The use of motion-captured avatars to represent content creators on YouTube, known as “VTubers” gained popularity over the recent years, occupying all corners of the streaming space. In the sea of cat-girls and anime-like avatars, we present the top 10 most popular Vtubers that stand out in 2024.
Several companies specialize in managing virtual YouTubers such as Nijisanji, Maha5, and A-Soul. The top 10 popular VTubers are either Kizuna AI from Kizuna AI Inc., are independent, or work with Hololive or VShojo. Hololive is the most prominent agency in this list and it makes sense since it has more than 70 VTubers in its roaster across Japanese, English, and Indonesian languages.
VTuber content varies and usually branches to more than one segment such as gaming, music, and reaction videos. As the VTuber grows in subscribers, it’s common for the company to produce short animations in collaboration with studios featuring the VTuber’s character and original songs aside from the usual streaming content.
VTubers even have their own lore (although most drop it after a while). There isn’t a concrete way of knowing how popular a VTuber is but we chose to calculate it by adding their YouTube subscribers and Twitch followers to determine who tops the list.
10) Calliope Mori (2,388,400 followers)
Calliope Mori has been part of the English Hololive team since 2021 and personifies the Grim Reaper. She has 2.34 million subscribers on YouTube and 48,400 followers on Twitch with 2,388,400 followers in total. Calliope mostly releases covers and original songs combining English and Japanese lyrics.
9) Nyatasha Nyanners (2,460,000 followers)
Nyatasha Nyanners is an independent cat-like VTuber who started in 2020, although she already posted music covers before transitioning to playing games and reacting to videos. Nyanners has 1.46 million subscribers on YouTube and one million followers on Twitch, which means she has 2,460,000 followers in total.
8) Usada Pekora (2,624,000 followers)
Usada Pejora is another Hololive VTuber part of the Japanese team. She has gathered 2.44 million subscribers and 184,000 followers on Twitch. All of her content is in Japanese, but you can enable English subtitles on most of her videos. A majority of her videos and streams revolve around music but you can find some random videos featuring a variety of different content on her channel.
7) Shxtou (2,430,000 followers)
Shoto has been a VTuber for two years and has already reached 1.49 million subscribers on YouTube and 1.2 million followers on Twitch totaling 2,430,000 followers. He’s an independent VTuber who mainly streams gaming and Just Chatting content on Twitch and posts edited clips on YouTube.
6) Ironmouse (2,980,000 followers)
Despite the name, Ironmouse isn’t inspired by a mouse. She is a demon queen who mostly streams Let’s Plays and interacts with chat, releases reaction videos on YouTube, and even sings opera during a stream. Ironmouse is part of the VShojo agency and has 1.08 million subscribers on YouTube and 1.9 million followers on Twitch.
5) Kizuna Ai (3,001,000 followers)
Kizuna AI is considered to be the first VTuber and was once the VTuber with the most subscribers on YouTube, but was surpassed for the first time in 2021. Her content is in Japanese and focuses on her music while making sporadic challenge videos for fans. She has the support of an entire company called Kizuna AI Inc. which exclusively manages her and the most advanced motion-capture technology in comparison with the other Vtubers from the list.
Kizuna Ai has a total of 3,001,000 followers including 2.99 million subscribers on YouTube and just 11,000 followers on Twitch. Her Twitch account has not been used in a while, however, and only has highlights and uploads saved from three years ago.
4) Houshou Marine (3,090,000 followers)
Houshou Marine is a Japanese VTuber partnered with Hololive just like Usada Pekora, but instead of a rabbit, she is an aspiring pirate. Her lore states she works as a VTuber to get enough money to buy her ship and finally become a real pirate, and as such, she only cosplays as one for now.
She doesn’t stream on Twitch but quickly gathered 3,090,000 subscribers on YouTube. Houshou Marine’s streams vary from interacting with chat to singing, collaborating with other Hololive VTubers, and playing games. She also releases original songs and covers on her channel and even has an awesome anime music video with GawrGura.
3) Filian (3,380,000 followers)
Our first step of the podium is held by Filian. She has 2,560,000 subscribers on YouTube and 820,000 followers on Twitch, summing to 3,380,000 followers in total and placing her as the third most popular VTuber on our list. She is a fox-like independent English-speaking VTuber who streams reaction videos, plays games, and challenges such as the don’t laugh challenge. A difference from other VTubers is that Filian uses a full-body model, similar to Kizuna AI, instead of the usual bust-up.
2) Nimu (4,030,000 followers)
Nimu is an independent Argentinian VTuber with 2,500,000 followers on Twitch and 1,530,000 subscribers on YouTube, leaving her with 4,030,000 followers and as the second most popular VTuber. If you don’t understand Spanish, you’ll struggle to watch her content since there are no subtitles, but she plays games and reacts to videos. She spent some time without streaming but has recently come back without her model, but hiding her face.
Nimu also has a YouTube channel where she posts content with and without her VTuber model, but because she appears in person with her face hidden, we only considered her clips YouTube channel related to her streaming.
1) Gawr Gura (4,514,800 followers)
In first place is Gawr Gura, an English-speaking Hololive VTuber. The Shark Girl has 4,450,000 subscribers on YouTube and 64,800 followers on Twitch, which means she gathered 4,514,800 followers across her streaming platforms. Gawr Gura mostly streams her playing games, but she also releases original songs, covers, and animation that reach millions of views, including a collaboration with Calliope Mori that earned 36 million views.
