/jp/ - Otaku Culture

This is a comparison of Gura's activity between November's 20th and November's 30th in 2 different years: 2020 and 2022.
As you can see in 2020 she used to stream almost every day while in 2022 all her activity was marketing shilling.

Anyone can make a simple deduction from this. Merch sales have become a priority for Gura because it brings her more income than YouTube ads and super chats. The only way for a vtuber that ends being more valuable as a toy mascot than a streamer to get back into streaming is for her target audience to stop buying merch and invest more in super chat and membership.

Most people make the assumption that they are "throwing their money away" when they use super chats but in practice not only she the vtuber takes a bigger share from your super chat amount (7% net - source: Mori and /#/) than she would for the same amount from merch sales (2-4% net - source: /#/), it also shows Cover that streaming is a precious source of income and shouldn't be neglected.

Unfortunately as of today the merch sales are vastly large and even if she earns a lower percentage than she does from super chats, they are still a bigger income than super chats.
When you buy merch you are funding the toy industry while neglecting the virtual part of the vtuber business and you are actively damaging this culture in the whole.

You have to get over the mindset that you must "get something back" for your money, you aren't getting anything other than environment unfriendly polymers that are killing your favorite vtuber's channel and your local dolphins. On the other hand you do get something of value in return in form of streams, longer and more numerous streams and special streams from your oshi when you invest into super chat and membership rather than merch.