Hololive’s Usada Pekora has opened up on how she earns a living as a VTuber, saying she’s had it easy because of Hololive. However there are other creators out there who would earn more, and there are different ways to go about it too.
Usada Pekora is one of the richest VTubers out there, based on public figures. The Hololive member has received $2.4 million in Super Chat revenue on YouTube, the highest of any active VTuber (Uruha Rushia and Kiryu Coco, both graduated, are ahead of her).
That $2.4 million figure would be split up somehow in her contract, but there are other things like base pay an agency can afford a talent, as well as merchandise runs, marketing campaigns, and more.
When a fan brought up the topic on stream though, Pekora didn’t necessarily want to be dragged into the harsh reality of it all: “Why are you asking about that? Let’s talk about our dreams instead, don’t bring reality into that suddenly!”
However, she did address the topic at hand. She only had her own experiences as a Hololive VTuber to go off, but she did admit there are ways for creators to make more money than her.
For those at the top, you can make an easy living out of it. However the grind to get there is hard, and Pekora doesn’t really have a touchstone to refer to due to her status in the medium.
“Earning a living… I don’t actually know,” she mused. “I am affiliated with Hololive. If it’s a Hololive member, you can earn a living. You can at least earn enough to cover your expenses.
“As for indie VTubers, Pekora has never been one. I think some indie VTubers earn more. Peko is affiliated with a company, but for indie VTubers it’s only between YouTube [or Twitch] and them. That might play a part, not that I actually know anything.”
She also opened up on the different revenue paths. Super Chats are a common theme for VTubers who stream, but they aren’t the main path for a VTuber who uploaded pre-recorded videos. There are different styles and ways of monetizing, which is key in such a massive space.
Peko is happy in her niche though and has no plans on changing it up.
“There’s a lot of VTubers now. There’s already a lot on YouTube alone. There’s video and live stream VTubers. Which is better? Peko is the live stream style — I can’t do it if it’s not streaming, because I love streaming. I can’t edit videos by myself too.”
There is a warning with these comments though: content creation is a hard business to crack into, and VTubing falls into that.
While there are plenty of big streamers, there’s a majority who are in it for fun and juggle outside work with their passion. Don’t expect to be as big as Pekora when you start out.
How Old Is Usada Pekora IRL?
Usada Pekora (兎田ぺこら) is a female Japanese Virtual YouTuber associated with hololive, debuting as part of its third generation of VTubers under the name of “hololive Fantasy” (ホロライブファンタジー) alongside Uruha Rushia, Shiranui Flare, Shirogane Noel and Houshou Marine.
Her nicknames include Peko-chan (by Houshou Marine and AZKi), Ushida Bekora (male persona), and Shachou (by Moona Hoshinova).
Her birthday is on 12 January and she is 111 years old.
She stands at a height of 153 cm (not including the ears) with a weight of 3 carrots. Her zodiac sign is Capricorn
Pekora hails from the nation of Pekoland, where she claims she is a member of royalty. While not much is currently known about Pekoland, it is assumed that its denizens are, like Pekora, Animals humans with rabbit ears and comparatively long lifespans and that the rabbit-motif apparent in Pekora’s fashion and accessories is significant to their culture.
According to Pekora, “peko” is the only word in the Pekolandish language. In line with her claims of a royal upbringing, Pekora’s personality can be described as outwardly bratty, haughty, immature, and surly, but genuinely playful and friendly. But when not on camera she has been noted by other hololive girls as polite and shy as she doesn’t like people in her space, as well as one to internalize her pain (as noted by Houshou Marine) which ended up prematurely ending one of her streams with her in tears.
Pekora is infamous for mischief, to the point where other hololive members will instantly become suspicious of any project if they learn that Pekora was involved. While her intended victim is usually Sakura Miko, no one is exempt from her trolling, not even herself. Pekora’s fans appropriately display this same kind of attitude and are known to ruthlessly tease her through the chat when the opportunity arises.
In spite of everything, Pekora still wants to be recognized as a real idol, but to her chagrin, fans mostly think of her as a “comedian” and “crazy rabbit,” not helped by her constant sprees of often self-inflicted misfortune. Even when she is in an idol-like scenario, something always backfires on her. Fittingly, she is also particularly well-known for being able to almost instantly flip between smugly gloating and desperately begging for help/forgiveness depending on whether or not she has the upper hand in a situation.
Pekora has a distinctive laugh (frequently represented in text as “AH↓ HA↑ HA↑ HA↑”) somewhat resembling that of an older female aristocrat, and frequently interjects her sentences with the “-peko” suffix, though she has been known to forget this occasionally. She asserts her dominance by shouting “PE↗ KO↘ PE↗ KO↘ PE↗ KO↘.”
