Virtual Idol Group Plave Conquers Gocheok Dome

“I said during our 100-day debut anniversary live broadcast, ‘Will we ever sing at Gocheok Dome?’ It feels like a dream!”

On the 22nd, at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Guro-gu, Seoul, where the virtual idol group Plave (members Yejun, Noah, Bambi, Eunho, Hamin) held their solo concert DASH: Quantum Leap Encore, 18,000 audience members cheered as member Bambi spoke. However, the singers receiving the applause were not humans but five characters that seemed to have just torn through a page of a pure love manga reflected on the stage’s video screen.

Plave became the first virtual idol group to hold a solo concert at Gocheok Dome on the 21st and 22nd, attracting approximately 37,000 attendees over two days. Debuting in March 2023, they have hidden their faces entirely and use 3D characters as avatars. Instead of performing onstage themselves, the singers wear clothes equipped with IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) sensors and perform songs or dances in a separate location, with their movements and sounds reflected in real time by the avatar characters. On this day, the members performed vocals and choreography in a non-public space outside the venue, wearing motion-capture suits and helmets, and their movements were projected in real time onto the five characters on the stage’s video screen.

Their singing skills are proven: After ranking first on the music program MBC’s Show! Music Core in March last year, they achieved first place on Melon Top 100 in August of the same year with the songs Pump Up The Volume and WAY 4 LUV, and successfully debuted in Japan in June. They have continued to set records as the first virtual singers, rising rapidly. Gocheok Dome is known as the “dream stage,” as the popular group Daysix only stood there in their 10th year since debut, but Plave sold out both days of their concert just 2 years and 8 months after debut. However, no one knows their real faces even after over two years since debut. Fans also consider revealing the “main bodies” (the real people behind the avatars) a taboo. The term “red pill,” originally from the movie The Matrix as a metaphor for revealing the truth, is now slang for the real voices and dancers behind the characters.

The three-hour performance, which featured 22 songs, maximized the characteristics of virtual idols. Scenes like a flying car (Chroma Drift), a large tower made of stacked clocks (12:32), and a burning masquerade theater (WAY 4 LUV) were possible only because the performers were characters, not humans. Meanwhile, a live band and over 20 dancers were mobilized to enhance the live feel. Fans cheered as the characters on stage unbuttoned their chests as if they were real people, responding to every fashion detail. However, there were minor technical glitches, such as brief interruptions in the video feed and shaky hands appearing on the screen.

Outside the venue, fan interactions were as lively as any idol concert. This performance was the final day of Plave’s Asia tour encore, which began in August at Seoul’s KSPO Dome and continued in Taipei, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Bangkok, and Tokyo. Hours before the concert, both domestic and international fans from Japan and China gathered, and booths for exchanging handmade goods operated by fans were set up. Nearby roads were lined with tour buses chartered by “music chart attack teams” (fan groups aiming to boost the group’s music chart rankings), displaying departure locations like “Gyeonggi,” “Changwon,” and “Gwangju.”

◇ Rapid Growth of Live Virtual Paid Concerts… South Korea Outpaces Japan and China

Plave exemplifies the rapid growth of South Korea’s virtual paid concert market, which is expanding faster than in other countries. In China, the virtual industry’s fandom is estimated at 300 million people, and in Japan, about 11% of the population engages in “oshi activities” (fan activities). Despite this, the number of attendees at large-scale virtual singer concerts overseas has not exceeded 10,000 at the 2019 Shanghai BML concert or 8,000 at Hatsune Miku’s London performance last year. Plave, however, easily surpassed these numbers with this concert.

Recently, webtoon companies are creating idol groups. Lezhin Entertainment, a webtoon company, plans to sequentially release music and music videos for Sparkles, a music group combining popular characters from 14 of its webtoon works, starting on the 25th. Experts cite reasons such as South Korea’s rapidly growing web novel and webtoon markets, where fan activities centered on characters are no longer unfamiliar.

The concert’s audience was overwhelmingly female (99%) and in their 20s (47.1%) and 30s (40.7%). Yoon Jae-won, 25, a spectator at the venue, said, “I usually watch game streamers with virtual characters, so Plave’s fan interaction style doesn’t feel unfamiliar.” Sarah, 23, a fan from Malaysia, said, “I actually prefer that they’re not real people—it’s novel. Focusing on communication itself rather than appearance is appealing.”

The related market is expected to continue growing. Fortune Business Insights, a market research firm, predicted that the global market, including virtual devices, software, and content, will grow from $20.8 billion this year to $123 billion by 2032. In particular, demand for “live virtual entertainment” is analyzed to surge as a core industry.

☞ Virtual Idol

Idols who perform as virtual characters. While some virtual idols are entirely fictional, in South Korea, real people act as the “main bodies,” and their voices and movements are reflected in virtual characters, gaining popularity.