VTubers are taking the U.S. by storm, and women are tuning in

VTubers are coming to America, and as they do, they are rewriting some trends that underscore their initial rise in East Asia. That’s one of the key takeaways from a new report published by Big Games Machine, which surveyed the gaming-related habits of U.S.-based YouTube viewers.

According to the preamble of the report, Big Games Machine conducted its survey to suss out “the key content types gamers watch the most, which gamer demographics watch what, and what makes gamers choose one content creator over another.” The firm gathered opinions from 1,050 U.S.-based gamers who spend at least 30 minutes per week watching YouTube. The sample had an even split of men and women.

Many of the findings back up long-held beliefs about YouTube consumption. Guides and tutorials are the most commonly viewed gaming videos among the survey respondents, with 47% of them watching that genre. Reviews (40%) and funny compilations (40%) are other popular categories.

18% of the respondents watch VTubers on YouTube, but drilling into that percentage reveals a significant gender disparity. 23% of women said that they watch VTubers, compared to 14% of men. For esports content, the trend flipped the other way, with 14% of men watching compared to 6% of women.

The VTuber data is particularly interesting, as it is a notable departure from viewership trends in East Asia. In Japan, the home of major VTuber agencies like hololive

and Nijisanji, the genre is most popular among men. According to data from hololive, 89% of the agency’s Japanese audience is male.

According to Streams Charts, about 70% of active virtual creators are female, but the popularity of VTubers among U.S. women is not just about gender solidarity. Big Games Machine found that women are more likely than men to seek out gaming-driven content on TikTok, whereas men are more likely to frequent Kick.

Does the preference for a social video platform draw women to the big personalities in the VTuber world? In Japan, factors like kawaii culture influence VTuber consumption, but those forces are less pronounced in the West. 45% of Big Games Machine respondents cited personality as a factor that draws them toward certain gaming creators — and that’s good news for VTubers.

At the end of the day, the preferences of gaming content viewers are all over the map, which means that smaller creators in specific niches can stick out beyond their subscriber counts. The Big Games Machine report found that medium-sized channels with fewer than one million subscribers are most popular among gamers. If you want to draw further insights from the data, you can snag a copy of the report here.