>>106392252>Why did Vtubing stop growing in the west?Cultural differences. TL;DR at the bottom.
First, you have to separate virtual idol/GFE/CGDCT enjoyers from other vtuber fans who simply treat them as streamers with avatars. The demand for idol-themed vtubers is significantly higher in Japan because of huge idol culture that exists there, and coof lockdowns simply funneled millions of fans to Hololive at the right moment. On the other hand, EN rode the wave of novelty which then fizzled out as more vtubers outside Hololive debuted over the years and cut their CCV in half.
Secondly, there are no huge events that would connect content creators like they have in Japan. There's constantly something going on that brings in industry professionals together, and vtubers are rarely left out. Just think of Crazy Raccoon that hosts huge events. They ALWAYS invite voice actors, vtubers, biggest streamers, mangakas, utaites, and every other type of content creators together to play games like GTA, Rust, Minecraft, or various FPS titles. Nothing like that exists in the West. At least not on that scale.
Finally, EN vtubers are either very tribal or individualistic. HoloEN rarely collabs with anyone outside Hololive, NijiEN at their peak only allowed few exclusive leeches like Shoto, and VSHOJO, with an exception of ~3 members, relied on their own clique with a few orbiters before everything imploded.
I think the first vtuber Minecraft server that basically had no "borders" called VSMP launched in 2023 or 2024, and it was mainly just 2views and 3views. Recently, NijiEN tried something similar on a smaller scale, but it was barely any better considering they're nobodies now.
To make things worse, a lot of EN vtubers don't get the concept of urgency in events. They think that if an event is being hosted for 2 weeks, then it's fine to join sometime on the 2nd week or just play for 3 days randomly. Most JP chuubas commit to those type of events, and eventually they build new connections which then often leads to other event invitations. Heck, I remember Kiara complaining about the latest Holo Minecraft server saying something along the lines of how quickly things developed while she was playing random kusoges. Over 4 years being a vtuber and the concept of "2 first weeks are the most popular and clippable when everyone plays" never crossed her mind.
tl;dr
Cliques, walled gardens, arrogance, and laziness to organize anything on a bigger scale fucked shit up. EN vtubers live in their own small bubbles, and then the whole EN vtubing lives inside its own bubble separate from everything else.
