May saw an overall increase in viewership among VTubers, as a few big concert streams and a slew of big name collaborations buoyed fans’ excitement. Hololive’s grasp on the top 10 loosened as another male VTuber entered the ranks and Korean VTubers joined the fray after moving to AfreecaTV following the Twitch shutdown in South Korea.
Pekora Ch. 兎田ぺこら (Usada Pekora)
Usada Pekora held onto the top spot this month with an average minute viewership (AMA) of 35K – a slight decrease of 3K from April. As a Hololive member, Pekora causes mischief under the guise of a sweet bunny girl. She’s mostly known for playing sandbox builders like Minecraft and Terraria, and RPGs like Granblue Fantasy. This month, Pekora traded on her newfound popularity to try out some different kinds of content, such as a watch party for Dragon Ball Z and playing through the remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door.
Miko Ch. さくらみこ (Sakura Miko)
Sakura Miko closed the gap between herself and Pekora, coming into second place with an AMA of 29K. As a long-time member of VTuber group Hololive, fans keep tuning in for her shrine maiden appearance and daring plays in games like GTA V. To catch up to Pekora, Miko upped her airtime to 69 hours, participated in three big collab streams and found surprise success with a long playthrough of Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions.
Aqua Ch. 湊あくあ
Minato Aqua proved her staying power in May by remaining in the top 3 VTubers, increasing her AMA to 21K. As another Hololive member, Aqua is known for her elegant maid outfits which is undercut by her bumbling airhead persona. While her performance is impressive, it is undercut by the fact that her two best performing series in May were collabs with Miko in Minecraft and Pekora in The Game of Sisyphus.
Kuzuha Channel
Kuzuha remained the top male VTuber with an AMA of 19K for May. Kuzuha is a vampire with a suave yet arrogant personality, drawing in fans as the most subscribed male VTuber on YouTube with 1.7M subscribers. He typically plays highly competitive games such as Street Fighter 6 and League of Legends, as proven by his most popular stream for May: His participation in the LEGENDUS Street Fighter 6 event on the 19th of May.
Subaru Ch. 大空スバル (Oozora Subaru)
Oozora Subaru settled in at #5 with an AMA of 18K, holding steady from last month. Subaru takes a different tack from many of Hololive’s VTubers, adopting a tomboy-ish, extroverted personality. Her biggest streams for May were from a playthrough of the original Super Mario Bros. through the Switch Emulator, trying to beat the whole game without any warps or save states. The old-school challenge of the game and retro nostalgia kept Subaru’s fans hooked.
고세구! (Gosegu)
Gosegu bucks the trend of Japanese-only VTubers, breaking into sixth spot as the first Korean-speaking VTuber on this list with an AMA of 14K. Gosegu is a member of ISEGYE IDOL, a female VTuber group from Korea similar to Hololive, but more akin to a traditional idol pop group. She is the more chaotic member of the group, doing anything scandalous to stand out. The entire group moved over to AfreecaTV in February after Twitch shut down in South Korea.
不破 湊 / Fuwa Minato【にじさんじ】
Kuzuha is finally joined by another Male VTuber and fellow member of VTuber group Nijisanji: Fuwa Minato. Minato took seventh place for May with an AMA of 13.5K. Minato adopts the friendly and approachable persona of a “host”; in Japan, a host works at a host club and keeps the club’s patrons company by providing attention. Minato also loves to sing, explaining his biggest stream for May: A full-on 3D concert in which Minato announced the release of his upcoming album.
아이네♪ (Ine)
Ine is the second Korean-speaking VTuber on this list and a fellow member of ISEGYE IDOL along with Gosegu. Ine managed to land an AMA of 13.5K, but streamed roughly 140 hours less than Gosegu to get this result. Ine is a massive Disney and anime fan, and can speak English quite well which helps when singing English-language songs. Breaking from her group, Ine performed her first solo concert this month which racked up enough views to earn her spot on this list.
叶ちゃんねる (Kanae Channel)
Kanae is the only VTuber in the top 10 who primarily streams on Twitch, generating an AMA of 13.5K. Kanae’s self-assured, charming persona brings in fans to his streams as he plays highly competitive games. Being on Twitch, Kanae focuses on long streams of mainstream titles like GTA V and VALORANT to generate a massive amount of hours watched – 2.2M for May.
フブキCh。白上フブキ (Fubuki Ch, Shirakami Fubuki)
Rounding out the top 10 is Shirakami Fubuki with an AMA of 12.5K. Fubuki is an otaku fox whose cheerful personality can quickly switch to cunning ruthlessness, as seen in her much-loved playthroughs of Project Winter and Undertale. This month, Fubuki continued to collaborate with Miko to great success, starring in mega-popular streams of both Mario Party 2 and Fallout 76 – no doubt inspired by the success of the Fallout TV series.
Although there were new entrants to the top 10 leaderboard, the top 5 VTubers remained exactly the same. This wasn’t for lack of trying, however, with massive airtimes from Gosegu and Kanae. Hololive’s Minecraft server kept the band together as they celebrated the game’s 15th anniversary, and Mario franchise content remained as popular as ever for VTuber audiences. Stream Hatchet will watch to see if the top 5 can be dethroned in June.
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