Live streaming as an industry is growing and the VTuber section of this industry is growing along with it. The first quarter of 2024 saw the global live streaming industry grow in general, as outlined in our Q1 2024 Global Live Streaming Landscape article, and now, we highlight the trends of the VTubing sector, its most popular creators, and the demographics that make up the community.
- Top Asian VTubers
- Top VTubers outside of Asia
Streams Charts and VSTATS, a VTuber analysis site, are here to present a report on viewership statistics for VTubers throughout the first three months of 2024. From the total watch time of all VTubers to the nitty gritty details of who the VTubing community members are, all this and more is explored below.
In general, VTubing has ingrained itself into the live streaming industry years ago. Since the beginning of 2022, the sector of live streaming has been consistently growing on a quarter basis, with one exception. Q1 of 2024 marked 403.21M Hours Watched for VTubers, the most watch time ever recorded by the sector in a single quarter; the 8% increase in viewership compared to the previous quarter was the largest relative increase in viewership since Q2 2022.
When we think of VTubers, we usually think of YouTube; but this notion is quickly unraveling in light of recent data. More and more Twitch VTubers have been emerging in the industry, as more and more international communities begin to join the VTubing-side of streaming.
One setback for the VTubing sector was Twitch’s decision to cease operations in South Korea; the Korean-speaking VTubing sector on Twitch was one of the globe’s fastest-growing regions for VTubers, and these streamers must now find a new home.
With the help of our custom filters, you can select VTubers from a specific agency or country, seperate female content creators from male, and more. Check all the benefits of a PRO subscription here.
CHZZK and AfreecaTV, two competing Korean live streaming platforms, were included in our data Although these two platforms are yet to see a large wave of VTubers join, AfreecaTV seems to preliminarily have the lead ahead of Naver’s CHZZK. Some VTuber groups have announced moves to both platforms: ISEGYE IDOL moved to AfreecaTV, as you can see in the most-watched VTubers of the platform, and a six-member Kpop group called StelLive moved to CHZZK. Although AfreecaTV boosted a higher watch time than CHZZK, there are more VTubers active on the latter platform.
Despite Twitch and YouTube hosting a similar amount of VTubing channels, YouTube was far more influential when it came to watch time. The most popular VTubers are often streaming on YouTube, and the industry-leading creators are found on the red live streaming platform. New and upcoming VTubers seem to be more drawn towards Twitch as a live streaming platform, as it quickly catches up to YouTube in terms of the raw amount of VTubing channels.
As proven in our reports, VTubers are overwhelmingly female creators. The VTubing industry has been led and dominated by female creators since its inception, and this has stayed the same since.
However, looking back across our previous quarterly reports, the male section of the VTubing community is growing. As the community diversifies and expands to international communities, more and more men are looking to join. 2% of VTubers fell under the Other category, which includes non-binary creators and Babiniku: male streamers who use female-presenting avatars and sometimes even voice changers.
As recent trends have shown, Japan has been losing its unofficial monopoly on VTubing. The country is the home of VTubing, and many of the industry’s top creators are Japanese, but the country contributed only 52.6% of the total channels considered for the report.
Compared to our 2023 data, the VTubing community is growing significantly in the USA and South Korea. The USA currently makes up 16.8% of the VTubing community, and South Korea contributes 5.1%. The rest of Asia is also joining the trend, as more creators are appearing from Thailand and Indonesia, too. Interestingly, Germany, France, and Spanish-speaking countries, which make up a significant portion of Twitch's viewership, did not contribute a meaningful amount of VTubers.
Considering VTubing agencies, we collated the watch time data of all VTubers throughout the quarter, and then assigned this data to their respective agency, if applicable. The above graphic is therefore not a reflection of how many VTubers are signed to each agency, but which agencies have the most cultural influence and how much watch time they generated.
Hololive remains VTubings favourite agency, contributing 22.5% of the total watch time amassed by VTubers in the first quarter of 2024. They were followed by NIJISANJI, who contributed 19% to total watch time, and VSPO. Compared to previous data, these top three have remained static for quite some time. Hololive is a brand name that is ubiquitous with live streaming, and many of the industry’s top creators are signed to this agency.
The most-watched VTuber of Q1 2024 was 叶ちゃんねる (Kanae). Having debuted in 2018, Kanae has found success under the NIJISANJI banner and has pushed himself to the top of the industry in recent years. He generated 10.33M Hours Watched during the quarter, and edged himself ahead of other popular creators by also streaming on YouTube Live.
Kanae Channel is his YouTube channel and he appeals to both Twitch and YouTube viewers by cycling between the two. The streamer recorded broadcasting time throughout the quarter far higher than his competitors on Twitch alone, and including his YouTube Live statistics, he stands out from the crowd as one of the hardest-working VTubers in the industry.
Pekora Ch. 兎田ぺこら of hololive followed in the next-best spot with 9.52M Hours Watched. Pekora is not only hugely popular herself, but hololive’s constant collaborations and events help her to consistently reach new audiences and grow her brand. Pekora increased her Airtime significantly for Q1 of 2024, but still managed to grow her average viewership: fans are eager for more and more of her content. She is rarely not the top VTuber of the industry, and she will surely be aiming to return to that top spot next quarter.
Kuzuha Channel was the third-most-popular VTuber with 8.19M Hours Watched massed on YouTube. Kuzuha was previously the most-watched male VTuber before Kanae, but now he has some company at the top. Throughout recent years, the top VTubers of each quarter have been predominantly female, and very rarely has a male VTuber entered the top 3. Q1 of 2024 was abnormal in the fact that four of our top 10 VTubers by watch time were male.
柊ツルギ (Hiiragi Tsurugi) and AdmiralBahroo finished further down the rankings, generating 4.34M and 3.98M HW, respectively. Admiral Bahroo is an established American Twitch streamer, and he achieved the majority of his watch time during January, when he held a long marathon of streams. Tsurugi, on the other hand, is a new entry to the live streaming community. He debuted just before Q4 of 2023, and has quickly skyrocketed to the top. He earned his popularity playing GTA V roleplay with other VTubers, and participating in collaborative gaming and community events.
Excluding ironmouse and 橘ひなの (Tachibana Hinano), the remainder of the top VTubers were all signed to hololive. Hololive is a dominant force in the VTubing industry, and Koyori ch. 博衣こより - holoX -, Miko Ch. さくらみこ, and Subaru Ch. 大空スバル are all signed to the agency alongside Pekora. None of these creators are strangers to these top rankings, except for Hinano. Similar to our top creator, Hinano benefited from streaming across multiple platforms, and presence on both platforms has helped to boost her watch time significantly.
Ranking creators by watch time can present difficulties, as the metric favours streamers who can go live for a long time with decent viewership, rather than those who host shorter, and more highly watched broadcasts. For the above graphic, we have ranked streamers by their average concurrent viewership for the entire quarter, and excluded those with less than 50 hours of Airtime: to avoid inflated stats due to short special event broadcasts.
Marine Ch. 宝鐘マリン, another hololive-affiliated creator, ranked at the top here with 34.7K Average Viewers. Although highly popular with over 3.13M YouTube Followers, she was live irregularly and for short stints throughout the quarter. The nature of these short-burst live streams may have boosted her average viewership, as more fans felt the need to tune in spontaneously. She has also been effectively using YouTube Shorts to grow her audience and reach new fans through short-form content.
Marine was followed by a swathe of other holo-live creators, highlighting the popularity of the creators behind the agency. These creators, Aqua Ch. 湊あくあ, Korone Ch. 戌神ころね, and Botan Ch.獅白ぼたん, all had one similarity in common besides being hololive VTubers: their time spent broadcasting during the quarter was significantly lower than other top creators. If these three had broadcasted more and more often throughout the quarter, they would have likely ranked on our other graphic too.
Miko Ch. さくらみこ in particularly was extremely susscessful when it came to growing her average viewership. She recorded 32.9K Average Viewers marking an increase of 21% compared to the previous quarter. She effectively collaborated with other hololive creators during this quarter, exposing herself to new fans constantly.
Finally, a look to the new blood of the industry rather than the leaders. Dokibird was the fastest-growing creator of the quarter, recording 415K new Followers in the three months. Although the Canadian creator does not boast the largest live audience for her streams, she has effectively combined live streaming, YouTube videos, and short-form content to more than double her following in Q1.
Dokibird was previously working under NIJISANJI as a VTuber called Selen Tatsuki, until the organization and streamer split under unpleasant circumstances. She made her return to the Dokibird account in early February, and her return debut garnered 127K Peak Viewers.
Another English-speaking creator, filian of the USA was the second-fastest-growing creator of the quarter, recording 180K new subscribers for her YouTube channel. Filian was streaming almost daily on Twitch throughout Q1 of 2024 too, and she has been diligently using Shorts and longer videos on YouTube from her streams to boost her content.
In third, NongHanging (น้องห้ะหงิง) of Thailand recorded 160.4K new followers for his YouTube streams. He has earned 70% of his following within Q1 of 2024 alone, and he is Asia’s fastest growing content creator on YouTube. Dissimilar to other VTubers, NongHanging’s avatar is a dog wearing a crown, much different to the anime-styled avatars most creators sport.
Harris Caine【AKA Virtual】of Indonesia followed closely behind, recording over 151K Followers Gain during the quarter. The Indonesian VTuber hit a wave of popularity late last year with his roleplaying content, and has continued to enjoy success throughout 2024. These two highlight that Indonesia and Thailand are two of the most important emerging markets for the VTubing community.
キルシュトルテ / VTuber, or Kirschtorte, was Japan’s fastest-growing VTuber of the quarter. The streamer enjoyed 155K new Followers, leading the way ahead of even fast-growing hololive-signed creators. He is one of the fastest-growing creators thanks to his YouTube-based short-form content, with garnered over 72M views in Q1. Ao Ch. 火威青 ‐ ReGLOSS and Marine Ch. 宝鐘マリン recorded 150K and 140K new Followers respectively. The former of these two was hololive’s first VTuber to debut under the ReGLOSS banner, and has enjoyed significant growth since her debut in late 2023.
Emikukis of Colombia ranked 7th with 147.2K new Followers, being the sole creator in this ranking to appeal to a Spanish-speaking audience. Although both Akemi Ch. 猫町アケミ【AKA Virtual】 and 兎彷魂あみゅ Amyu Ch. feature the “Ch.” in their names that usually denote a hololive-associated streamer, neither of these VTubers are signed to the organization. Akemi represents AKA Virtual, a Japan-based agency that also represents Indonesian-speaking creators, and Amyu is an independent but fast-growing creator.
