Veteran YouTuber Kwebbelkop, With 15 Million Subscribers, Is Sunsetting Channel For VTuber Venture ‘Bloo’

Veteran YouTuber Kwebbelkop, who has amassed 15 million subscribers on the strength of his daily uploads for the past decade, is sunsetting his on-camera career.

The 26-year-old, who hails from Amsterdam and whose real name is Jordi Maxim van den Bussche, shares that he’s invested millions of Euros into a new channel that is being fronted by a VTuber named Bloo. Van den Bussche made the announcement in a lengthy Twitter thread.

The VTuber phenomenon, which originated in Japan, sees online creators using virtual avatars instead of appearing on-camera — with many being anime-inspired. VTubers are often piloted and voiced by real people using real-time motion capture technology and AI voice software, though the avatars — with fleshed-out characters and a unique backstory — are the stars of the show.

Kwebbelop actually launched Bloo — who aptly has blue hair and eyebrows, and frequently plays Grand Theft Auto V — earlier this year. The channel has amassed 200,000 subscribers and 35 million views to date, and is profitable, he said.

After posting daily for the past decade, come 2022, van den Bussche plans to sunset his channel — as soon as Bloo’s revenues surpass his own. He says he’s close, with Bloo raking in roughly 70% of revenues of the Kwebbelkop channel, which predominantly features gaming and reaction videos.

“VTubers can’t cause drama, they can’t die, they can’t leave a company, they are infinitely scalable, they can speak any language, and be at multiple places at the same time,” van den Bussche explained. “There is still so much more to learn; character building is next on our list. We’re already experimenting with multiple channels and languages and it shouldn’t be a problem at all.”

The VTuber venture isn’t van den Bussche’s only big bet on the future. He’s also the founder of Launch My NFT, a just-launched, web based platform that enables creators to launch their own NFT collections.