Gamer used AI tools to go viral on YouTube - now earns millions

Know how 29-year-old Jordi van den Bussche gained 2.56 million subscribers by running a YouTube channel boosted by AI.

Companies like Google have always been talking about various use cases of generative AI and AI in general. But what if we told you that YouTube is now using popular AI tools to actually run gaming YouTube channels, and whilst doing so, amassing millions of subscribers, millions of views, and of course, millions in earnings?

Bloo is a virtual YouTuber who makes gaming content. (Bloo YouTube Channel Screengrab)

By Shaurya Sharma

Shaurya Sharma is the Technology Editor at Hindustan Times Digital Streams, where he oversees technology coverage across digital and social platforms. With over eight years of experience across editorial, video production, and digital media, his work focuses on smartphones, AI, consumer gadgets, and shaping audience-first content strategies for modern tech consumers.

He began his career in 2018 as a fashion cinematographer before turning his lifelong passion for technology into a profession. From spending his childhood immersed in tech magazines, video games, and the latest gadgets to covering the global consumer tech industry today, technology has remained a constant throughout his journey.

Over the years, Shaurya has worked with some of India’s leading media organisations, including CNN-News18, Sportskeeda, and Guiding Tech, where he led video initiatives that combined strong editorial storytelling with engaging visual and social-first execution.

A graduate in Journalism and Mass Communication from Manipal University, Shaurya has reviewed hundreds of products across categories including smartphones, laptops, gaming consoles, cameras, and wearables. Beyond work, he is passionate about animal welfare, environmental causes, and automobiles, particularly turbo-petrol cars

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This is exactly how a popular gaming YouTuber named Bloo was able to get over 2.56 million subscribers and 700 million views by running a YouTube channel using a virtual avatar, playing games, including GTA Online, Roblox, and Minecraft, as reported by CNBC.

Virtual YouTuber/VTube: How Bloo's Channel Works

While the concept isn't particularly new, it has certainly picked up pace thanks to artificial intelligence. That where Bloo comes in, who claims that he is “made by humans but boosted by AI.”

Bloo itself is a virtual character created by a person named Jordi van den Bussche, who is 29 years old, and lives in Amsterdam. He reportedly could not keep up with the demands of content creation and hence resorted to AI to create the virtual character.

"Turns out the flaw in this equation is the human, so we need to somehow remove the human," Jordi van den Bussche said in an interview with CNBC. He added, "The only logical way was to replace the human with either a photorealistic person or a cartoon."

How Does AI Come Into Play?

The report says that these virtual characters are controlled in real-time using motion capture and face tracking. Also, the voice is handled mostly by humans.

However, apart from these things, other mundane tasks, like creating thumbnails and dubbing in other languages, are actually tasks that are handled by AI. This includes creating thumbnails and doing voiceovers using popular online AI tools like Eleven Labs, ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and more.

“When AI can do it better, faster or cheaper than humans, that’s when we’ll start using it permanently,” the virtual YouTuber explained.

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