VTuber of the Year: Every Winner and Who Crowned Them
A cartoon peanut just dethroned a three-year champion, and the entire scene lost its mind over it. That single result tells you everything about how wild the fight for VTuber of the Year has become, and why fans treat this title like the closest thing streaming has to a heavyweight belt. It is one of the most fought-over crowns in the hobby, and for good reason. The scene grows every single year, the talent pool gets deeper, and fandoms turn voting into a full-contact sport. So let’s settle it. We’ll walk through every winner, the two big shows that hand out the trophy, and the drama that came with each one. If you have ever wondered who holds the record and who broke the biggest streak in VTubing, you are in exactly the right place.
The short version is that two ceremonies matter most. One is the Streamer Awards, and the other is the VTuber Awards. Each one crowns its own champion, and the names on those lists tell the whole story of Western VTubing over the last few years.
Who Wins VTuber of the Year, and Where?
There is no single governing body that decides VTuber of the Year. Instead, two separate award shows each hand out their own version of the title, and fans treat both as huge deals.
The first is the Streamer Awards, created by QTCinderella. It covers all of streaming, from Just Chatting to speedrunning, and its Best VTuber category is basically the mainstream stamp of approval. Winning here means you broke out past the VTuber bubble and got noticed by the wider Twitch crowd.
The second is the VTuber Awards, built specifically for the community by Filian. This one goes deep. It has dozens of niche categories, from Best Music VTuber to Lewdtuber of the Year, and its top prize is literally called VTuber of the Year. When people ask who the community itself picked, this is the show they mean.
Both shows run on public voting, which is exactly why the results get so heated. Big agencies rally their fans, indies mobilize their communities, and the numbers get absolutely wild. If you are new to all this, our guide on what a VTuber actually is is a great spot to catch up before we get into the winners.
The Streamer Awards VTuber Category, Explained
Let’s start with the mainstream one. QTCinderella launched the Streamer Awards in 2022, and Best VTuber was there from the very first ceremony. For the streamer awards vtuber category, this was massive. It put virtual talents on the same stage as the biggest human streamers on the platform, and it treated them as equals.
The format is simple. A panel and the public narrow down the nominees, then fans vote for the winner. Because the Streamer Awards pulls in a general Twitch audience and not just VTuber diehards, the winner usually needs crossover appeal. You cannot just be big inside the fandom. You have to be a name people outside it recognize too.
That crossover requirement is a big reason one person dominated the category for so long. For three straight ceremonies, the same VTuber walked away with the trophy, and honestly it stopped feeling like a competition and started feeling like a coronation. Then 2025 blew the whole thing apart, but we’ll get to that.
Ironmouse: The VTuber of the Year Dynasty
If we are talking about VTuber of the Year, we have to start with Ironmouse. She did not just win. She built a dynasty.
Ironmouse took Best VTuber at the Streamer Awards in 2022, 2023, and 2024, three years running. That is a streak nobody else has matched, and it cemented her as the face of Western VTubing during that whole stretch. On top of that, she also won VTuber of the Year at the very first VTuber Awards in 2023, plus the Miss VTuber award the same night. For a solid two-year window, if there was a trophy going, Ironmouse was collecting it.
Her story is a huge part of why fans rally so hard behind her. Ironmouse is a Puerto Rican creator who lives with common variable immunodeficiency, a condition that keeps her largely homebound. Streaming became her window to the world, and her avatar, inspired by Sailor Iron Mouse from Sailor Moon, became one of the most recognizable models in the scene. She was a founding member of VShojo back in November 2020, and she helped put the entire agency on the map. She is also a charity juggernaut. Her subathons with Connor “CDawgVA” Colquhoun pulled in around $4 million for the Immune Deficiency Foundation, including a jaw-dropping $515,000 in a single run. You can read her full story in our Ironmouse profile.
Her VShojo run did not last forever, though. She left the agency in July 2025 after a very public dispute over pay, including that half a million dollars in charity donations owed to the Immune Deficiency Foundation. Within 24 hours of her announcement, nearly every other VShojo talent walked too, and the agency collapsed entirely. It was a messy end to a giant chapter, and it reshaped the Western scene overnight. If you want the bigger picture on that agency and how it rose in the first place, we broke it down in our piece on whether VShojo could overtake Hololive.
The VTuber Awards: Filian’s Big Community Night
Now for the show made by the community, for the community. Filian announced the first VTuber Awards in June 2023, and the debut ceremony went down on December 16, 2023, at the WePlay Esports Arena in Los Angeles. The whole idea came from a simple frustration. As Filian put it, VTubers were too often treated like a footnote or a weird novelty. She wanted a night that took them seriously.
To keep things fair, Filian made herself ineligible for any award, even though she is one of the biggest VTubers around. Classy move. The show was produced with backing from Mythic Talent, and it blew up fast. The vtuber awards quickly became the community’s own version of the Oscars, complete with red-carpet energy, custom categories, and a genuinely stacked nominee list every year. Filian even chooses the finalists herself, sifting through thousands of fan submissions regardless of size, language, or genre, then the public votes on the winners.
The first ceremony spread the love around. Beyond Ironmouse taking VTuber of the Year, Mori Calliope won Best Music VTuber, Ninomae Ina’nis took Best Art VTuber, Selen Tatsuki grabbed Best FPS VTuber, Vedal987 (the mad genius behind AI star Neuro-sama) won Best Tech VTuber, and Projekt Melody claimed Lewdtuber of the Year. It was a perfect snapshot of who was carrying the scene that year.
The 2024 edition happened on December 14, 2024, back at the same LA venue, this time co-hosted by Filian and Shylily. Hololive absolutely cleaned up, taking home nine awards on the night. Ceres Fauna won Best Just Chatting VTuber, Zentreya took Gamer of the Year, and Hololive itself won Best VTuber Organization. But the headline was the top prize going to a rookie group nobody could have predicted a year earlier.
VTuber of the Year Winners at a Glance
Here is the part you probably came for. These are the vtuber of the year winners across both major shows, laid out so you can see the whole picture at once.
Streamer Awards, Best VTuber:
- 2022: Ironmouse (VShojo)
- 2023: Ironmouse (VShojo)
- 2024: Ironmouse (VShojo)
- 2025: TheBurntPeanut (independent)
The VTuber Awards, VTuber of the Year:
- 2023: Ironmouse (VShojo)
- 2024: FUWAMOCO (Hololive English, Advent)
Look at that list and one thing jumps out immediately. Ironmouse owns four of the six trophies handed out so far. She is the most decorated name in the history of the award, full stop. But the two most recent winners both broke brand new ground, and that is where the story gets really fun.
FUWAMOCO’s 2024 Upset
FUWAMOCO winning VTuber of the Year in 2024 was the feel-good shock of the whole night. The twin sisters, Fuwawa and Mococo Abyssguard, are the Demonic Guard Dogs of Hololive English’s Advent generation, and they had only debuted in July 2023. Going from fresh faces to VTuber of the Year in barely over a year is absurd, in the best possible way.
The VTuber Awards announced the win themselves, and the twins celebrated it on stream:
The official VTuber Awards X post crowning FUWAMOCO VTuber of the Year 2024.
FUWAMOCO’s official celebration stream on their Hololive English channel.
And they did it against a murderers’ row of nominees. FUWAMOCO beat out Ironmouse, Vedal987, Dokibird, and Tsukino Mito for the title. That is a lineup of legends, agency titans, and indie darlings, and the guard dogs still came out on top. Their fanbase, the Ruffians, voted like their lives depended on it, and the twins’ teary “bau bau” reaction to winning became one of the most shared clips of the season.
The win also showed how strong Hololive’s grip on the community vote had become. Nine trophies in one night is not luck, it is a machine. If you want to understand how the agency built that kind of loyalty, our deep look at Hololive’s rise covers everything behind the curtain. FUWAMOCO were the face of that dominance in 2024, and their bau baus rang out across every timeline that weekend.
TheBurntPeanut and the End of the Streak
Then came 2025, and the biggest upset the category has ever seen. TheBurntPeanut won Best VTuber at the Streamer Awards 2025, finally ending Ironmouse’s three-year streak. He did it against a brutal shortlist too, edging out Ironmouse, Mori Calliope, Kenji, and chibidoki.
Here is the twist that had everyone talking. TheBurntPeanut is not a typical anime-style VTuber at all. He streams as a chunky anthropomorphic peanut, which is why the community lovingly started calling him a P-tuber instead. He is an American creator with no big agency behind him, and he blew up through Escape from Tarkov before going fully supernova with Arc Raiders content late in the year. He racked up tens of millions of hours watched across 2025 and rocketed up the charts as one of the most watched creators on all of Twitch, then doubled up by also winning Best FPS Streamer the same night.
A fan-uploaded clip of the moment TheBurntPeanut won Best VTuber at the Streamer Awards 2025.
The reaction split right down the middle. Some fans loved that an unaffiliated creator with a goofy peanut model could beat the giants and prove you do not need an agency to reach the very top. Others argued a stylized avatar slapped over a gameplay stream barely counts as VTubing in the traditional sense, especially since TheBurntPeanut himself has waved off the VTuber label. Either way, it was the loudest VTuber of the Year argument in years, and it reset the whole conversation about what the title even means going forward.
That tension is kind of the entire point. The award keeps evolving because the medium keeps evolving. From Ironmouse’s dominance to FUWAMOCO’s rookie run to a literal peanut taking the crown, every single VTuber of the Year pick has said something loud about where the scene is heading next. And with the old guard shifting agencies and fresh indies going viral overnight, the next race is anyone’s game.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who has won VTuber of the Year the most times?
Ironmouse is the most decorated winner by a mile. She took Best VTuber at the Streamer Awards in 2022, 2023, and 2024, and she also won VTuber of the Year at the first VTuber Awards in 2023. That is four VTuber of the Year style titles, more than anyone else has managed.
What is the difference between the Streamer Awards and the VTuber Awards?
The Streamer Awards, run by QTCinderella, covers all of streaming and includes a Best VTuber category as one prize among many. The VTuber Awards, created by Filian, is built entirely around VTubers with dozens of specialized categories. Both crown a VTuber of the Year, so the scene effectively has two champions each cycle.
Who won VTuber of the Year in 2024?
It depends on the show. FUWAMOCO won VTuber of the Year at the VTuber Awards 2024, becoming the first Hololive act to take that particular top prize. At the Streamer Awards, Ironmouse won Best VTuber for 2024, extending her streak before it was broken the following year.
Why was TheBurntPeanut winning so controversial?
TheBurntPeanut streams as a peanut avatar over first-person shooter gameplay rather than as a traditional anime-style character, and he has even brushed off the VTuber label himself. A chunk of the community argued he did not fit the usual idea of a VTuber, while others celebrated an independent creator beating the big agencies. The split made his 2025 win the most debated result in the award’s history.
Is FUWAMOCO part of Hololive?
Yes. Fuwawa and Mococo Abyssguard are twin sisters in Hololive English, part of the Advent generation that debuted in 2023. They won VTuber of the Year at the 2024 VTuber Awards, one of nine trophies Hololive collected that night.
Where can I watch the VTuber Awards?
The VTuber Awards air live on Filian’s Twitch and YouTube channels, usually in mid-December. The Streamer Awards stream on QTCinderella’s channels earlier in the year. Both post full winner lists right after the shows wrap, so you can catch up even if you miss the live broadcast.
