The Yano Research Institute has revealed that ‘idol otaku‘ are the most active of any otaku group, and they’re also among the top spenders, with 30% spending more than 100,000 yen annually on their obsession.
An online survey was conducted in July with 10,000 participants, which included men and women aged 15 to 69 who identify as otaku or are recognized as an otaku. Thirty otaku groups were recognized for the survey.
The top 10 otaku groups with the estimated number of active otaku are the following:
- Manga otaku (6.74 million)
- Anime otaku (6.57 million)
- Idol otaku (4.29 million)
- Console game otaku (3.18 million)
- Smartphone game otaku (2.88 million)
- PC game otaku (1.78 million)
- Light novel otaku (1.26 million)
- Figure otaku (1.15 million)
- Doujinshi otaku (1.1 million)
- Plastic model otaku (890,000)
As for consumer spending, the most common answer was between 10,000 yen and less than 50,000 yen. The top average amount was spent on PC assembly/electronic work at 105,652 yen, followed by spending on idols at 81,085 yen, and maid/cosplay-related services at 63,533 yen.
Yano Research Institute also analyzed the relationship between activity time and annual spending and found that idol otaku were the ones who spent the most time and money. 25.3% of idol otaku answered that they spend more than 10 hours a week on idol activities and spend more than 50,000 yen annually.
Approximately 30% of idol otaku spend more than 100,000 yen a year on idol activities, which is higher than any other otaku group. Most idol otaku are women in their teens to 30s, and 25% are students with plenty of free time to devote to idol activities.
Interesting… What about Vtuber otakus? They spend outrageous ammounts on superchats alone.
Vtubers probably bleed into idols anyways, given Hololive and such also call themselves idol companies
I was so sure that most idol otaku were lonely middle-aged men with money to spend. So that was just a stereotype, huh.
Somewhat surprised that women are the majority of idol otaku, but then again girls are the ones going to pop concerts the most, so it kind of makes sense.
Most of these otaku types overlaps I think, like anime and manga, or “pc game otaku” (is there such a thing? lol) and “console game otaku”
I wonder if this rank makes sense.
Oh hey, plamo made it into the top 10.