How much a YouTuber earns with about 500,000 subscribers on his 'VTube' channel
- Kwebbelkop, a Dutch gamer with 15 million subscribers, has been on YouTube for a decade.
- Last year, he launched VTuber channel Bloo to counter burnout.
- Here's how much the channel earns and costs to run, and his plans for the future.
After a decade on YouTube, with near-daily uploads of high-octane gaming and reaction content centered on Minecraft and Grand Theft Auto 5, the Dutch YouTuber Kwebbelkop – who has 15 million subscribers – is well-acquainted with burnout.
In 2020, the 27-year-old – whose real name is Jordi Maxim van den Bussche – hatched a plan. He envisioned a channel that could run without his direct involvement. Dubbed Tiger, it would be hosted by a former videographer named Hassan. Van den Bussche would own the channel, handling backend logistics and business dealings, and paying Hassan on a contractual basis with performance incentives.
It was going swimmingly – until Hassan said he wanted to own his work. He eventually left to launch his own channel, Liger.
"I grew that brand and that brand just left," van den Bussche said. "I saw it as a very fun challenge ... How can I create a personality-based YouTube channel without the personality being a risk?"
The way forward, he concluded, was to do away with human involvement entirely. Bloo, a VTube venture, was born in April 2021.
VTubers appear onscreen as virtual avatars. The trend that started in Japan in the early aughts has caught fire stateside, with household brands like Frosted Flakes even looking to cash in.
"A human can get burnout, a human can become depressed, a human can die, a human can create scandals," van den Bussche said. "The only way to tackle this challenge would be to remove the entire human element."
Today, Bloo is growing healthily with 504,000 subscribers. The channel has netted in $250,135 in AdSense revenue over the past three months, van den Bussche said. Insider verified the documents with screenshots he provided.
But it's an ambitious venture that costs $50,000 to $60,000 per month to operate, van den Bussche said, including editors, writers, directors, and designers headquartered out of a lofty office space in Amsterdam.
A bet on a digitized future that has not yet come to pass
Van den Bussche has vast aspirations for Bloo. He recently launched a Minecraft channel for the character, with plans for Spanish and Hindi hubs, as well as a TikTok account.
Ancillary VTuber characters are also in the works, including avatars for Bloo's siblings, a love interest, and an evil twin.
When he first launched Bloo, van den Bussche said he planned to sunset his personal channel as soon as Bloo's revenues surpassed those of Kwebbelkop – a tall order given he was starting from scratch. Some months it did, van den Bussche said, but Kwebbelkop is still more lucrative and funds other bets.
"I'm not that comfortable with Bloo's performance just yet," he said of quitting. "I don't think I want to quit entirely ... I'm much more chill and relaxed now."
But some observers have surmised that a fractured focus is causing the Kwebbelkop channel to nosedive.
Australian commentary channel SunnyV2 recently noted that monthly viewership on Kwebbelkop has plummeted from 98 million in April 2021 to 9 million in April 2022.
Van den Bussche has acknowledged the criticism. And while he remains bullish on Vtubers, he now appears to be reprioritizing his main channel, touting his return and soliciting video ideas on Twitter – a sign that the human element might not be so expendable after all.
"I announced that I was quitting my daily uploads [in 2020], and was aware that this would result in fewer views a month," he said. "However, I am now ready to bring back the focus that I had before and become the YouTuber I always wanted to be."
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