Virtual creators and artists have gone from niche curiosities to influential players, with significant viewership and engagement metrics indicating a breakthrough moment for digital avatars on platforms like YouTube, according to YouTube’s “Culture & Trends Report.” 

Recent company data shows that a sample of just 300 Virtual Creators generated over 15 billion views across videos, live streams, and Shorts last year, with one billion of those views coming from the U.S. alone.

Videos related to VTubers (virtual YouTubers) have averaged 50 billion views annually over the past three years. YouTube’s 2024 fandom trends report found that 57% of online users aged 14 to 44 watched a virtual creator in the past year, demonstrating widespread adoption compared to 2020, when fewer than half of respondents expressed openness to watching content from virtual creators.

Four Distinct Categories

The report identifies four primary categories of virtual creators that have emerged:

1. VTubers: These personalities, originating from Japanese online culture, feature anime-inspired aesthetics and represent a distinct type of on-screen persona—virtual characters living in the real world. They have had a commercial impact, with 16 out of the top 20 channels with the greatest Super Chat revenue of all time belonging to VTubers as of February 2025.
   
2. Gaming Virtual Creators: Leveraging character creation features in games like Roblox and VRChat, these creators develop virtual personas that participate in both in-game content and real-world trends.
   
3. Virtual Artists: Distinguished by their focus on music creation and performance, these range from Vocaloids like Hatsune Miku (who reached an all-time high of views in 2024) to virtual bands and digital representations of physical performers, such as JKT48 and fully virtual K-Pop groups like Plave and MAVE.
   
4. Virtual Humans: Representing a more realistic approach to virtual creation, these avatars attempt to replicate human features more accurately. Examples include Ami Yamato (active since 2011), Lil Miquela (a virtual influencer since 2016), and more recent entries like Code Miko.

Technological and Cultural Factors Driving Adoption

The rise of virtual creators has been enabled by several converging factors:

• Platform Infrastructure: Gatekeeper-free platforms, such as YouTube, provided both distribution capabilities and economic viability for virtual creators.
  
• Technology Accessibility: Software innovations like Live2D have reduced barriers to entry, making it easier for creators to produce virtual content.
  
• Audience Receptivity: Younger audiences primed by video games and anime aesthetics have embraced virtual personalities, with their participation in fandom activities (creating fan art, clipping livestreams) amplifying creator reach.
  
• Gaming Synergy: Live streaming of gameplay provides both a technically suitable and aesthetically complementary format for virtual creators. In June 2024, Grand Theft Auto V became the most-watched live video game of the month, largely due to collaborations with VTubers, with one-third of the top 100 channels with the most live watch time related to GTA V featuring VTubers.

The Human Element Remains Central

Despite their digital nature, virtual creators maintain strong human connections with audiences. The report indicates that adopting a virtual persona often allows creators to express their talents and creativity more fully, sometimes appearing more genuine than their non-virtual counterparts.

This authenticity resonates with viewers, as evidenced by a recent survey conducted by the Japanese website Nifty Kids, which found that more children expressed interest in becoming VTubers than traditional YouTubers. This suggests that virtual creators are viewed not only as relatable but also as aspirational figures.

What Brands and Content Creators Should Know

The report outlines four key implications for industry stakeholders:

1. Virtual creation has gone from technological novelty to an established creator archetype, with diversity expected to increase as creation tools become more accessible.
   
2. The barrier to entry is lowering, with platforms like Roblox offering easier paths to create virtual personas, and short-form content trends demonstrating that virtual creation can accommodate casual content formats.
   
3. Viewers connect with synthetic personas based on the message and messenger, rather than their physical appearance.
   
4. The distinction between subculture and mainstream is increasingly blurred, with internet-accelerated adoption transforming niche trends into mainstream phenomena quicker than traditional media cycles.

Historical Context and Future Trajectory

According to YouTube’s report, the current surge in virtual creation builds on nearly three decades of development. 

Early milestones include Kyoko Date (the first CGI idol) in 1996, virtual band Gorillaz in 2001, and Vocaloid Hatsune Miku in 2007. The category gained momentum with Kizuna AI, the first VTuber, in 2016, followed by agency-backed VTubers from hololive starting in 2017, and English-language VTubers gaining prominence from 2020 onward.

Recent developments include AI-powered VTubers, such as Neuro-sama (with nearly 500,000 subscribers), whose presence is entirely managed by a large language model, indicating potential directions for the further evolution of the category.

Get the full report here.