Dokibird, real name “Maple”, is an English-language VTuber with a bubbly, mischievous personality whose upbeat nature has drawn viewers in droves to her content. Although she originally began streaming in 2017, Maple retired her “Dokibird” persona back in May of 2021 to join VTuber agency Nijisanji under the name “Selen Tatsuki”. Maple parted ways with Nijisanji following some controversy, and on the 8th of February 2024 she returned to her original alias “Dokibird”.
Dokibird has since accomplished an impressive feat as a VTuber: Going indie successfully. Despite losing the support system and collaborative network of Nijisanji, Dokibird’s fans remained loyal and followed her across to her new channels. As a result, Dokibird shot up into the top VTubers ranking for February. It’s worth highlighting how the most popular English-language VTuber of the past month has masterfully steered her content since her return.
Dokibird Becomes the Most Popular English-Language VTuber in Just Over a Month
Although Dokibird amassed a following under Nijisanji, this discussion focuses purely on her performance as an independent VTuber. Viewed in this way, Dokibird’s performance since returning from retirement is nothing short of phenomenal. In just six weeks, Dokibird has gained over 670K subscribers on her YouTube channel and generated 1.5M hours watched across both YouTube and Twitch. Like many VTubers, YouTube is Dokibird’s primary platform which allows her to directly post VODS.
Dokibird’s most popular stream by far was the announcement of her return, with viewers most likely tuning in to find out what happened in the wake of the Nijisanji controversy whilst showing their support. The return announcement generated 291K hours watched, with a peak viewership of 127K. Dokibird’s other “behind the scenes” content and discussion streams also performed well, with her monetization celebration stream bringing in an average minute viewership (AMA) of 26K.
Dokibird’s video game content is split between collaborative streams with popular competitive games such as Apex Legends and single-player narrative-driven games like Resident Evil 4. Her Batman: Arkham Asylum playthrough was the throughline of her content since returning, with four streams of the game in which the debut stream generated 56K hours watched.
Dokibird’s Fans Are Loyal, Engaging Even After Coming Out of Retirement
Prior to her retirement, Dokibird was a relatively minor streamer. In the six weeks before she retired, Dokibird had an AMA of just 104 viewers. But since returning, Dokibird has accumulated an AMA of 15K in just six weeks, marking an incredible 14K% increase. Although that figure is no doubt affected by her stint with Nijisanji, the result is incredible nonetheless. Many creators have lost a significant portion of their fanbase after rebranding or facing controversy. But Dokibird’s loveable personality has mostly kept followers on her side, making the transition with her into this new phase of her streaming career. Even on Twitch, which is no longer her primary platform, Dokibird’s follower count more than doubled from 46K to 99K.
Dokibird’s only Twitch playthrough since coming out of retirement was for the Twitch Rivals Palworld event, teaming up with Shylily, surefour, and PiaPIUFO to compete. As this is an event, the level of chat engagement may be slightly skewed. Regardless, Dokibird’s Palworld streams pulled in 54K chat messages over roughly 10 hours of airtime. Around 14% of the Unique Registered Viewers (URVs) who tuned in sent messages, demonstrating a significant level of interaction by Dokibird’s fans.
For VTubers, fan engagement stretches far beyond chat engagement however. The VTubing community thrives on fan art, with viewers creating content for their favorite streamers to share on screen and feature in thumbnails. Dokibird’s fans are no exception, producing massive quantities of new art in honor of her return. One dedicated fan even produced a Dokibird-themed fingerboard to show their dedication.
Streamers Support Dokibird with Big-Name Collaborations
English-speaking VTubers may be in the minority, but they band together all the more for it. Some of the most popular English-speaking VTubers reached out to Dokibird to show their support, collaborating to reinvigorate her viewership. As mentioned earlier, Shylily, a successful Orca-inspired VTuber from the Netherlands, collaborated with Dokibird on her Palworld Twitch streams. Dokibird was also joined by the kind-hearted VTuber Amatsuka Uto for Apex Legends. This collaboration helped to create Dokibird’s second most popular stream, with 121K hours watched.
Dokibird’s rise to prominence reflects the growing popularity of English-speaking VTubers. Viewers who love the culture of Japanese VTubers but crave meaningful interactions are seeking out English-speaking VTubers with whom they can communicate. Dokibird’s excitable personality and diverse content draw these viewers to her. Stream Hatchet will continue to cover Dokibird as she embraces her status as an independent VTuber.
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