house production. In fact, adult-rated works (18+) accounted for 63.4% of all webtoons registered in the first half of the year, and 59.5% of new launches.

Despite the growth in online comics, the overall comics industry saw only modest gains in print comic books, with a slight increase of 2.2% to 2,256 volumes. Meanwhile, digital comics experienced a decline of 4.5% to 4,357 volumes. As a result, the total number of comics released fell by 2.3% year-over-year to 6,613 volumes.

The report concluded that the industry has entered a structural adjustment phase:

The 2025 statistics show that the comics sector is continuing negative growth following 2024. The industry has clearly entered a period of restructuring, and diverse strategies will be needed to overcome this slowdown.

Source: KOCCA ( link )