[krige]

That's a bit... late to the party. I can't find when the article was published, but the phenomenon "went worldwide" several years ago by the means of COVID. These days the vtubing as an industry is in a somewhat stable state, if not a possible decline, going by viewership hours over the same period. Many big EN and JP names have already retired too.

[maeln]

For the big VTuber corporate brand, for sure. But the indie VTuber scene as exploded. It used to be fairly expensive to get in the hobby, and you needed to be technically savy or have someone be for you. Now there is a lot of free and open-source VTuber software that don't need complex setup, just a webcam. And you can easily commission a few hundred bucks an artist to get your whole character and animation.

This made the barrier almost inexistent. And since showing your actual face was a big stop for a lot of people, vtubing has allowed a lot of people to get into streaming. There are thousands of <100s viewers vtuber right now.

[krige]

It's not 2018 anymore, so that's not quite true. By now free models have been there forever, and indies have been using them for as long. I mean, Filian has already been using one over 4 years ago.

Which caused some problems with merchandising, but that's a different can of worms.

[Ferret7446]

No one wants a free model. (Yes there are exceptions). The big game changer is GenAI. The cost to start vtubing now with a unique model is very low.

[echelon]

> Which caused some problems with merchandising, but that's a different can of worms.

Can you expand on this? Are they not able to sell merch since they don't "own" their design?

How popular are they? Have they considered buying the model from the authors?

[krige]

It's a complex/murky matter with lots of allegations in every direction that's hard to summarize properly.

The absolute barest bone / neutral summary is that Filian is very popular (3.2 mil subs on yt, 1.3 mil subs on twitch, although she may be retiring currently, or is doing an extensive publicity stunt as her channels and socials are wiped clean). Two years ago, the model's creator announced [0] that Good Smile is making a nendo based off his model for an unnamed vtuber, and that they were not informed beforehand, let alone credited or compensated. They were trying to contact Good Smile and said vtuber to resolve the matter. After a few days Jingo posted an extensive message [1] that the situation was resolved and the parties are cooperating, further noting, among other things, that "free to use in VRchat" does not mean "free to do anything without any credit".

Note that this was not the first time Filian made merch off this model, and it was not stated clearly why Jingo took steps only at that point. Possibly because they never heard about Filian and only realized what's going on since Good Smile is a well known Japanese company.

[0] https://x.com/jingo_1016/status/1809101855655670159

[1] https://x.com/jingo_1016/status/1809811423125729396

[ffsm8]

that fillian controversy gives me flashbacks.... suprisingly little of that controversy seems to have survived, even though its only been 2 years.

this one is the only thing i could scrounge up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsXOyo1BM6Y - but always take what he says with a barrel of salt, he'S more trying to drum up drama then actually portrait things truthfully

[fennecfoxy]

Nah weaboos and (us) furries been doing it for ages + not necessarily expensive at all, can use a webcam for basic ones for ages now.

[nitwit005]

A lot of people started with some image they, or a friend, doodled, which they made animate slightly when they talk. That's a pretty low barrier to entry.

[koteelok]

Is this AI? That was the case like 5 years ago. Every big western vtuber right now started out as an indie using free models.

[maeln]

I must be old, but five years is not that long ago. OOP was mentioning the covid peak. Before 2019, there was already vtubers, but the setups where way more complicated and janky.

[valorzard]

Yeah it really hit its peak with gen 1 of Hololive English I want to say, along with the explosion of indie vtubers on twitch and stuff that followed.

A lot of female content creators I followed online became vtubers. HikaruStation used to be a singer, but now she’s a whale Vtuber by the name of Bao.

AmaLee (of LeeAndLie) also got famous through anime song covers, but she’s mostly a vtuber now.

I think the current vtuber “market” is a lot harder to break into now than it used to be though.

[bluefirebrand]

Yeah, I was thinking that too

Gawr Gura sang "take me out to the ball game" at a Dodgers game in 2024. This stuff has been super mainstream now for years

[rmunn]

It quotes figures from Q1 of 2026, so it was definitely published this year.

[flobosg]

According to the article metadata:

  "datePublished":"2026-07-16T08:18:37+09:00"

[andsoitis]

> I can't find when the article was published, but the phenomenon "went worldwide" several years ago by the means of COVID.

Article cites stats from Q1 2026, so presumably this is a current view of the phenomenon.