Roblox Concurrent Users Double to 30.6M & Sanrio Hits Record 63.16M Votes: Weekly Oshi News (July 4, 2025)

Here is our roundup of the most notable corporate oshikatsu (fan support activities) marketing and fan business news from the week of June 27 to July 3, 2025.

This Week’s Highlights

This was a week when platform scale surpassed corporate expectations.

Concurrent player counts on Roblox more than doubled from 13.9 million in April to 30.6 million in June, setting a new record. Against the backdrop of this scale, a campaign featuring YouTuber HIKAKIN began on July 1, and BABYMETAL announced a new project on the same day, with its Roblox game launching on July 11. Meanwhile, Fate/Grand Order marked the 10th anniversary of its service launch by announcing a rollout of prefecture-specific advertisements for all 47 prefectures across a total of 48 newspapers, including a national daily.

There was also major movement on the character popularity front. The total vote count for the Sanrio Character Ranking reached an all-time high of 63,160,696 votes, with Pompompurin claiming first place for the fourth time—and the first time in nine years. We also saw public institutions seeking touchpoints with fandoms, such as the City of Yokohama appointing VTubers from NIJISANJI as awareness characters for its mayoral election.

30.6M

Concurrent players on Roblox in June 2025 (up from 13.9M in April)

21.6M

Concurrent players in the Roblox game Grow a Garden

63,160,696

All-time high total votes in the 2025 Sanrio Character Ranking (111% of the previous year)

48

Newspapers in the announced Fate/Grand Order 10th anniversary ad rollout covering all 47 prefectures

Source: The Oshi Lab summary of weekly news metrics

Roblox Has Become a New Customer Base for Companies and Artists

Roblox — Concurrent Players Hit 30.6 Million, Breaking All-Time Records

The number of concurrent players on Roblox more than doubled from 13.9 million in April to 30.6 million in June, shattering its previous record by a wide margin. Within the platform, the game Grow a Garden recorded 21.6 million concurrent players, surpassing the Guinness World Record previously held by Fortnite. Roblox operates edge data centers in 24 locations worldwide and had built a system capable of evaluating up to 4 billion matchmaking combinations per second at peak times. According to reports, the company has continued weekly capacity planning and chaos testing toward its goal of “processing 10 million joins in 10 seconds” (Mogura VR (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: Even as concurrent player counts doubled between April and June, Roblox handled the load through its 24 global data centers and weekly capacity planning. When companies launch campaigns on a platform, it is worth examining how much of a load surge that underlying infrastructure is designed to withstand. More than the growth in scale itself, it is the continued investment in infrastructure to support that growth that builds trust.

Roblox x HIKAKIN x 7-Eleven — Driving Store Visits with Limited Avatar Items and Gift Cards

A campaign on Roblox offering limited-edition avatar items supervised by YouTuber HIKAKIN ran from July 1 to August 31. Customers who purchased a Roblox gift card (either the 3,000-yen card or a variable card ranging from 1,000 yen to 50,000 yen) at 7-Eleven stores nationwide could use a redemption code to obtain a limited avatar item. The item for July was “Bunbun Hello HIKAKIN,” and the item for August was “Shoulder-Riding HIKAKIN” (Mogura VR (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: This campaign links an intangible perk—an online avatar item—to the physical-store action of buying a gift card at a convenience store. By preparing different items for July and August, it is designed so that the motivation to visit a store does not end with a single trip. It serves as an example of cross-industry collaboration that combines popular digital content with foot traffic to brick-and-mortar retail locations.

BABYMETAL x Roblox & VRChat — Artists Establish a Home Base in the Metaverse

Kulture Inc. and Metaverse Creators Inc. announced a joint metaverse project with BABYMETAL. Providing content on both VRChat and Roblox simultaneously is reported to be a first for a Japanese artist (according to research by Kulture Inc.). On VRChat, a new world called “Avatar Dance Stage” opened on July 1, where users could dance to songs like “Gimme Chocolate!!” using choreography recreated through motion capture. On Roblox, BABYMETAL MONSTERS was released on July 11. Built as a multiplayer horror game themed around the song “Headbangeeeeerrrrr!!!!!,” it also allowed players to enjoy a BABYMETAL exhibition gallery after playing (Mogura VR (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: Around the same time, three separate initiatives launched projects on Roblox in different ways. Alongside the platform’s record growth in scale, a wide variety of initiatives converged simultaneously—ranging from a convenience store foot-traffic campaign to a game deployment built around an artist’s existing songs. Rather than trying to gather users from scratch on their own, companies across industries are starting to present their own answers to the question of how to go out and meet audiences where tens of millions of people are already gathered.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Shows Its Presence in Both Beverages and Hotels

DyDo DRINCO x Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — Creating Completionist Demand with Limited Cans and Real Wind Chimes

On June 30, DyDo DRINCO released its first collaboration products with Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba in roughly five years. The lineup consists of 20 designs for “DyDo Demon Slayer Iced Latte” and 12 designs for “Unsweetened Mandarin Orange Water,” for a total of 32 varieties. During their previous collaboration in 2020, cumulative sales surpassed 50 million cans within about three weeks of launch. A companion campaign launched at the same time offered a lottery for prizes including a Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba wind chime (Shinobu Kocho model) crafted by a real blacksmith, as well as matching T-shirt and sacoche bag sets. Digital signage ads also ran at Hanshin Electric Railway’s Osaka-Umeda and Kobe-Sannomiya stations through July 13 (Anime! Anime! (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: A lineup of 32 container designs is structured to make fans want to collect the entire set rather than stopping at just one can. The previous collaboration in 2020 topped 50 million cans in roughly three weeks after release. Having that proven track record is precisely what enabled the decision to collaborate again after about five years. This is a prime example of how past success backs the scale and timing of a subsequent collaboration.

Tokyu Hotels x Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — Recreating Giyu’s Favorite Dish and Akaza-Inspired Items at a Buffet

Tokyu Hotels & Resorts announced that it would hold a collaboration buffet titled “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba x Tokyu Hotels Special Buffet 2025.” Created to celebrate the theatrical release of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle – Part 1, the event was announced for seven hotels in six cities nationwide: two from July 19 to August 31, 2025, and the other five from August 1 to 31. Reservations opened at 3:00 PM on July 1. The hotels announced a buffet-style menu featuring dishes inspired by the characters, including Giyu Tomioka’s favorite dish, sake-daikon (simmered salmon and daikon radish), “Beet Croquettes” inspired by Akaza, and roast pork inspired by Nezuko. Prices for adults ranged from 4,700 yen to 6,500 yen depending on the hotel (Anime! Anime! (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: Even with the same IP, the nature of the experience differs completely between beverages—which are designed for “collecting and enjoying”—and a hotel buffet, which is designed for “tasting and verifying for yourself.” Thirty-two container designs appeal to the desire to collect the full set. Meanwhile, a buffet that recreates Giyu’s favorite food as an actual dish builds trust by showing that the organizers researched and recreated the fine details of the original work. Together, these two companies’ initiatives demonstrate that even with the same characters, the fan psychology a brand should stimulate varies by industry.

Using Brand Anniversaries to Refresh TV Commercials and Storefronts

CANMAKE — Celebrating Its 40th Brand Anniversary with Fuka Koshiba to Promote Cushion Foundation

On July 1, IDA Laboratories released a new television commercial starring actor Fuka Koshiba for its makeup brand CANMAKE. Launched in 1985, CANMAKE celebrated its 40th brand anniversary in spring 2025. The new commercial conveyed the appeal of the brand’s first-ever cushion foundation, the “Fit Glow Cushion,” set against summer scenery. As an anniversary initiative, the brand also launched a special website showcasing a brand history that looks back on changes in makeup trends over the past 40 years alongside popular products from each era (AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: CANMAKE is using its 40th anniversary milestone not just to reminisce about the past, but also to promote a new product that is a “first for the brand.” By looking back on 40 years of history on its special website while putting its new cushion foundation front and center in the commercial, the anniversary project directly generates buzz for the new product. It is a case study showing that an anniversary is an opportunity to balance nostalgia with new product promotion.

Mrs. GREEN APPLE x TSUTAYA — 10th Debut Anniversary Displays a Message in Shibuya

From July 7 to July 14, SHIBUYA TSUTAYA held a collaboration event with the band Mrs. GREEN APPLE titled “Let’s Listen to CDs with Mrs. Exhibition @ TSUTAYA” (Mrs. to CD Kikou yo. Ten @ TSUTAYA). The project commemorated both the band’s 10th debut anniversary and the release of their best-of album, 10. Ahead of the exhibition, an outdoor advertisement reading “#Let’s Listen to CDs” (#CD聴こうよ。) was displayed on the Shibuya QFRONT banner space starting June 30. The ad featured a message written by band member Motoki Ohmori about the appeal of CDs. The organizers also announced the sale of collaboration merchandise featuring the nostalgic classic TSUTAYA logo, as well as the revival of special-edition rental return bags (AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: Celebrating its 40th anniversary, CANMAKE used the milestone to promote a new product, whereas Mrs. GREEN APPLE, marking their 10th anniversary, used it to rediscover a past asset (CD culture)—each putting an anniversary to work for a different purpose. In anniversary planning, the dividing line is whether a brand stops at simply saying “thank you for everything so far” or connects the milestone to the next product or a new cultural experience. What both share is that instead of treating “nostalgia” as a standalone product, they weave it into an ongoing, present-day initiative.

Fate/Grand Order’s 10th Anniversary Ads Spread to Newspapers Across Japan

Fate/Grand Order — Conveying Its 10th Anniversary Nationwide with Newspaper Ads in All 47 Prefectures

Provided by TYPE-MOON and developed and operated by Lasengle, Fate/Grand Order (FGO) launched an advertising campaign titled “OVER THE SAME SKY” to commemorate the 10th anniversary of its service launch. A key visual appeared in the morning edition of the Yomiuri Shimbun on June 22, followed by illustrated advertisements across nine newspapers in the Kanto and Koshin regions on June 29 and 30. Going forward, the project announced it would roll out designs featuring characters visiting famous landmarks and historical sites in each of Japan’s 47 prefectures across a total of 48 newspapers, including one national daily. Back in 2020, the game’s 5th anniversary ad campaign, “under the same sky,” became a major topic on social media from the very day it was published, and went on to win the Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association’s Newspaper Advertising Award as well as the Yomiuri Marketing Award Grand Prix (AdverTimes. (in Japanese), Inside (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: Creating a dedicated, custom illustration for each of the 47 prefectures takes an enormous amount of effort. However, during the 5th anniversary campaign, there was a proven track record of inquiries flooding in about purchasing the newspapers and visiting the featured tourism spots. That prior result is why the team could confidently invest in the exact same format again for the 10th anniversary, repeating a successful formula at each milestone. This is a strong example showing that for long-running IPs, anniversary campaigns do not need to be reinvented from scratch every single time.

The VTuber Industry Moves to Train the Next Generation of Talent

NIJISANJI “VTA” — Auditions Open Across Genres from Streamers to Yumekawa Livers

On July 1, ANYCOLOR Inc., which operates the VTuber group NIJISANJI, opened enrollment auditions for its VTuber talent development project, the “Virtual Talent Academy (VTA).” Auditions were held across three genres—“Streamer Audition,” “Yumekawa (dreamy-cute) Liver Audition,” and “Virtual Comedy Duo Audition”—and were open even to applicants with no prior streaming experience. The application period ran from July 1 until noon on July 25, with the condition that applicants be able to participate in training sessions in Tokyo. Past VTA graduates include members of units such as Ranunculus and VOLTACTION (ANYCOLOR).

Lab Note: Designing auditions so that people with no streaming experience can apply creates a pathway that welcomes existing fans directly onto the streaming side. Dividing the audition into three distinct genres appears to be a smart way to lower the barrier to entry while simultaneously recruiting talent with different aptitudes. This concept of nurturing fans to become the next generation of creators can be applied well beyond the VTuber industry.

Shibuya Hal x REALITY — Training Aspiring VTubers at “VVVV Academy”

REALITY, Inc. launched a new project titled “VVVV Academy feat. Shibuya Hal” (VVVV Gakuin feat. Shibuya Hal), designed to train livers active on the VTuber and metaverse app REALITY. VTuber Shibuya Hal was appointed as the project’s official ambassador and instructor. Beginning in August, a special program titled Shibuya Hal-sensei’s V4 Campus (Shibuya Hal-sensei no Bui-Fou Kyanpasu) was announced to air, featuring a first class of four students selected through auditions. Recruitment targeted a total of four participants: two to three from among existing Star Livers, and one to two from all REALITY users. The application and examination period ran from July 1 to July 15 (PR TIMES (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: Almost in the exact same week, two companies opened applications for VTuber “training projects.” Rather than merely hiring talent who are already popular, the industry is moving in earnest to nurture the next generation inside its own platforms. When a program is designed to accept people with no streaming experience, fans themselves can eventually become performers. This approach of cultivating the next generation of fan-business talent in-house can also be applied to community management in other industries.

Sanrio Demonstrates Fan Support in Both Numbers and Everyday Places

Sanrio Character Ranking — Pompompurin Takes 1st Place for the 4th Time After a 9-Year Gap

Final results for the “2025 Sanrio Character Ranking,” the popularity voting event for Sanrio characters, were announced on June 29. The total number of votes reached 63,160,696, or 111% of the previous year’s total, setting a new all-time record. Claiming first place was Pompompurin, who climbed back from fourth place last year to take the top spot for the fourth time overall and the first time in nine years. Cinnamoroll, who had held a five-year winning streak, took second place, while Pochacco came in third—meaning Sanrio’s three major dog characters swept the top three spots. The results were announced during “SANRIO FES 2025,” held at Pacifico Yokohama on June 28 and 29 (Anime! Anime! (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: The surge in total votes to 111% of the previous year happened alongside a ranking shakeup big enough to push five-time consecutive winner Cinnamoroll back to second place. Even in a long-running popularity poll, having a structure where the top ranks are not locked in and shift from year to year is considered one reason fans stay motivated to participate. The uncertainty of the ranking itself serves as a mechanism that drives fan voting behavior.

Sanrio Characters x Gokurakuyu — Creating Everyday Touchpoints Through a Bathhouse Collaboration

A collaboration campaign titled “Bath Time with Sanrio Characters” (Sanrio Characters to Ofuro Time) between Sanrio Characters and the super sento (public bathhouse) chain Gokurakuyu / RAKU SPA Group was held at 11 locations nationwide from July 17 to August 17. Guests who purchased the “Sanrio Characters Plus Set” upon admission received one of six limited-edition muffler towels featuring newly drawn illustrations at random. Inside the bathhouses, six types of character-inspired collaboration baths appeared, and RAKU CAFE offered a collaboration menu item called “Oshiriman” (character-bottom steamed buns, 880 yen) (Anime! Anime! (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: The enthusiasm of 63.16 million votes and a collaboration at an everyday neighborhood bathhouse may look distant at first glance, yet they rest on the same foundation. Once a year, a massive voting event makes fan support visible in numbers, while characters also appear in the spaces of daily life. Having both a venue for voting and everyday touchpoints is why the event can still break all-time vote records even as it reaches its 40th edition. Possessing both a stage to measure the scale of fan support and everyday places where fans can meet the characters is the strength of a long-running IP.

Local Governments and Platforms Widen the Doorway to New Audiences

Yokohama Mayoral Election x NIJISANJI — Appointing Yashiro Kizuku and Kaisei to Encourage Youth Voting

The City of Yokohama appointed NIJISANJI VTubers Yashiro Kizuku and Kaisei as awareness characters to encourage voter participation in the Yokohama mayoral election. The city announced that voter awareness ads would be displayed at major terminal stations across the city, along the moving walkways in Minatomirai, and on web portals such as Yahoo! JAPAN and Google. It also announced that early voting sites and election-day polling stations would distribute original-design voting certificates in limited quantities to those who requested them. On July 17, Yashiro Kizuku appeared via video at an illumination ceremony at Yokohama Marine Tower to call on citizens to vote (Mogura VR (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: The City of Yokohama tapped VTubers with private-sector fandoms to address the public challenge of improving voter turnout. By placing advertisements along everyday commuting routes—such as train stations and moving walkways—as well as on web portals like Yahoo! JAPAN and Google, the campaign is designed not to narrow its touchpoints with citizens. Even in municipal initiatives, the idea of partnering with characters who already have an established fan base is spreading.

TikTok Shop — Officially Launches in Japan, Shortening the Distance to Purchase

On June 30, TikTok launched “TikTok Shop” in Japan, an e-commerce feature that allows everything from product sales to checkout to be completed entirely within the app. Japan is the 17th market globally where TikTok Shop has rolled out. As of June 2025, TikTok had more than 33 million users in Japan. With the new feature, users could purchase products directly from shoppable videos and livestream broadcasts without leaving the app for an external e-commerce site. Qiu Kaizhou of TikTok Shop Japan indicated plans to add features tailored to the Japanese market, where the culture of offline shopping remains deeply rooted (AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: By eliminating the redirect to external e-commerce websites and completing the purchase right inside videos and livestreams, TikTok aims to minimize the friction between viewing and buying. Adding e-commerce functionality on top of an existing domestic user base of over 33 million people is a move to turn an already gathered audience directly into buyers. Its stance of adjusting features for a market with a strong offline shopping culture will also be a useful point of reference as we watch its future rollout.

Suntory “Jihanpi” — Airs Commercials Starring Sadawo Abe and Runs a 5 Million Download Milestone Campaign

Suntory Beverage & Food Limited released three new commercials for its cashless vending machine app, “Jihanpi.” The “Three Free Drinks” (3-bon Muryo) commercial began airing nationwide on television on July 1, while the other two commercials streamed online. Co-starring for the first time, actors Sadawo Abe and Hiyori Sakurada highlighted the convenience of the app and its “Three Free Drinks” campaign. Jihanpi had been rolling out since March 2025 with an initial goal of reaching 2 million downloads within 2025. Because the app achieved that target by the end of April, Suntory raised the goal to 5 million downloads, and began running an additional campaign on June 30 to celebrate surpassing the 5 million download mark (Suntory (in Japanese)).

Lab Note: The City of Yokohama used the reach of VTubers for the public challenge of voter turnout, while TikTok and Suntory are using apps to reduce the friction leading up to a purchase. What all three share is the mindset of going out to meet fans and users where they already spend their time. Rather than relying solely on their own websites or standalone channels, they are adapting the shape of their touchpoints to fit the platforms where their audience already is. Across these three stories this week, we can see a common approach that can be applied regardless of industry.

Going Where Massive Audiences Already Gather

• Roblox (30.6M concurrent players): HIKAKIN x 7-Eleven avatar gift card campaign and BABYMETAL metaverse game
• Newspapers & Local Landmarks: Announced Fate/Grand Order 10th anniversary ad rollout across 48 papers in 47 prefectures
• Existing Communities & Platforms: NIJISANJI VTA and REALITY talent academies, TikTok Shop (33M+ users in Japan), and Yokohama x NIJISANJI election campaign

Deepening Touchpoints Through Brand History & Everyday Life

• CANMAKE 40th Anniversary: Pairing a 40-year brand history website with a TV commercial for its first cushion foundation
• Mrs. GREEN APPLE 10th Anniversary: Re-examining CD culture at SHIBUYA TSUTAYA alongside best-of album 10
• Demon Slayer & Sanrio: Combining large-scale fan enthusiasm (50M+ past cans sold; 63.16M votes) with everyday cans, hotel buffets, and bathhouses

Source: The Oshi Lab analysis of June 27–July 3, 2025 news

Editorial Reflections on the Week

This was a week in which the sheer scale of platforms directly expanded the options available to companies.

Roblox’s concurrent player count doubling in less than half a year coincided with HIKAKIN’s avatar campaign and BABYMETAL’s game built around existing songs. Fate/Grand Order’s 47-prefecture newspaper advertisements and the VTuber training projects from NIJISANJI and REALITY are likewise initiatives aimed at huge populations that already exist—newspaper readers, viewers, and aspiring livers. Companies are moving to match the places that have scale. This same trend runs through Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba’s beverage and hotel rollouts as well as Sanrio’s voting event.

At the same time, we also saw initiatives anchored in a brand’s own history through anniversaries, such as CANMAKE and Mrs. GREEN APPLE. Initiatives that pursue external scale and initiatives that dig deeper into a brand’s own accumulated history are both moving simultaneously this week, revealing an environment where companies can choose which axis to use when building touchpoints with fans.

Which platforms do your own fans inhabit, and in what density? Reading this week’s developments alongside our guides to the Design Principles of Oshikatsu Marketing and the Oshikatsu Market Size will help you evaluate where your audience stands.

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Weekly Oshi News brings you a weekly roundup of oshikatsu and business developments. You can browse past issues in our Oshikatsu x News category.