The VTuber world is in crisis over ‘owed’ donations

On July 21st, 6,669-year-old demon queen Ironmouse posted an 11-minute video, explaining that she is leaving her talent management agency, VShojo. Ironmouse is a VTuber, or “virtual YouTuber,” which is a type of a streamer who doesn’t usually show their human face and creates elaborate digital personas to make content instead.

“I recently found out that for the past couple of months, I have been misled by VShojo,” she said in her video. “I believe that I am owed a significant amount of funds, which I have not been paid.”

With her pink hair, purple eyes, and horns, Ironmouse is one of Twitch’s biggest streamers. She currently has more than 2.3 million followers on Twitch and 1.3 million subscribers on YouTube. In 2023, she won a Game Award for content creator of the year. A year later, she briefly overtook Kai Cenat as the most subscribed to Twitch streamer, with more than 300,000 subs. Her VTuber colleagues at VShojo have follower counts in the hundreds of thousands across Twitch and YouTube. Now, in the aftermath of Ironmouse’s video, most of them have also quit the company, with some of them also alleging unpaid wages. 

According to Ironmouse, her trouble with VShojo started with the conclusion of her 2024 subscription marathon on Twitch. During the event, Ironmouse raised more than $500,000 for the Immune Deficiency Foundation, a cause she explained was important to her as she — the real person behind the Ironmouse persona — suffers from common variable immunodeficiency, or CVID. 

The Verge has reached out to VShojo, Ironmouse, and the Immune Deficiency Foundation for comment.

Shouting it from the rooftops!!!! Oh my Mousey, she did it. Congrats to @ironmouse for hitting the all-time sub count record and sharing the love and awareness to the @IDFCommunity. She really is THE Demon Queen!!!!!