VTubers break into Twitch’s top 5 as tag goes viral across 2022

The VTuber uprising is continuing, with the medium posting its biggest numbers to date across 2022. On Twitch, the “VTuber” tag broke into the top 5 on the platform ⁠— although it wasn’t all clean play.

If you thought VTubing would just be a quarantine fad, think again. After the medium broke out into mainstream consciousness across 2020, its rise has continued solidly on all platforms ⁠— Twitch and YouTube especially.

YouTube’s Culture and Trends Insight Lead, Earnest Pettie, highlighted in early December how VTuber content got more than 1.5 billion views per month on the platform. Four years ago in 2018, that was 400 million views per year ⁠— a 45-fold difference.

Now Twitch is demonstrating the reach of VTubers with its own stats in Twitch Recap 2022. With over 789 million hours of content streamed across the year, with 1 million unique tags, VTubing stood among the top five of those identifiers in 2022.

It came in fifth, behind Multiplayer, LGBTQIA+, PvP, and Playing With Viewers. 

While the exact number of broadcasters using the VTuber tag wasn’t disclosed by the Amazon-owned platform, it’s as big an indication of its growth as it is of its power. By streaming with the VTuber tag, you are likely to get discovered.

That came to a head earlier in 2022 after many non-VTubers, such as Twitch’s biggest name in Felix ‘xQc’ Lengyel, were using the tag to drive engagement. He would constantly appear at the top of VTuber searches on the platform, despite not using a virtual model. Amouranth and Mizkif were also spotted using the tag, among other big names.

Twitch didn’t shut down the practice despite an uproar from the VTuber community, with an admin stating they “do not feel Twitch should be the judge of Creators’ personal or creative identity.”

Despite this hiccup, VTubers were some of Twitch’s most prominent content creators in 2022. VShojo star Ironmouse made history by shattering the subscriber record for a female streamer with her mega subathon in February 2022. Yuki Chihiro of NIJISANJI also made waves by breaking into the top 10 female streamers worldwide thanks to her Twitch growth.

As 2023 approaches, the VTuber uprising doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon. With new debuts every day, the hype is only building in the virtual world.