Twitch already has plenty of vtubers streaming on it daily, some of whom are incredibly successful. But it doesn’t have Hololive, the biggest group of vtubers in the world. A few of its members have streamed on it here and there in the past, but now it’s going to be a regular spot to watch the most popular anime girls play games.
Cover, owner of the Hololive vtuber agency, has entered a partnership with Twitch for its talents to regularly stream on the platform. If you’ve ever seen a clip of an anime dog girl or a shark girl playing a game, it was probably a Hololive vtuber. One of its most popular English-speaking vtubers, Calliope Mori, has over 2.5 million subscribers on YouTube, and several of its Japanese talents have even more.
Moreno says it’ll be up to the talents on how they want to incorporate Twitch into their streaming schedules. Part of the deal was to establish a way for the vtubers to stream on the platform in the safest way possible given that Hololive talents operate much like the idol industry and keep most of their personal lives and identities anonymous.
Right now, safety is a major concern for Twitch streamers after popular creator Emily-Beth “Emiru” Schunk was assaulted at the recent TwitchCon event in San Diego. Twitch CEO Dan Clancy apologized for failing to prevent the incident, and said the company is reviewing how it conducts its in-person events for the future.
The risk is a little different for vtubers, who usually attend events remotely and greet fans on big screens rather than showing up directly. That said, Moreno says Cover’s top priority is “providing a safe environment where the talents feel comfortable to perform their activities,” and that it won’t be involved in any events where that could be a problem. I doubt you’ll see a major Hololive presence at the next TwitchCon unless Twitch gets its stuff together.
Hololive’s official debut on Twitch will kick off with a streaming event on November 20 called “Holoday”, where several of its biggest vtubers will be on the front page.
