VTubers were less active in the second quarter of 2026, leading to fewer channels on livestreaming compared to the first three months of the year. The Q2 watch time of 482.6 million Hours Watched was 15.4% lower than in Q1, as around 300 fewer channels were online, according to Streams Charts.
Meanwhile, independent VTubers continued to grow in influence, led by TheBurntPeanut's exploits. The American star's status as a VTuber remains a subject of controversy, but there is no denying his impact on the industry. His decision to multistream across three main platforms continues to pay rich dividends.
This joint report from Streams Charts and VSTATS breaks down the viewership results for the VTubing industry in Q2 2026. It includes information on viewership for top content creators, agencies and the overall demographics of Virtual YouTubers worldwide.
Q2 2026 quick hits
- Total watch time generated was 482.6M Hours Watched, 15.4% less than Q1 2026.
- TheBurntPeanut generated 55.08M HW across Twitch, YouTube, and Kick to emerge as the singular market leader.
- YouTube's share of total VTuber watch time slipped by 4%, with regional platforms like CHZZK and SOOP benefiting.
- Despite minimal growth, hololive reclaimed the top agency spot from NIJISANJI, which lost 3% in the overall VTuber watch time share.
Q2 saw less VTuber activity as watch time dropped
Almost all major names in the VTubing scene saw reduced broadcasting time in Q2 2026. As a result, it recorded the lowest viewership of the last three quarters according to Streams Charts. The second quarter of the year ended as the first since Q4 2024 to fall below 500 million Hours Watched.
Almost 11,300 channels were tracked as part of the Q2 livestreaming landscape of the VTubing industry. While this was around 300 channels less than Q1 2026, what also caused the over 15% fall in quarter-on-quarter watch time was the lower frequency with which top VTubers went live. Viewers were also switching feeds to their favorite esports tournaments, including record-breaking ones like the IEM Cologne Major 2026.
Q1 2026 benefited from holiday-season viewership and the momentum of late 2025 and year-opening events for many agencies. However, the focus shifted considerably in the second quarter of the year as top regional esports leagues and global circuits kicked off, taking part of the audience focus away from that usual video gaming/chat engagement content that VTubers are known for.
Smaller platforms making gradual viewership progress
Twitch remained the top destination for VTubers to livestream, as 78% of such channels came from this platform. It had around four times more VTubers broadcasting content in H1 2026 than any other livestreaming service, as independent and English-language creators led the way.
In terms of overall watch time, YouTube was still the leader, taking up just over 51% of the overall number. However, this represented a decrease of more than 4% from its share of the cumulative HW numbers in Q1 2026, reiterating that other platforms, especially Twitch, are gradually eating into its part of the pie.
Speaking of other platforms, smaller services like Kick, SOOP and CHZZK enjoyed slight rises in their share of the overall quarterly watch time in Q2 2026. The individual platform contributions to the industry's cumulative quarterly watch time remained almost the same.
Females continue to populate VTuber space
Over two-thirds of the VTubers tracked in Q2 2026 were female, a growth from Q1, while there were 2,144 male channels active. A healthy 2.8% identified under a different pronoun, showing just how diverse the segment is slowly becoming in an industry that still struggles with inclusivity.
Japan produced almost 33% of the total VTubers who livestreamed in the second quarter of the year, followed by the United States at 20.5%. The scene is also witnessing smaller pockets emerge where there were previously no VTubers operating, reiterating the fact that the scene is becoming a more global form of entertainment.
Independent streaming is now the norm
In our Q1 2026 report, we established that independent VTubers commanded over half of the total recorded watch time for this sector. That remained the case in the second quarter, and in fact, these creators increased their share by almost 2%.
Names like Zentreya, vedal987, and TheBurntPeanut have proven that VTubers can thrive without the backing of an agency. The type of content generated remains key, and audiences gravitate toward the personalities of these streamers even if they can't see these creators' actual faces, which are hidden behind virtual avatars.
Hololive reclaims the top agency spot
A look at agency viewership shows that Hololive continues to be the market leader, with the company even enjoying a slight uptick in its QoQ watch time. NIJISANJI, meanwhile, lost ground on its rival, slipping from the top spot in our Q1 report to second in the second quarter after losing around 3% of its share in the segment's overall watch time.
Most of the smaller agencies retained their positions in the hierarchy, with their quarterly HW numbers remaining stable despite an overall dip in VTubers' watch time in Q2 2026. VSPO! and StelLive Accelers continued to be the top names within this space. United Talent saw a minuscule uptick in its share despite star creator ironmouse losing viewership in the second quarter due to her reduced online activity.
Top VTubers of Q2 2026
Familiar names continue to enjoy consistent viewership
The watch time table for VTubers in Q2 2026 throws very few surprises in terms of who is on top. TheBurntPeanut racked up almost seven times more watch hours than any other creator over the last three months, totaling a healthy 55.08 million HW.
Most-watched VTubers in Q2 2026
However, it has to be noted that this total was generated across three platforms: Twitch, YouTube, and Kick. TheBurntPeanut has been ahead of the curve in this regard, emerging as one of the few VTubers to multistream across platforms. This has helped him reach a wider viewership demographic, with his Twitch and YouTube broadcasts especially emerging as must-see for audiences.
TheBurntPeanut's exploits have helped prop up the independent VTubing scene, and his combined watch time numbers on their own have rivaled the cumulated HW figures of the rosters of agencies like NIJISANJI and Hololive. Nevertheless, we have also designed leaderboards excluding him to reflect the state of the classic VTubing scene, for the sake of clarity.
Away from the unapologetically American VTuber, the ranking settles into a familiar trip of the most popular VTubers today. YouTube stars Pekora Ch., Kuzuha Channel, Subaru Ch., Miko Ch. and Okayu Ch. populate the top spots, accruing between 3 and 8.5 million HW.
Most of their content continued to follow the traditional trend of gaming streams mixed with collaborations. These VTubers also hosted plenty of events across Q2 2026, including a singing contest and a Minecraft survival competition.
Kanae Channel was another to continue following the multistreaming route, with his streams on Twitch and YouTube accumulating 4.36 million HW. He was joined in the top ten by ironmouse and two new faces, CHZZK's TamTamBerlin (탬탬버린) and Arisa (아리사), who have been vital to the regional platform's gradual recent rise in the VTubing segment.
Average viewership table for Q2 2026 reiterates established order's popularity
VTubing has been a pretty niche space for a long time, and those who have been at it for a while have established the biggest audience bases. That is why the same few names top the watch time table, and that was reiterated when looking at the VTubers with the most Average Viewers in Q2 2026.
Most popular VTubers in Q2 2026 by average viewership
Apart from the outlier that is TheBurntPeanut, most of the names in this leaderboard come from Japan. These content creators have established loyal fan bases for themselves, and every time they go live, these names attract thousands of viewers.
However, quite a few names who didn't pop up in the watch time rankings found places here. Botan Ch., Korone Ch., Presidents of the Liberal Arts University (両学長 リベラルアーツ大学) and Fuwa Minato (不破 湊) averaged between 13,000 and 18000 viewers per stream.
両学長 リベラルアーツ大学 deserves special mention as it is run by Ryo, an IT business owner and investor. Using a virtual avatar and animated sketches, he aims to deliver the knowledge necessary to help his viewers get a fundamental understanding of money and how to best manage it.
VTubers with the followers gained in Q2 2026
両学長 リベラルアーツ大学 was also the star in terms of followers gained in Q2 2026, increasing his YouTube channel's count by 2.16 million. No one else got close to this mark, with Pak GM finishing as the only other entry with over 500,000 followers gained during these three months.
Who were the top English-speaking VTubers in Q1 2026?
TheBurntPeanut is way ahead on this leaderboard, with nobody else crossing even 5 million HW. Ironmouse is the next-best name with 4.03 million watch hours, followed by Koseki Bijou Ch. hololive-EN, whose livestreams were a mix of video game playthroughs and coverage of events like Nintendo Direct and the Suisei Fortnite concert.
Most-watched English-speaking VTubers in Q2 2026
Thanks to her multistreams on Twitch and YouTube, Zentreya was also able to breach the 1.5 million HW barrier. The American VTubing star concentrated on in-real-life broadcasts, including chatting with her viewers, and collaborations with games like Pummel Party and Meccha Chameleon.
Twitch continued to be the home of choice for most English-speaking Virtual YouTubers in Q2 2026. Almost all the top-ten names either streamed exclusively for the Amazon-owned platform or multistreamed there alongside other popular platforms like Kick and YouTube.
The rapidly rising independent creator, Deme, also made a return to these rankings after missing out last quarter. She has seen impressive growth in the backend of 2025, and the Philippines native continues to record strong engagement. She made this list despite not sticking to her usual multistreaming routine, instead banking on her Twitch following to settle into the seventh spot.
Independent VTubers lead active chatters count
While viewership data gives us a picture of how consistent VTubers were in Q2 2026, a look at the active chatters data on the three biggest platforms gives us an idea about which creators were able to engage with their audiences most frequently. And most of the top names across Twitch, YouTube and Kick chats were independent streamers.
VTubers with the most mentions in Q2 2026
TheBurntPeanut once again led the way across all three platforms, while other prominent names like ironmouse, Pekora Ch., Subaru Ch., Miko Ch. and Kuzuha Channel also retained high rankings. VTubers on YouTube were able to garner the highest active chatters on average, as its tenth-ranked entry outdid the numbers of Twitch's fifth-ranked creator.
Moreover, 18 out of the 30 entries across the top 10s of these three platforms were independent VTubers. This point reiterated the fact that these streamers no longer need the support and backing of large agencies to become successful.
As long as the creator has a dedicated fan base, exhibits a strong and likeable personality, and continues to produce quality content, their fans will continue to tune in when they go live. This extends to engagement on chat, which remains one of the key factors for the success of VTubers in today's livestreaming context.
Overall, the VTuber scene continues to retain a healthy space in the livestreaming market. The Q2 viewership might have fallen a bit, but there were lots of factors that caused this decrease, and the segment is no longer niche.
It continues to broaden every week as creators come up with fresh, creative formats, while newcomers also come in regularly to challenge the established order. This helps create healthy competition, and that has benefited audiences, who have been treated to some entertaining content over the past three months.
