China’s drone shows in 2026 are nothing like we’ve seen before

Without being me the viral Uruguayan lady from TikTok who thought they were something paranormal, it must be admitted that some drone shows leave people speechless. Spoiler: the one in Barcelona, ​​with all due respect, was not that big of a deal. Especially if we compare it to what China is doing.

From a technical point of view, drones evolve the compositions of classic fireworks, but the Asian giant stands out for its handling of this device in every sense: on a military level, making it shoot with surgical precision from 100 meters away or 200 units are carried out by a single soldieror in the playful. And as an example, some of their shows from recent months that show that China plays in another league.

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China’s big coup in authority over drone shows came with the 75th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China: to date, the records for the number of units controlled by a single team (do not confuse with that of Ras Al Khaimahthat of the largest aerial image of a phoenix made by drones) there were around 5,000 drones, but for the occasion more than 10,000 units (10,179, specifically) crossed the sky, controlled by a single computer, forming figures as culturally iconic as a red dragon crossing the bay of Shenzhen.

That they are capable of emulate the dragon’s scales or how it executes a complete turn It’s amazing, but the evolution of drone shows in the country has been such that it has already become outdated… and has dropped to bronze in the Guinness Book of Records.

And as an example, what better than to see what he did at the beginning of February of this year as a rehearsal for the next Chinese New Year (the Spring Festival) in Heifei (Anhui): more than 20,000 drones tracing three-dimensional figures with such complexity and density of light that it almost seems solid. And it’s just a test, hence it doesn’t count for records.

Weeks before, the China Science and Technology Innovation Gala also took place in Heifei, where they recreated the Anhui Opera and a historical event: the arrival of the four opera companies to Beijing for Emperor Qianlong’s 80th birthday. It would be the birth of what is known today as Peking opera.

The important thing here was not so much the number of drones, but rather the artistic fusion. Nevertheless, according to the China Global Television Network10,000 drones illuminated the sky with iconic images of Chinese opera sharing performance with human and robot performers in a curious mix of tradition and innovation.

In Heifei they have taken a liking to drone exhibitions and last fall there were another more modest (by Chinese standards) of “only” 1,024 units to celebrate the upcoming science and technology exhibition, as CGTN explains. On this occasion, more than something artistic or record-breaking, its approach was purely scientific and technical, with the drones forming robotic or DNA structures. There may be few drones, but the fluidity of the transitions is notable.

To welcome 2026, the city of Chongqing hosted a show Of “only” 8,000 units on the Yangtze River they formed figures like a dragon, the essential countdown and the galloping horse (because this Chinese New Year will be the year of the horse) in a spectacle that played with air, land and water.

Also in Guangzhou They celebrated the end of the 15th National Games of China and the arrival of 2026 at the same time with the massive deployment of more than a thousand drones over the Pearl River to reproduce sports figures or the mascots of the games from the countdown of the year. The number of drones may be lower than in other events, but the quality is striking: the representation of fluidly moving silhouettes is striking.

Going back to the records, Guinness still boasts it Liuyang city, Hunan province. In fact, the company High Great he managed to beat it twice in October 2025: on the one hand, it managed to have 15,947 drones synchronized from a single computer (the largest number to date) and not only created figures, but launched “cyber fireworks” (there were real pyrotechnics loaded into the devices). How many? 7,496 units, the largest number of fires launched from drones.

Coincidentally, that city is known as the “world capital of pyrotechnics” and the milestone took place at the Liuyang Fireworks Festival, showing that drones do not come to replace fires, but to complement them. The fusion seems like magic.

Given China’s rapid pace with drones, that record has its hours numbered. Nevertheless, today the Guinness silver It is displayed at the DAMODA exhibition in July 2025 in Heyuan (Guangdong), where 11,198 drones created enormous figures over Lake Wanlvhu representing the evolution of the area in recent decades.

Behind these records are companies like High Great and Damoda and beyond getting headlines, there is a real technical challenge behind: Keeping thousands of devices in the air without colliding and with a latency of milliseconds requires extremely high GPS precision and computing power that is not available to everyone.

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Cover | High Great