The 12 Best Vtubers to Watch in 2023

VTubers have been trending in Japan since the mid-2010s, but the phenomenon started branching out to other parts of the world in recent years, allowing Americans, Brits, Australians, and more to join the trend. Essentially, VTubers are online entertainers who use computer-generated avatars that sometimes capture real-life movement as a mascot for their channel and videos.

Many VTubers are typically either Japanese or English-speaking streamers who migrate from platforms such as YouTube or Twitch to use animated avatars instead of painstakingly drawing avatars of themselves or their characters for every single video. Once the world caught wind of the trend, there were more than 10,000 active VTubers by 2020, and now, as we’re entering 2023, that number has grown exponentially.

Although VTubers typically use YouTube and Twitch exclusively, other sites — Facebook, Twitter, Niconico — are known to feature these types of influencers. The first person to coin the term “virtual YouTuber” and quite possibly the first VTuber to exist — Kizuna AI —was also the most subscribed at one point during her active period from 2016 to 2021.

Kizuna’s popularity sparked a VTuber trend in Japan and — in turn — the rest of the world. Since their establishment, VTubers have broken streaming records, earned global recognition, and even appeared in online campaigns. The VTuber pool has changed over the years, so there aren’t many originals left anymore, but some breakout stars are still going strong.

Note: all current subscriber values are accurate to the time of writing and are subject to change.

Kanae

Kanae, who is based in Japan, has over 1.22M subscribers on YouTube and is one of the most popular VTubers within the Nijisanji agency. While Kanae is supposedly 20 years old, the exact number of his years is unknown. He is often regarded as a mystery due to his hard-to-read nature, but his charm and sociability have made him quite popular. As a result of Kanae’s skill at holding conversations effortlessly, he has developed a wide social circle. He has worked with gamers, manga artists, voice actors, as well as international Nijisanji members. Kanae’s mascot is Roto, a black cat plushie who is controlled by a cat demon. 

In addition to streaming extremely frequently, Kanae has the highest combined streaming hours out of all Nijisanji members. At times, he streams for 11 hours or longer. Most of the games Kanae plays are FPS games, but sometimes, he plays social games, Mahjong, RPGs, etc. However, he does not like horror games. Additionally, Kanae has participated in many gaming tournaments, including those for PUBG, APEX Legends, League of Legends, and Super Smash Brothers.

Shylily

Shylily is a German “Orcat” (a cross between a cat and an orca based on the Akhlut, an Inuit folklore creature from the Arctic) VTuber currently located in the Netherlands. As one of the most well-known and largest Indie VTubers in history, she has been active on Twitch since Aug. 29, 2015. According to her legend, she was playing in a freshly frozen river when the ice gave way, and she fell into it. An orca spirit rescued the girl as she drowned, turning her into an Orcat/mermaid hybrid. She now rescues drowning people as a result.

With over 1.2 million Twitch subscribers and 804K YouTube subscribers, Shylily is one of the most prominent currently active VTubers (corporate or independent). The achievement is impressive, especially given that Shylily did not receive promotional materials like Ironmouse, Mori Calliope, or Gawr Gura, as corporate VTubers do. After starting out as an independent, she has since joined the company Mythic Talent.