VTuber
A VTuber or virtual YouTuber is an online entertainer who uses a virtual avatar generated using computer graphics. Real-time motion capture software or technology are often—but not always—used to capture movement. The digital trend originated in Japan in the mid-2010s, and has become an international online phenomenon in the 2020s. A majority of VTubers are English- and Japanese-speaking YouTubers or live streamers who use avatar designs. By 2020, there were more than 10,000 active VTubers. Although the term is an allusion to the video platform YouTube, they also use websites such as Niconico, Twitch, Facebook, Twitter, and Bilibili.
VTubers are associated with Japanese popular culture and aesthetics, such as anime and manga, and moe anthropomorphism with human or non-human traits. Some VTubers use anthropomorphic avatars, including non-human characters such as animals.
The first entertainer to use the phrase "virtual YouTuber", Kizuna AI, began creating content on YouTube in late 2016. Her popularity sparked a VTuber trend in Japan, and it spurred the establishment of specialized agencies to promote them, including major ones such as Hololive Production and Nijisanji. Fan translations and foreign-language VTubers have marked a rise in the trend's international popularity. Virtual YouTubers have appeared in domestic advertising campaigns and have broken livestream-related world records.
Overview
VTubers are online entertainers who are typically YouTubers or live streamers. They use avatars created with programs such as Live2D, portraying characters designed by online artists. VTubers are not bound by physical limitations, and many of them engage in activities that are unconstrained by their real-world identity. Some VTubers, particularly those from marginalized communities, choose to use avatars to reflect their online identity for personal comfort and safety reasons. Transgender VTubers may use their avatars as a means to better reflect their preferred presentation to their audience.VTubers often portray themselves as a kayfabe character, not unlike professional wrestling; Mace, an AEW wrestler who himself began streaming on Twitch as a VTuber in 2021, remarked that the two professions were "literally the same thing". Ironmouse described her character as being akin to a superhero costume.
Technology
A VTuber's avatar is typically animated using a webcam and software, which captures the streamer's motions, expressions, and mouth movements, and maps them to a two- or three-dimensional model. Both free and paid programs have been developed for loading models and performing motion capture, with some capable of being used without a webcam, and some also supporting virtual reality hardware, or hand tracking devices such as the Leap Motion Controller.Some programs offload motion tracking to external phone cameras via mobile apps to save system resources, and take advantage of hardware features that can enable more precise motion capture. In 2022, VTube Studio released an update allowing for AI-accelerated facial motion capture using Nvidia RTX graphics cards.
The proprietary animation software Live2D is typically used to rig two-dimensional models constructed from drawn textures, while programs such as VRoid Studio can be used to create three-dimensional models. Commissioned models can cost as high as US$2,000 depending on their level of detail. By contrast, some VTubers, colloquially known as "PNGTubers", use static sprites as opposed to a rigged model.
Agencies and commercialization
Major VTubers are often employed by talent agencies, with business models influenced by those used by Japanese idol agencies. Streamers are employed by an agency to portray characters developed by the company, which are then commercialized via merchandising and other promotional appearances, as well as traditional revenue streams such as monetization of their videos, and viewer donations. Another holdover from idol groups is the use of the term "graduation" to refer to a VTuber retiring their character and/or leaving an agency on amicable terms.In agencies, a VTuber's character and other assets are often the intellectual property of the agency; former corporate VTubers may transition to streaming independently under an alternate persona, with their past identity treated as an open secret.
History
Predecessors
On February 12, 2010, visual novel maker Nitroplus began uploading videos to its YouTube channel featuring an animated 3D version of its mascot Super Sonico, who would usually talk to the audience about herself or about releases related to the company. On June 13, 2011, UK-based Japanese vlogger Ami Yamato uploaded her first video, which featured an animated, virtual avatar speaking to the camera. In 2012, Japanese company Weathernews Inc. debuted a Vocaloid-styled character called Weatheroid Type A Airi on SOLiVE24, a 24-hour weather live stream on Nico Nico Douga, on YouTube and their website. In 2014, Airi got her own solo program every Thursday and began live broadcasting with motion capture.In 2014 the FaceRig indie software launched on Indiegogo as an EU crowdfunding project, and later that year it was released on Steam, becoming the first software suite that enabled live avatars at home via face motion capture that started being actively used on streaming websites and YouTube. The Live2D software module enabling 2D avatars and was added one year later in 2015 in collaboration with Live2D, Inc.
Breakout
In late 2016, Kizuna AI, the first VTuber to achieve breakout popularity, made her debut on YouTube. She was the first to coin and use the term "virtual YouTuber". Created by digital production company Activ8 and voice-acted by Nozomi Kasuga, Kizuna AI created a sense of "real intimacy" with fans, as she was responsive to their questions. Within ten months, she had over two million subscribers and later became a culture ambassador of the Japan National Tourism Organization. Kizuna AI's popularity can be attributed to the oversaturation of traditional webcam YouTubers and for aspects of characters that the audience would not expect. For example, despite her otherwise juvenile appearance, Kizuna AI often uses profanity in her videos when she gets frustrated while playing a game.The VTuber trend
Kizuna AI's sudden popularity sparked a VTuber trend. Between May and mid-July 2018, the number of active VTubers increased from 2,000 to 4,000. and followed Kizuna as the second and third most popular VTubers, with 750,000 and 625,000 subscribers respectively. and, two other early VTubers, each gained followings of 500,000 in six months.In the beginning of 2018, Anycolor Inc. founded the VTuber agency Nijisanji. Nijisanji helped popularise the use of Live2D models instead of the prior focus on 3D models as well as the shift towards livestreaming instead of edited video and clips that was the standard for VTubers like Kizuna Ai. Cover Corporation, a company that was originally developing augmented and virtual reality software, shifted its focus to VTubers by establishing Hololive.
After their initial success in Japan, the trend began to expand internationally via their appeal to the anime and manga fandom. Agencies like Hololive and Nijisanji created branches in China, South Korea, Indonesia, and India, as well as English-language branches targeting a global audience. Meanwhile, independent VTubers began to appear in many countries, from Japan to the United States. In July 2018, VTubers had a collective subscriber count of 12.7 million, and more than 720 million total views. By January 2020, there were over 10,000 VTubers.
The COVID-19 pandemic led to an overall increase in viewership of video game live streaming in general in 2020, which helped contribute to the growth of VTubers into a mainstream phenomenon. Searches on Google for VTuber related content increased over 2020, leading towards the September 2020 launch of Hololive's English branch. In August 2020, seven of the ten largest Super Chat earners of all time on YouTube were VTubers, including Hololive member at number one, who by that time had earned approximately . VTubers accounted for 38% of YouTube's 300 most profitable channels, with a total revenue of US$26,229,911.
At the same time, the popularity of VTubers continued to rise on Twitch, with a host of several notable English-speaking VTubers such as then VShojo members Projekt Melody and Ironmouse. Pokimane also experimented with avatar-based streams using a model commissioned from a VTuber artist.
In September 2020, Anycolor created an "Aggressive Acts and Slander Countermeasure Team" to offer counselling to victims of harassment and take legal measures against perpetrators of harassment, specifically the online harassment plaguing the Japanese entertainment industry. This announcement came in the wake of Hololive's VTuber Mano Aloe's retirement after only two weeks of activity due to online harassment. YouTube's 2020 Culture and Trends report highlights VTubers as one of the notable trends of that year, with 1.5 billion views per month by October.
On March 30, 2021, Kizuna AI was chosen as one of Asia's top 60 influencers. In May 2021, Twitch added a VTuber tag for streams as part of a wider expansion of its tag system.
In July 2021, Gawr Gura—a member of Hololive's first English branch—overtook Kizuna Ai as the most-subscribed VTuber on YouTube.
Cover's CEO Motoaki "Yagoo" Tanigo was selected as one of the Japan's Top 20 Entrepreneurs by Forbes Japan in its January 2022 issue. The following month, in the midst of a subathon event, Ironmouse accumulated the largest number of active paid subscriptions of all streamers on the platform at that point in time, although still behind an overall record previously set by Ludwig. According to data provided by parent company Amazon, VTubing content on Twitch grew by 467% in 2021 compared with a year earlier. In December 2022, the independent VTuber Neuro-sama gained attention on Twitch for its use of a large language model attached to a speech synthesis system to interact with her audience.
In February 2024, Anycolor faced criticism over the treatment of its talent, following the termination of its contract with Nijisanji EN streamer Selen Tatsuki. The company cited "repeated breaches of contract", "misleading statements on social platforms", and actions causing payment delays for commissions to fan creators. In subsequent statements, she stated that she had been hospitalized in December 2023 as a result of "bullying from within", and she had been in a "toxic and poor environment for numerous months that led to my breaking point". The claims regarding payments for commissions were also refuted by artists who had worked on content for Tatsuki—who had paid them personally. Criticism over Nijisanji's handling and response to the controversy resulted in declines to Anycolor's stock price, and multiple Nijisanji streamers announcing that they would take a hiatus from social media activity.
In September 2024, Ironmouse hit over 320,000 active paid subscribers on Twitch, surpassing the previous record holder, Kai Cenat. On January 1, 2025, Neuro-sama broke the all-time hype train record on Twitch, reaching level 111 and surpassing the previous record holder, Pirate Software, who reached level 106.
In May 2025, Youtube published a Culture and Trends Report on virtual creators. Per this report, VTuber related videos has amassed an annual average of over 50 billion views since 2022, and 16 of the 20 channels with the largest all time Super Chat Revenue were VTuber channels. Per a survey conducted by Google, 57% of 14 to 44-year-olds had watched a VTuber or virtual influencer in the past year.
On July 21, 2025, VShojo founding member Ironmouse announced that she would leave the agency effective immediately amid legal issues, accusing the company of withholding Twitch revenue from her, including around $500,000 in revenue intended to be donated to the Immune Deficiency Foundation, for over a year; an associated charity campaign organized by Ironmouse quickly raised over $1,000,000, more than doubling the original amount of withheld revenue. On July 24, VShojo CEO Justin "theGunrun" Ignacio announced that the agency had run out of money and would be shutting down.