Virtual YouTubers, or VTubers for short, are a type of online performer that has gained immense popularity on livestreaming sites since 2016. The phenomenon originated on YouTube, hence the name; however, a large number of VTubers can be found on Twitch as well, and a few can be found on smaller services such as Nico Nico Douga in Japan and bilibili in China. Regardless of the streaming service used, however, "VTuber" has become the default term for this type of performer. ^note Twitch prefers the term "virtual streamer", obviously not wanting to give their competition free advertising, but that isn't commonly used; in fact, they caved and provided a "VTuber" tag for streamers to use in early 2021.

Unlike Virtual Celebrities such as Hatsune Miku, the performer behind the VTuber is a real person, but they utilize an animated avatar to represent the character they are portraying. The avatar is "rigged" to move and react as the performer does, utilizing various forms of motion capture software. Both 2D and 3D avatars are used, depending on performer preference and available resources. ^note 2D avatars are, in general, easier to rig up and use for streaming; 3D avatars are often reserved for special occasions or events. Think of them as puppet shows for the digital age.

The major appeal of using an animated avatar is that the performer is not constrained by their real appearance and can design their character to be just about anything, although most avatars are still generally humanoid in shape. Also, considering the first VTubers were Japanese and heavily anime-inspired, most who have followed utilize similar elements in their avatars to varying degrees. Many VTubers also appreciate the level of anonymity using an avatar provides. How VTubers treat their other identities varies per person: from being open about it to considering bringing them up as impolite, even if it's an Open Secret, to a complete ban for the sake of privacy. The degree of association with the character also varies: some only use it as a form of expression, while some provide an Excuse Plot of how the character became a streamer and request viewers to follow the setting.

The technology behind this has been around for decades ^note In the 90s Nintendo created software for Charles Martinet to portray Mario in this manner at trade shows and conventions, and some early takes on the concept were seen as early as 2010, such as UK-based 'animated' blogger Ami Yamato as well as nitro+'s mascot Super Sonico who made her debut as a YouTuber on February of 2010. However, most fans consider the first "true" VTuber to be Kizuna AI, who debuted on YouTube in 2016. Ai was the first to coin the term "Virtual YouTuber" as part of her greeting. The early VTubers used 3D avatars, and released pre-recorded videos on a regular basis. Following the lead of Nijisanji and hololive, which were established in 2018, later VTubers moved more toward using 2D avatars, as well as shifting toward a live-streaming model. There are several programs that allow syncing the avatar to camera movements, like FaceRig and Live2D Cubism. Other setups utilize 3D models, typically with full body tracking. There's also a community of PNGTubers who don't use a webcam and avatars are animated by voice or click, if at all.

The VTuber phenomenon came to the attention of Western audiences thanks to individuals and groups on YouTube creating translated videos of the Japanese content, several of which went viral. Western fans started supporting their favorite Japanese streamers, as well as creating their own characters on both YouTube and Twitch. In turn, many Japanese VTubers embraced their overseas fans, some studying English so they could communicate with them more readily. hololive established an English-speaking unit in 2020, with Nijisanji following suit in 2021.^note Both groups also have units in Indonesia, whose members speak English regularly; Nijisanji had a unit in India as well but the unit is no longer active.

The conventions of VTuber streamers, including English ones, are strongly based on Japanese streaming culture, and include many distinctive elements from there. These include common streaming topics like karaoke streams (Japanese: 歌枠, utawaku, literally "song stream") and free talk streams (Japanese: 雑談, zatsudan), as well as popular non-stream video topics like song covers (typically Vocaloid songs), a result of the influences of karaoke and utaite culture on Japanese streaming.

Related to the utaite subculture, a distinctive subset of VTubers present themselves as Virtual Singers or VSingers. VSingers are functionally VTuber utaite, and their contents prioritize original/cover songs over video game streaming compared to "standard" VTubers.^note Of note is that singing voice synthesizing programs like Vocaloid (and their avatars) are also commonly described as "Virtual Singers"; while the two definitions share a significant aesthetical overlap, they are fully distinct in practice.

In Japan, Virtual YouTubers, along with E-Sports, have also helped to increase (and revitalize) interest in PC gaming in general and introduce western gaming genres such as First-Person Shooters and Survival Sandbox, as well as PC gaming distribution platforms such as Steam to a new audience. Besides the fact that it's easier to play games on the same device being used to stream from ^note streaming console games require additional hardware and set-up, the competitiveness, cooperativeness, and high creativity potential found in these types of games has made for some very entertaining Let's Play content.

Not to be confused with the VTubers Let's Play channel of the Ryan ToysReview franchise, which does not utilize these concepts. See also In-Character Let's Play, when somebody plays a pre-existing character as part of a Let's Play.

Related Pages on TV Tropes include:

Tropes Common to Virtual YouTubers:

• Adoptive Peer Parent: It's common for VTubers to call their character designer "papa" or "mama," even if the designer's own avatar looks roughly the same age as their "children." Some of these pairs play up the parent-child aspect for laughs.
• Alter-Ego Acting: The original generation of VTubers fully leaned into fictional acting, but the rise of Nijisanji and their virtual streamer model resulted in most of the scene gradually phasing out of alter-ego acting. These days, while many VTubers are introduced with fictional backstories behind their avatars, and there are those who stay in-character more frequently (e.g., Kizuna Ai), newer VTubers tend to let their real personalities shine through as opposed to strictly playing a fictional character, working elements of their character in at appropriate times.
  • Some will be themselves when being their primary character but also sometimes stream as alternate characters that are treated as completely different people, kayfabe-wise.
• Animesque: There are plenty of VTubers outside of Japan who utilize an anime avatar. If anything, animesque is the rule rather than the exception. Though, there are also some aversions, sporting a different style from the common anime type, such as Kabhaal, a cultist looking like he came straight out of a Creepypasta, Vedal, a simple cartoon turtle, or Pumpkin Potion, an Inkblot Cartoon Style Vtuber.
• Artifact Title: Plenty of VTubers are primarily based on platforms such as Twitch, and some don't use YouTube altogether.
• As Himself: While the vast majority of VTubers use a character avatar with a fully separate identity from their real selves, some VTubers are existing content creators adopting a character avatar under their established identities. These are often people with an existing fanbase who find being a VTuber is a fun way to interact with their fans, with several being artists since they could just illustrate their own digital avatars. Some of the more active ones in VTuber circles include freelance illustrator Shigure Ui, hentai artist Itou Life, and The Elder Sister-like One mangaka Iida Pochi.
• Badass Adorable: Most VTubers are going for some variation on "cute" with their designs and presentation, but this does nothing to stop them wading into very tough and/or violent games and frequently triumphing.
• Beware the Nice Ones: The majority of VTubers are outwardly friendly and aren't primarily antagonistic towards their viewers (save for some rare cases), and their occasional Trolling is for comedic purposes. Despite this, all of them are quick to anger to some capacity, though some show it more than others, if saying something that could seriously annoy them.
• Bland-Name Product: Twitch prefers to used the more generic "virtual streamer" to describe these streamers.
• Cast Herd: VTuber agencies are traditionally divided into "generations" - groups of members who debuted at more or less the same time. Often, each gen will have a theme as well, perhaps even interconnected lore to reinforce it. VTubers within the same gen tend to collaborate frequently, and are likely to become True Companions if things go well. Senpai/Kōhai dynamics between older and newer generations are usually inevitable.
  • Above the generation level, a successful agency might open up branches focusing on content in other languages. Hololive and Nijisanji both started out Japanese but subsequently expanded into the Chinese, Indonesian and (especially) English-speaking markets. VShojo did the reverse, starting with English and then branching into the Japanese market, while idol started out with Hebrew, then shifted to predominantly English before branching out into the Spanish-speaking market, and Phase Connect and Specialite started both in English and Japanese-speaking markets at once.^note Phase would later go on to launch a full Japanese Branch later. Bilingual and Omniglot talent is thus in high demand, as it makes organizing an Intra-Franchise Crossover that much easier.
• Cross-Dressing Voices:
  • Babiniku, short for "Virtual Bishoujo Juniku" (Virtual Girl Incarnation), are VTubers with a female avatar and a male voice actor. While some, like Tomari Mari, use a voice changer or increase the pitch of their voice to match their avatar, others, like Nojaloli who first popularised the concept, just stick with their normal voice for the full Vocal Dissonance. "Reverse Babiniku" with female voice actors and male avatars are also not unheard of.
  • PorcelainMaid in particular parodies the trope, having an overtly masculine persona (and voice) despite a female avatar.
  • On the Recursive Crossdressing end, there is Inuyama Tamaki, a male cross-dressing as a female who is voiced by Norio Tsukudani, the female mangaka of Himegoto.
• Crossover: VTubers often collaborate with one another, especially for multi-player games such as Minecraft, Among Us, ARK, Apex or Fall Guys.
• Descended Creator: Once in a while, a VTuber character designer can become a VTuber themselves, if they weren't already one before then. This is the case for Ui Shigure, who became a VTuber at Subaru Oozora's request, and Nabi Aoi, who got enough encouragement from her "daughters" Amelia Watson and Uto Amatsuka to start a YouTube herself.
• Digital Avatar: The type and design of these vary.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Often the persona of a VTuber in their debut will be wildly different to what they adopt later, usually as a result of becoming more comfortable with streaming and letting other aspects of their personality shown. A common activity for VTubers (frequently as an anniversary celebration) is to re-watch their debut streams and compare it to how they act now. Fans have also taken to creating charts comparing what they thought the VTuber would be like pre-debut, how they came across at their debut, and the personality they settled into after about a month.
• Elite Four: The "Four Heavenly Kings" OGs: Kizuna AI, Kaguya Luna, Mirai Akari, Dennou Shojo Siro and Nojaloli (Siro being added to the group slightly later than the others, hence why the "Four Heavenly Kings" consist of five people). Due to the gap in subscriber counts between Ai and the others, some Japanese fans set her apart from the "Four Heavenly Kings," referring to her as "Oyabun" ("boss"). This has the advantage of keeping the Four Kings at four (unless, of course, one includes Tokino Sora).
• Entertainment Below Their Age: VTubers will oft be enthused by a work with a invokedPeriphery Demographic that is mostly targeted towards children (as all of them are adults, most of whom are very prone to swearing), though some do it more explicitly than others (the most prevalent case being Minecraft, which is shown in the page image above).
• Fan Sub: A staple for western fans of Japanese VTubers, since most of their streams are not given official translations. With the growth of English speaking VTubers the reverse is also becoming more common.
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: An avatar can be just about any sort of character, as long as it can be rigged to follow the performer's movements. This leads to a wide variety of characters and concepts across the board. How much "lore" each avatar has, and how much the performer keeps to it, varies.
• Girl Posse: Whilst the JP branch has the 'Four Heavenly Kings', the EN side has the 'Bottom Queens'. An unofficial group of six female Indie VTubers known for their frequent collabs, each with a very large or sizable fanbase. Whilst Shylily, Bao and Numi form the core three 'Bikini Bottoms'. Yuzu, Juniper Actias and Trickywi form the secondary half. Other prominent Indies such as Shxtou, Oni Giri and Vienna will also join in from time to time.
• God Does Not Own This World: Or rather, in the corporate VTuber world, the real people do not own the characters, whose models are usually designed by hired freelance artists. This means that if they leave, whether by choice or by firing, they won't be allowed to use their old models. Unusually for this trope, the company won't usually keep profiting off the old persona: since VTuber culture has a very strong emphasis on the concept of the person and the character being interchangeable, any attempt at a recast (like WACTOR did with Mitsurugi Lia) is seen as incredibly insulting to the person who made the VTuber popular in the first place.
• Grand Finale: Typically when a VTuber (especially a corporate VTuber) retires from streaming, they will hold one final stream as a big send off and final thank you to their fans and friends. Similar to Japanese Idol Singer culture, these are usually referred to as "graduation streams".
• Gratuitous English: Often used by Japanese VTubers, sometimes to better communicate with overseas fans, sometimes for comedic purposes.
• Gratuitous Japanese: Lots of Japanese lingo, both from Japanese VTuber/general idol culture and particular verbal tics of specific characters, is a mainstay of the fans' vocabulary, such as oshi (推し, equivalent of "Favourite"), DD (short for "daredemo daisuki," fan with no dedication to specific talents and likes them all), and so on.
• Idiot Houdini: A VTuber is usually more dense in both behavior and personality than a normal YouTube entertainer who doesn't use an avatar as part of their brand or adopt an entirely different character and they frequently make stupid mistakes that either end up in their own suffering or making a fool of themselves in front of their whole audience. Despite this, they don't suffer much for acting stupid beyond being mocked by their audience and are likely to continue acting that way regardless of what happens.
• I Hate Past Me: More often than not, a VTuber reacting to their debut streams will cringe and hate their past versions and treat them as another self.
• Idol Singer: There are some similarities between certain VTubers (especially Japanese performers with a focus on singing) and more traditional idols, and some shared terms (such as "graduation" for when a VTuber discontinues performing), but overall the connection is weak. Over time it has become more of a joke that Vtubers are suppose to be Idol like or seiso (wholesome/pure) then actually being seiso.
  • hololive in particular started off advertising itself as a group of "virtual idols" and expected talent to behave accordingly (idol culture in Japan is very restrictive of their behaviour in public). But this stance weakened when they found their talents were attracting more viewers when given freedom to perform, and it is difficult to keep up an immaculate image when talking for hours on end in any event. Even more so after Western and Indonesian talents and fans who weren't as tied in to the subculture starts to flock in to the agency.
  • One remnant of idol culture, amongst Japanese VTubers at least, is a reticence by female performers to do collabs with their male counterparts. Most fans couldn't care less, but there have been times where such a collab has resulted in some backlash from certain fans. Hololive no longer bans such collabs, but they still don't occur very often between their Japanese talents. It is also rare for mainstream VTubers to discuss openly any romantic relationships they have even if they are quite open about their real family or friendships. English and Indonesian talents are for the most part exempt from the reticence and often does collabs with their male counterparts. However, some English talents like Kiara Takanashi still declines to do collabs with male talents altogether while Ouro Kronii received some backlash for her collabs with Holostars members. Since they were never marketed as idols to begin with, Nijisanji has had little issue with co-ed streams, even in Japan, with some units even being of mixed gender.
  • There are groups that are explicitly intended to be virtual idols, such as GEMS COMPANY.
  • Inverted by Japanese idol singer and gravure model Nagi Nemoto: after suffering a massive physical and mental breakdown and graduating from her units, she decided to forgo in-person appearances and become a full-time VTuber (that she herself designed), turning her personal channel into a hub for her streams. However, she is slowly recovering and has decided to alternate between her virtual persona and her real self for the time being.
• Improbably Female Cast: The majority of VTubers you will likely run across are female. There are a steadily growing number of male VTubers, but they're still vastly outnumbered by the massive assortment of females. It seems as though Hololive was aware of this when establishing their male branch of VTubers.
• Ink-Suit Actor: A few VTubers like kson ONAIR or Saruei have their models designed after themselves.
• Kayfabe: While most VTuber streamers don't perform much Alter-Ego Acting and aren't acting out a fictional persona, the few streamers that actually do so requires the audience's maintenance of their Willing Suspension of Disbelief to believe that fictional characters are performing live streams. Commonly, the streamer's Out Of Character Moments are re-integrated back into the fictional character's lore by both the streamer and the audience, often in ludicrous ways to generate comedy value.
• Let's Play: A popular category of content, especially for VTubers on Twitch.
• Mascot: Fans of certain VTubers may be represented in form of cute little mascots.
• Open Secret: It is not uncommon for a VTuber to stop activities only for the actor/actress to resume them under a different identity; this tends to be more common going from corporate to independent, but transitioning between corporations or going the other way around is not unheard of. Usually fans of the old persona will quickly pick up on any similarities between the old identity and the new one (as they tend to be intrinsically tied to the actor/actress, such as their voice or behavioral habits), but it is an unspoken rule for the community to not go around explicitly referring to "past lives" for the sake of keeping the identities separate. However, it is very common for communities to at least make cheeky references to them to give hints to fans unfamiliar with the previous identity.
• Secret Identity: Virtual YouTubers operating under identities separate from their standard online identities typically take great care to prevent possible leaks of their alternate online identities. While reliable speculations on VTubers pre-existing online identities are common, the fandom strongly respects the secret identity and generally avoids discussing these speculations within the fandom.^note Often VTubers collaborate with other VTubers and while theoretically a small handful of them may be ambivalent, it is generally bad form to invite greater scrutiny to their colleagues who legitimately prefer anonymity. Meanwhile, content producers who adopted VTuber avatars under their pre-existing online identities have no such issues.
  • Agencies who own the avatar characters, such as Hololive and Nijisanji, always treat their streamers as their avatars.
  • Some VTubers like Inuyama Tamaki of NoriPro parody the concept by "officially" having their VTuber identities separate from their established content creator identities (Norio Tsukudani for Tamaki), but intentionally do a terrible job at keeping the secret while remaining in-character and insist that the two identities are separate people.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Going hand in hand with Open Secret, some personalities who graduate from a more popular persona and then later re-debut under a new identity have a tendency to commission a model whose resemblance is more than passing to their previous character. In some cases this extends to commissioning the artist previously responsible for the design of their previous persona, to do the design for their current persona.
• Terrible Artist: Some of them don't have experience drawing in detail and end up with visually crude results. An example is Minato Aqua's cat drawing (On the right). Averted with VTubers with artistic experience, such as any of the aforementioned manga artist VTubers.
• Villain Protagonist: Some of them have an "evil" alter-ego, or generally play the role of an unambiguously evil character archetype. They also continually broadcast streams in this ego, which also makes them protagonists, at least of their own streams.

VTubers in fiction: