Over the past few years, Virtual YouTubers have become one of the biggest trend sweeping throughout the world of online streaming. Between the explosion in popularity of VTuber-focused agencies like the Japan-based Hololive and Nijisanji and major companies like Sega and even Disney playing around with the idea, streamers using animated avatars has become an increasingly popular part of the streaming environment. With many of the most popular VTubers achieving millions of subscribers on YouTube, one VTuber in particular has been making waves on Twitch, breaking a major record for the platform during a recent stream.
VTubers have been on the rise throughout the past few years with the popular form of streaming making particular headway in early 2020 following the onset of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The explosion in popularity has seen many VTubers rocket to become some of the most popular YouTuber channels of all-time, raking in millions of dollars in tips from their legions of fans. As the popularity of the medium continues to grow, many streamers have begun to stand out from the pack with English VTuber Ironmouse recently becoming the most subbed streamer on Twitch.
The record was broken during Ironmouse's recent subathon stream, a popular trend following Ludwig's massively successful subathon last year, where Ironmouse eclipsed not only 75,000 paid subscribers on Twitch but also reached the 1,000,000 follower mark. Ironmouse's 75,000 subscribers place her ahead of the former first-place streamer Kkatamina who had previously achieved a peak of 73,623 subs. The lofty sub count also puts the VTuber at 13th overall on the site's all-time subs ranking, sitting just behind FaZe Clan co-owner NICKMERCS.
Beyond its success as a platform for streamers, the recent success of VTubers has also been noticed by many members of the gaming industry as well. Sega has featured two of its most iconic characters in Sonic and Tails as VTubers over the last year and the recent revival of gaming network G4 announced popular VTuber CodeMiko would be joining a roster filled with online gaming personalities like Jirard "The Completionist" Khalil and Indiana "Froskurinn" Black.
Twitch's subscription model has been a talking point for many of the platform's biggest personalities as popular streamers have come out to address their issues with the platform's premium model. Streamers like Sykkuno and Pokimane have placed restrictions on donations or encouraged fans not to subscribe citing the discrepancy between the amount fans pay versus the amount streamers receive while others like xQc have encouraged fans to donate and sub to smaller channels. Subscriptions make up a major way of measuring popularity on Twitch and rising VTubers like Ironmouse continue to push their way into the upper echelons of the streaming world.
Source: Dot Esports