VTuber

A VTuber (Japanese: ブイチューバー, Hepburn: BuiChūbā) or virtual YouTuber (バーチャルユーチューバー, bācharu YūChūbā) is an online entertainer who uses a virtual avatar made using computer graphics. Real-time motion capture software or technology are often used to make the avatar move. VTubers originated in Japan in the mid-2010s, and have become internationally popular in the 2020s.^[1][2] Most VTubers are English- and Japanese-speaking YouTubers or live streamers who use avatars. By 2020, there were more than 10,000 active VTubers.^[3]

Kizuna AI was the first VTuber to become very popular.

The first entertainer to use the phrase "virtual YouTuber", Kizuna AI, began making videos on YouTube in late 2016. Her popularity inspired several other VTubers in Japan. Several agencies were created to promote them, including Hololive Production, Nijisanji, and VShojo. Fan translations and foreign-language VTubers have caused VTubers to become internationally popular.^[4]