- Virtual influencer Mori Calliope performed a sold-out show at the Hollywood Palladium in February.
- These influencers, also known as VTubers, appear as digital avatars and are gaining popularity.
- I went to the concert. It was unlike anything I've seen before.
Inside Los Angeles' Hollywood Palladium, red and purple penlights glowed. Fans waved the electronic instruments popular in the anime community, danced, and cheered on a digital avatar while its creator performed from behind the stage.
The virtual influencer who sold out the 4,000-person theater isn't a household name. But she's part of a growing trend of creators who use technology to appear as digital avatars in their content and in
live performances.
The VTuber, short for virtual YouTuber, goes by the name Mori Calliope. The creator conceals her true identity to fans. Mori Calliope has 2.5 million subscribers on her main YouTube channel, where she posts music videos in both English and Japanese, chats with fans on livestreams, and streams herself playing games like Minecraft. Some of her livestreams in the last three months were almost eight hours long.
On Wednesday, I went to Mori Calliope's second solo concert. Tickets ranged from $95 for general admission floor tickets to $400 for four balcony table seats,
according to the show's official website. I was invited to check out the event for free with a press pass.
If you're still wondering what a VTuber is, don't worry, you're not alone. The niche creator category, which originated in Japan, reflects an anime style. Although small in terms of the overall creator economy, the genre has a surprisingly dedicated fan base — one unlike I've seen before.
I've witnessed crowds of superfans for gaming creators like DreamSMP at
creator conferences, including VidCon, as well as at pop-ups for
YouTube superstar MrBeast. Last year, I attended a YouTuber event in a North Hollywood theater that was packed with children for a
viewing of the animated YouTube show "Battle for Dream Island."
Unlike those events, most of the fans at Mori Calliope's show appeared to be in their late teens and 20s. It was the type of engaged fandom I've really only seen YouTubers conjure with younger audiences before. The crowd seemed like one you'd find at an anime convention. Fans wore apparel like T-shirts, hoodies, jackets, and even cosplay of the VTuber.
The show was also more highly produced than other YouTuber events I'd seen. It resembled a rock show. The lasers and lighting matched the color of the VTuber's virtual stage, making it appear like she was physically there.
Mori Calliope shows the growing popularity of VTubers
Mori Calliope is one of dozens of VTubers taking over YouTube.
The creator is signed to Universal Music Japan and
Cover Corporation's Hololive, a virtual influencer agency based in Japan. Hololive manages Mori Calliope's business ventures and YouTube channel, similar to the way talent agencies do for other creators and stars.
Globally, Cover is a big deal. The company's market capitalization is about $160 billion yen, or around $1 billion. It recently opened an office in Los Angeles as part of a US expansion, Cover CEO Motoaki Tanigo told Business Insider.
Hololive's English-speaking audiences are still a fraction of those in Japan, but they're growing. Combined, Hololive's VTubers had 5.9 billion subscribers in Japan and 3.2 billion subscribers overseas as of December 31, with about two-thirds of those in English-speaking regions, according to the company's February financial presentation.
Tanigo said music like Mori Calliope's is one of the top ways its talent reaches new audiences.
"The popularity of these events proves that North American audiences have a tremendous appetite for VTuber content," Tanigo said in a January interview conducted through translators. "Our goal is to elevate VTubers alongside popular Japanese exports like manga, anime, and games."
One concertgoer told me fans lined up as early as 3 p.m. on the day of the show. When I arrived about an hour before the start time, a line to get into the venue wrapped around the block. Fans held plushies of Mori Calliope and other characters from her videos. They dressed in merch and other apparel that matched her character's logo and signature pink. I also saw several fans ahead of me dressed in cosplay.
Inside, people stood in line for Mori Calliope merchandise, including T-shirts, glowsticks, a jersey, and a keychain. Hololive also sold the event merch online and at a Los Angeles pop-up earlier in the month.
Part of the show was livestreamed for free on YouTube for Mori Calliope's global audience. At one point, 28,000 fans were watching.
About a quarter of the way into the show, the VTuber directed those viewers to a link where they could buy tickets to watch the rest of the performance online. The tickets ranged from $43 to $51 on platforms like SPWN and Streaming+.
After the concert, I overheard groups of fans outside the venue exchanging information including social media handles and Discord groups. They cheered as a pink car wrapped in images of Mori Calliope drove swiftly past them.
