Summary of Research Findings

Lately, Virtual UTubers (hereafter VTubers) who post videos in their 2D or 3D characters to video streaming services such as YouTube are in the spotlight.An online survey was carried out to 894 men and women nationwide at the ages between 15 and 39 who responded that they were interested in VTubers. This research called them “VTuber fans”.When asked them how many hours per week they watched videos performed by VTubers (live videos, archives, clipped or edited videos, etc.,) 34.1% of fans responded that they watched “less than hour,” 26.9% of fans watched “1 to less than 3 hours,” 14.9% responded “3 to less than 7 hours,” and 15.1% responded “7 hours or more,” indicating that approximately 30% of VTuber fans watched 3 hours or more per week. A certain number of fans responded that they watched 20 to 30 hours per week.

Noteworthy Topics

Nijisanji and Hololive Boast Overwhelming Awareness among VTuber Production Offices

Regarding 11 VTuber production offices or projects, i.e., “Hololive,” “Nijisanji,” “774inc,” “.LIVE,” “Virtual eSports Project (Vspo),” “Aogiri Vtuber High School,” “Re:AcT,” “Neo-Porte,” “VIC,” “Kizuna AI,” and “VEE”, the research asked 894 VTuber fans about the awareness, whether or not have seen the videos, and whether any favorite VTubers belonged to them or not.When asked to VTuber fans about the awareness of VTuber production offices that manage VTubers, “Nijisanji” and “Hololive” had overwhelming awarness, with the former known by 89.6% of 894 VTuber fans and the latter 86.9%, followed by “Kizuna AI” that had generated the word “Virtual UTuber” 58.4%, “Virtual eSports Project (Vspo)” 54.0%, and “Aogiri Vtuber High School” 51.3%, all having attained more than 50% of awareness.Despite relatively late launch in July 2021, VEE acquired a certain level of awareness (21.0%). While its current activities are mainly the management specifically of VTubers, its parent company is Sony Music Entertainment. As can see from it, major entertainment companies have started entering this brisk VTuber market. Backed by sufficient capital, the power relationship of VTuber production offices is likely to change for the future.

Research Outline