Korean Webtoons: What They Are, What's Popular Now, and How to Read

A Korean webtoon (웹툰) is a full-colour comic drawn as one long vertical strip, released episode by episode on a phone app. There are no pages to turn. You scroll down. Korea invented the format in the early 2000s, and it is now a ₩2.29 trillion industry at home (2024, Korea's official industry survey). Naver's webtoon company alone has about 157 million monthly readers worldwide.

This guide covers what makes a webtoon different from manhwa and manga, the numbers Korean sources publish, which titles Koreans are reading this week, what an episode actually costs in won, and which webtoons became 2026's K-dramas.

Solo Leveling Vol. 1: the most famous Korean webtoon, as a printed bookAffiliate link. As an Amazon Associate, EpicKor earns from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.

Quick Guide: Korean Webtoons in October 2026

Webtoon vs Manhwa vs Manga: The Real Difference

These three words get mixed up all the time. Here is what each one means.

In one line: manhwa says where a comic is from, and webtoon says how it is built. People confuse the two because almost every new Korean comic is now published as a webtoon. So in daily use, "manhwa" and "webtoon" usually mean the same thing.

That also answers the reading-direction question. Manga reads right to left because Japanese books do. A webtoon has no left or right at all. There is no page to turn, so the only direction is down.

The vertical format also changes how stories are told. A long empty gap between panels works as a pause. A reveal can sit just below the edge of the screen. A fight can fall down the strip like a moving camera. Your thumb controls the pacing. That is why a webtoon printed as a book feels different. The printed editions split the scroll into pages, which is worth seeing once if you love a series.

How Korea Built the Webtoon

Korea had printed manhwa for decades, sold in magazines and lent out by neighbourhood comic-book shops (만화방). The internet changed how comics reached readers.

In the early 2000s, Korea's two big web portals started publishing comics on their own sites. Daum launched its comics section in 2003 and Naver launched Naver Webtoon in 2004. Both showed each episode as one long vertical image, not scanned pages, because that is how a web page scrolls. When smartphones arrived around 2010, the format already fit the screen.

Then came the business model that made webtoons a habit:

• Fixed weekdays. Every series updates on a set day, so readers check the Monday list on Monday. The Korean Naver app is organised by weekday tabs (월 화 수 목 금 토 일).
• Free to read, paid to read ahead. The newest few episodes are already finished. Readers pay a small amount per episode to see them early. Everyone else waits and reads them free.
• Wait-for-free. Kakao's 기다리면 무료 unlocks one paid episode for free every set number of hours. That turned binge-reading old series into a daily routine.
• Comments under every episode. Readers react together, and platforms can see which stories keep people coming back.

That last point is why TV studios love webtoons. A webtoon with a large audience has already proven its characters and plot before anyone films a scene.

Platforms work like infrastructure in Korea; our guide to Naver Map and Kakao T shows how a few home-grown apps run daily life. Webtoons followed the same path. The app is where readers follow their series week after week.

The Numbers: How Big Korean Webtoons Are in 2026

Most English articles still use old figures. These are the latest published numbers, mostly from Korean sources.

What the numbers show:

• Growth has slowed. The industry grew 19.7% in 2023 but only 4.4% in 2024. KOCCA notes that 2024 is the first year measured as a national statistic, so the two years are not perfectly comparable. Korea's own market is maturing, and new money now comes from exports, merchandise and TV adaptations.
• Japan buys half of the exports. Webtoons are now a big part of how Japanese readers read comics on their phones.
• Korea pays. Almost half of WEBTOON's paying users worldwide (3.8 of 7.5 million) are in Korea, a country of about 51 million people. Korean readers are used to paying ₩200–300 to read the next episode early.
• Piracy is the biggest leak. The 2025 survey asked webtoon companies what the industry needs most. Tougher action against piracy sites came second, at 35.4%, behind investment support at 42.2%. When you read on an official app, the creator gets paid.

The 2025 survey is also the first to count as an official government-approved national statistic (국가승인통계 No. 467002). That makes it the most reliable size figure available.

What Koreans Are Reading This Week

The quickest way to see what Korea is reading is the Korean Naver app's weekday chart. Here is the No. 1 title on each weekday, sorted by popularity (인기순), as of 8 October 2026:

Older hits are also still in the top three: 외모지상주의 (Lookism) on Fridays and 참교육 (Get Schooled) on Mondays. Both have been running for years and both are known in English.

Notice how much martial arts (무협 / murim), romance and "second chance" stories (회귀, a hero going back in time) dominate. Wednesday's 화산귀환 is in its third season. WEBTOON Entertainment's August 2026 results named it as one reason Korean revenue grew. If you want what Korea is reading right now rather than what is famous in English, start with murim.

How to Read Korean Webtoons in English, and What It Costs

You can read most of the famous titles legally and mostly free. The apps differ in what they charge and what they call the currency:

Three practical points:

1. The phone app costs more than the website. On 23 May 2022 Naver raised the Android app's cookie price from ₩100 to ₩120, after Google raised its in-app billing fee, but kept ₩100 for web purchases. The iPhone app also charges ₩120. If you are in Korea with a Naver account, buy cookies on the website.
2. WEBTOON ended Daily Pass on 29 May 2025. Many English guides still tell you to "wait for the Daily Pass." It is gone. Those episodes now cost coins, or you unlock some by watching ads.
3. The Korean app is ahead of the English one. Popular series often run several episodes ahead in Korean. The Korean app is in Korean only, and buying cookies needs a Naver account.

For a full comparison of the apps, see our guide to where to read Korean webtoons. It explains why WEBTOON and Naver Webtoon are the same company and where Kakao's catalogue appears in English.

Webtoons That Became K-Dramas

A large share of Korean hit series started as webtoons. Here are the best-known adaptations, including the 2026 releases:

The three 2026 shows all became big hits. Agent Kim Reactivated (김부장) passed 20% nationwide ratings on SBS by its fourth episode. It was also No. 1 in Netflix's global non-English TV chart for three weeks in a row. Teach You a Lesson topped Netflix's weekly non-English TV chart for four weeks. The Legend of Kitchen Soldier is the show WEBTOON Entertainment named when it reported 16% revenue growth in Korea. Webtoon-based dramas now bring readers back to the webtoon apps.

Many fans now find a webtoon through its drama, or a drama through its webtoon. If you want to start with the screen versions, our K-drama guide is a good place to begin.

Why Korean Webtoons Travel So Well

Webtoons are very Korean in what they show and very easy to read in how they are made. That combination is rare.

The stories are full of Korean life: school hierarchies, cram schools, military service, office dinners, apartment life, delivery food, beauty pressure and family expectations. But anyone with a phone already knows how to read one. You don't need to know Korean publishing history to scroll down, or understand every cultural detail to feel a cliffhanger.

So readers come for romance, horror, martial arts or revenge. Along the way, they pick up honorifics, Korean food and Seoul neighbourhoods. It is the same path many K-drama fans take.

The flow now goes both ways too. In 2025 Disney partnered with Naver to bring Marvel, Star Wars and other Disney stories to WEBTOON's English app as vertical-scroll comics. Korea's format is now used for American stories too.

Before you go all in: webtoons are not all good. Many long series have strong first seasons and weak endings. Murim and second-chance titles can feel very similar. Creators have also complained about low pay and heavy weekly workloads. KOCCA's survey put the average creator's yearly income at ₩42.68 million in 2023, down from ₩64.76 million the year before. KOCCA says part of the drop is because more creators (25.9%) now work on salaried contracts. Read the first ten free episodes before you spend anything. If a series has not hooked you by then, it probably won't.

FAQ About Korean Webtoons

Q: What is a Korean webtoon?

A Korean webtoon is a digital comic made as one long vertical strip per episode, built for scrolling on a phone. Most are in full colour, update weekly on a set weekday, and are free to read, with a small charge if you want to read ahead.

Q: Is a webtoon the same as manhwa?

Not exactly. Manhwa (만화) means Korean comics, including printed ones. Webtoon (웹툰) means the vertical-scroll digital format. Almost all new Korean comics are published as webtoons, so most modern manhwa are webtoons. But older printed manhwa are not.

Q: What is the most popular Korean webtoon right now?

It depends on the day, because Naver ranks by weekday. On 8 October 2026 the No. 1 titles included 화산귀환 (Return of the Blossoming Blade) on Wednesdays and 광마회귀 (Return of the Mad Demon) on Fridays. The best-known title in English is still Solo Leveling, which has finished.

Q: How much does a Korean webtoon episode cost?

Weekly episodes are free. To read ahead on the Korean Naver app, you pay with cookies: 10 cookies cost ₩1,200 in the iPhone app, or ₩100 each on the website. On the English WEBTOON app, 10 coins cost $0.99, and former Daily Pass episodes cost 3 coins each.

Q: Are Naver Webtoon and WEBTOON the same?

Yes, they are the same company. NAVER WEBTOON is the Korean app and WEBTOON is the English app, both run by WEBTOON Entertainment, which is listed on Nasdaq. Our webtoon app guide explains the full map.

Q: Which K-dramas are based on webtoons?

Many of them. Recent ones include Teach You a Lesson (Netflix, June 2026), Agent Kim Reactivated (SBS/Netflix, June 2026) and The Legend of Kitchen Soldier (tvN, May 2026). Earlier hits include Sweet Home, All of Us Are Dead, Moving, Itaewon Class, True Beauty and Business Proposal.

The Thumb Became a Global Export

The rise of Korean webtoons is the rise of a new way of reading. You move your thumb down the screen. A panel appears. A character looks up. The comment section reacts. A studio notices. A streaming service calls.

Korea didn't invent comics, serial stories or fandom. But it showed that comics could be rebuilt for the phone and still make you care what happens next. And now the next panel is always just below your thumb.

Sources Checked

• Korea Times, Teach You a Lesson tops Netflix's weekly non-English chart for a 4th week, 1 July 2026
• KOCCA / Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, 2025 웹툰산업 실태조사, press release 29 Dec 2025 (newswire.co.kr no. 1026263): 2024 revenue ₩2.2856 trillion, +4.4%, export shares, priorities.
• KOCCA, 2024 웹툰산업 실태조사 (Daum/Yonhap coverage): 2023 revenue ₩2.189 trillion, pirated market ₩446.5 billion, creator income.
• WEBTOON Entertainment Q2 2026 results, 10 Aug 2026, as reported by Anime News Network (31 Aug 2026): MAU, paying users, Korea revenue.
• NAVER WEBTOON weekday rankings (인기순), comic.naver.com, checked 8 Oct 2026.
• Apple App Store (Korea) in-app purchase listings for 네이버 웹툰 and 카카오페이지; App Store (US) listing for WEBTOON, checked Oct 2026.
• Webtoon Guide (webtoonguide.com) on Naver's May 2022 cookie price change; Anime News Network on the end of WEBTOON Daily Pass (June 2025).
• Tenasia (5 June 2026) and the English Wikipedia entry Teach You a Lesson on 참교육; Moviography via Daum (18 Sep 2026) and Segye Ilbo (July 2026) on 김부장 ratings and Netflix chart; Digital Daily (24 May 2026) and MTN (29 May 2026) on 취사병 전설이 되다; What's on Netflix on 2026 Netflix release dates.