>>99878422You want the truth? Alright, I'll give you the truth.
Idol was never that big for the general audience even at their peak. Sure, Idol was a kinda big deal for people who were significantly invested in vtubing already, and the general rise in interest in vtubers around '22 meant that the viewers who looked outside Hololive and Nijisanji frequently found E-Sekai, but that's not mass market appeal. That's a cult hit at best. Rin actually started out way behind the others right in the earliest days, and only got traction a few months in, after people started talking about her and the shorts were an unexpected hit. Before that, her live views were actually way less than this, so this is actually pretty good, stable numbers for her in the grander scheme of things. As everyone else mentioned, shorts are great for getting your face out there, but they don't necessarily translate into people watching your streams, so that part of the audience probably didn't stick around once she left Idol. Speaking of which, the others who left with her have all had a somewhat rough time of it. Yuko seems to really be trying her best as Rye again, and Fuyo seems to be doing alright as Mitty, but also isn't quite getting the same numbers she had as Fuyo. Juna seems to be doing alright, and still uses the sexy as fuck model. They're all still just as good as they were, with the exception of Pochi who seems to have left vtubing entirely, which is a shame. By comparison, Rin is still doing about as well or better than any other current member of Idol.
TLDR: she got really lucky for a while but after leaving Idol, there's less general buzz around her. She seems happy enough, and she's still doing well by comparison to other Idol talents and some Nijisanji or Phase streamers.
