YAGOO: Hololive Revenue Only 25% From YouTube

Cover Corporation CEO Motoaki "Yagoo" Tanigo says that YouTube only accounts for 25% of Hololive Revenue, especially as the Vtuber company continues to branch out.

In an interview with Otaku US, he explained that while donations from viewers and ad revenue may seem like the most direct income for Vtubers, they weren't the lion's share of Hololive revenue.

"In the VTuber business, YouTube accounts for only 25% of the total revenue and the remaining comes from licensing and merchandising. In order for us to expand, we need to expand our branch in the West and local collaborations", he said.

This isn't an entirely unique strategy- three years ago Tanigo had explained the approach of monetizing Hololive, comparing it to a "Character business" where Hololive revenue would be driven by people wanting to associate with the IP via merchandising rather than from the streams themselves.

"I think it is more a sense of wanting to wear goods related to the IP", he says.

Hololive Revenue: The Numbers

Recently, Cover Corporation had also published their financial report, where investors could see the fruits of this approach.

In the report, they mentioned that while revenue from streaming activities had grown by 21% compared to the previous year, it wasn't nearly as much as merchandising and licensing deals, which grew 79.8% and 90% compared to the year prior.

Fans of the English branch might have also seen some of the biggest swings with these collaborations with major American brands, like RoundOne Arcade or even the LA Dodgers collab, which saw Vtubers like Gawr Gura taking over the stadium for a night.

That's not to say that the well of Super Chats is drying up- PlayBoard reports that of the top 10 most Super Chatted Youtubers, three of them are Hololive talents, with Minato Aqua at no.4 (USD540,214), Twin act Fuwamoco at number 6 (USD410,957) and Sakamata Chloe at no.8 (USD384,883).

Cover Corporation's Vtubers are also the only Vtubers to be on the Playboard chart.