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Hatsune Miku could be considered the very first digital character actor to achieve fame. But she's quite different to vtubers.

Miku is a 100% fabrication. She is a character that uses software called Vocaloid, a voice synthesiser, to sing. They make songs for her using it and then make digital/cgi/animated shorts for the songs. She performs gigs through a 3d projection.

Vtubers on the other hand are human beings using software to appear as animated characters. They do the same job as streamers do but they do it via a character that they perform as to varying degrees of quality. Some amateur vtubers perform mostly as themselves but with an animated avatar, whereas professional companies with fulltime staff have performers staying fully in character. The professional side of this new industry operates similar to the idol industry. They're wage paid contracted performers who leave within a few years because it's ultimately a dead end job with no growth. The industry is completely cutthroat too and performers are treated pretty much exactly the same way idols are treated. I suspect it's actually worse for the vtuber performers because they're not getting famous from it either, they're nobodies when off screen.