doi: 10.18178/ijssh.2025.15.2.1245
Beyond Reality: Unveiling the Hidden Drives of VTuber Devotion amongst the Youth
Xinyao Zheng
- RDFZ Chaoyang School, Beijing, China
- Manuscript received December 16, 2024
- accepted January 27, 2025
- published April 18, 2025
Abstract
Since 2020, the prevalence of Vtubers has surged, exemplified by Jiaran’s birthday party in 2022, which garnered over 16,000 memberships at a rate of 138 yuan per membership, and Vox Akuma’s exclusive broadcast on Bilibili in 2023 [1], amassing a revenue of 1.1 million yuan. Against this backdrop, our research endeavors to elucidate the underlying factors contributing to the appeal of virtual YouTubers (VTubers), particularly among the adolescent demographic. Given the paucity of existing scholarly investigations on this subject, this study conducted in-depth interviews with 13 adolescents aged 14–25 who have been exposed to VTubers. The findings reveal that teenagers are primarily drawn to the meticulously crafted appearance and persona of VTubers, while additional intriguing factors, including social influences and the distinctive format of virtual anchor live broadcasts, contribute to their allure. This research seeks to address the existing gap in the literature regarding the phenomenon of VTuber addiction among adolescents.
Keywords
- VTuber
- motivation
- in-depth interview
- Chinese teenager
- virtual idol
How to Cite
Xinyao Zheng, "Beyond Reality: Unveiling the Hidden Drives of VTuber Devotion amongst the Youth," International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 79-83, 2025. https://doi.org/ 10.18178/ijssh.2025.15.2.1245
Copyright & License
Copyright © 2025 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).