Virtual YouTubers, or VTubers, have become a wildly popular phenomenon on the internet, with a number of content creators broadcasting not as themselves, but instead as an animated avatar.

With many VTubers hailing from countries such as Japan and Korea, there’s a strong like between VTubing and Anime, appealing to a very specific and rabid demographic.

Some VTubers, such as Pekora and 渋谷ハル (Shibuya Hal), have been popular for some time, but with the new style of content growing, new names seem to be popping up every week.

Now, a new stats report shows exactly who is popping off in 2021, showing some big names rising and falling in the rankings.

Ash_on_LoL and CodeMiko see huge growth

The new report from StreamHatchet details a number of the biggest stats in streaming so far in 2021. It looks at which streamers are the most watched this year so far, as well as highlighting how far ahead Valkyrae is of her other female competition.

As you can see from the graph below, names like Pekora and Gawr Gura remain ever-present among the top 10, but Ash_on_LoL and CodeMiko show monumental growth.

While most VTubing takes place on YouTube, both of these are on Twitch, and have clearly found a strong audience to kick off 2021. Ash is up 274% from the end of 2020, with CodeMiko up 176%. They have 3.9m and 2.2m hours watched respectively in Q1, storming into the top 10 rankings.

This seems to come at the expense of the viewership of some other VTubers, such as Gawr Gura and Aqua, who have dropped by 53% and 43% respectively.

Needless to say, there seems to be an uprising of VTubers on Twitch, with Ash and CodeMiko leading the way. It will be interesting to see how these stats change over the year — and whether anyone can overtake Pekora.

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