Twitch has come under fire from fans and creators after one of its end-of-year posts labeled the many VTubers on the platform as AI. VTubers have been among the fastest growing content creators on the internet with the genre seeing a major boom in 2020. Popular Twitch VTuber Ironmouse became the most subscribed female streamer on the platform for a period of time earlier this year while VTuber agencies like Hololive and Nijisanji have become synonymous with the genre.

While the VTuber boom has seen many individual content creators achieve massive success, larger companies have also taken notice of the growing trend. Sega mascot Sonic the Hedgehog made his VTuber debut late last year with several other major companies including Disney, Crunchyroll, and Netflix joining the trend. With Twitch serving as one of the leading platforms for many VTubers, the company looked to highlight many of its top virtual talents as the site wraps up 2022. However, the wording of its announcement has seen significant backlash from both fans and creators.

In a post highlighting some of Twitch's top VTubers, Twitch referred to the virtual content creators as "growing and creating AI like never before" with many VTubers on the site criticizing the statement. Several popular creators including Vienna and VShojo manager Tomathin came out against the framing of Twitch's statement, feeling the post misrepresents VTubers with the genre not being connected to AI. The video from Twitch featured several of the platform's most popular VTubers including Nyanners, Silvervale, and CodeMiko among others.

The Vtuber tag brought both avatars and viewers together in one great space, with Vtubers growing and creating AI like never before... oh, and some amazing characters and personalities came along with it. pic.twitter.com/9RhICpLVNU

— Twitch (@Twitch) December 22, 2022

Fans and creators would criticize the perceived message behind the tweets, feeling that Twitch's announcement was downplaying the work done by its many VTuber creators. The upper echelons of the streaming website feature a variety of VTubers with creators like Ironmouse and Nyanners carving out considerable fanbases on the site. VTubers have also been no strangers to the recent exodus away from Twitch, with many choosing to move their audiences to new platforms. One creator featured in the video, CodeMiko, has even previously confirmed her intent to transition to YouTube as her main platform.

The explosion in popularity of VTubers on Twitch has also seen some of the site's top talents try their hand at streaming with a virtual avatar. Twitch talents like Scarra, Pokimane, and LilyPichu have each streamed multiple times using a virtual avatar, whereas the creators would normally stream with a face-cam. The significant attention towards the medium has even seen creators like Kizuna AI leverage their success into anime and TV series. The success of VTubers on Twitch has shown the genre is here to stay, and these creators will continue to dominate Twitch and YouTube in the future.

Posted: Dec 30, 2022 12:07 am
Related Forum: Media Forum

Source: https://gamerant.com/twitch-vtubers-ai/