Two market-size estimates for virtual influencers diverge

The persona

No single persona is measured here; this entry examines how market-research firms size the entire 'virtual influencer market' as a commercial category, a modelled figure rather than a count of any operator's actual revenue.

What the documents establish

As retrieved on 16 September 2026, Market Research Future's Virtual Influencer Market report, last updated 24 August 2026, states the market 'was estimated at 9.342 USD Billion in 2024' and projects growth 'to 308.33 USD Billion by 2035,' a compound annual growth rate of 37.42 percent, and lists Lil Miquela, Shudu, Blawko, Bermuda, Imma and Rozy among its named 'key players.' A second firm, Straits Research, also last updated 24 August 2026, values the same category at 'USD 8.76 billion in 2025' growing 'to USD 163.20 billion by 2034' at a 38.4 percent compound annual growth rate, using 2025 as its base year and listing Epic Games, Pinscreen, Soul Machines, NEON and Superplastic among its key players, a mix of production-technology vendors and persona operators rather than persona accounts alone.

Character versus company

Both figures are the publishing firm's own modelled projection, built from its stated base year and assumptions, not a tally of confirmed transactions or audited company revenue; naming a persona such as Lil Miquela or Rozy as a 'key player' in these reports describes the operator's business activity the firm associates with that persona, not a claim the persona itself generated any specific revenue. The two firms' 2035 and 2034 forecasts differ by roughly 90 percent even though both start from a similar current-year base, which by itself shows how much of the final number depends on each firm's own growth-rate assumption rather than a shared observed baseline.

What to watch

Neither report's full methodology was opened for this entry; both were read from their public summary pages rather than their underlying paid reports, so the specific data sources and survey methods behind each projection remain unverified here. Both pages carry the same 24 August 2026 update date, which may reflect a shared industry data refresh cycle rather than independent verification between the two firms.

• Does a cited market-size figure state its base year and whether it is historical or forecast?
• Do two different firms' estimates for the same category roughly agree, or diverge as widely as these two do?
• Is a named persona counted as a 'key player' because it generates revenue directly, or because its operator does?

Placed side by side, these two firms' estimates illustrate that a 'market size' for virtual influencers is a modelled projection that varies substantially by publisher, a caveat worth attaching to any single figure quoted from either report.