What Is hololive? Inside the World's Biggest VTuber Agency, Explained by Marine

Article

Ahead of its 9th anniversary this October, here's what actually defines hololive — and how a small AR/VR startup became one of the world's biggest VTuber agencies.

From AR/VR Startup to VTuber Powerhouse

COVER Corporation was founded June 13, 2016 by engineer Motoaki Tanigo, initially focused on AR/VR technology rather than entertainment. That changed on September 7, 2017, when Tokino Sora debuted as the company's first virtual talent. In December 2019, the female-centered hololive brand merged with the male VTuber group HOLOSTARS and the INoNaKa Music label into the unified "hololive production" brand recognized today.

The Scale Today

As of August 2026, hololive production has 87 talents with a combined 93 million-plus YouTube subscribers — 45 of them individually past the 1 million mark. That scale is why the agency now regularly headlines international conventions and stages original programming (like SUPER KARAOKE PARTY) at events such as Anime NYC, rather than functioning as a niche streaming label.

What To Know

For anyone who only knows hololive through one favorite talent's clips, understanding the agency's actual scale — dozens of individually million-subscriber performers across multiple language branches — reframes it as closer to a full entertainment company than a single streamer or small group, which matters for understanding why its events (concerts, conventions, merchandise) operate at the scale they do.

hololive's origin as an AR/VR startup rather than a talent agency from the start is a distinctly Japanese tech-industry pattern — many of Japan's most culturally influential entertainment products (Vocaloid included) emerged from engineering-first companies discovering an entertainment application for their technology, rather than entertainment companies adopting new tech.

What Fans Are Saying

• "Started as an AR/VR startup is such an unexpected origin story for the biggest VTuber agency."
• "93 million combined subscribers is a genuinely massive scale for what started with one talent."
• "Excited to see what the 9th anniversary collab ends up being."

Original Japanese

• 「AR・VRスタートアップから始まったというのは意外な出発点」
• 「たった1人のタレントから9300万人規模になったのは本当にすごい」
• 「9周年コラボの内容が楽しみ」

Easy Japanese

「hololive production」は、世界最大級のVTuber事務所です。所属タレントは87名で、YouTube登録者数の合計は9300万人を超えています。