Virtual Stars, Real Fans: Understanding the VTuber Ecosystem

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the characteristics and engagement patterns of VTuber viewers on Bilibili, providing insights to help VTubers grow their fan base through a novel recommendation tool based on a large dataset of livestream sessions.

Contribution

It offers the first comprehensive analysis of VTuber viewers on Bilibili and introduces a new tool to recommend potential future fans, aiding VTubers in community growth.

Findings

Large dataset of 2.7 million livestream sessions analyzed

Identified key viewer engagement patterns and characteristics

Developed a tool for recommending potential future fans

Abstract

Livestreaming by VTubers -- animated 2D/3D avatars controlled by real individuals -- have recently garnered substantial global followings and achieved significant monetary success. Despite prior research highlighting the importance of realism in audience engagement, VTubers deliberately conceal their identities, cultivating dedicated fan communities through virtual personas. While previous studies underscore that building a core fan community is essential to a streamer's success, we lack an understanding of the characteristics of viewers of this new type of streamer. Gaining a deeper insight into these viewers is critical for VTubers to enhance audience engagement, foster a more robust fan base, and attract a larger viewership. To address this gap, we conduct a comprehensive analysis of VTuber viewers on Bilibili, a leading livestreaming platform where nearly all VTubers in China stream. By compiling a first-of-its-kind dataset covering 2.7M livestreaming sessions, we investigate the characteristics, engagement patterns, and influence of VTuber viewers. Our research yields several valuable insights, which we then leverage to develop a tool to "recommend" future subscribers to VTubers. By reversing the typical approach of recommending streams to viewers, this tool assists VTubers in pinpointing potential future fans to pay more attention to, and thereby effectively growing their fan community.