It is real, as real as you typing here. Go to
http://www.tickles.xxx/l/cams and try to talk with some woman, if they are not busy, or ignoring the non registered users, they will speak with you. Some of them don't like to speak a lot, many other love to speak and not just get naked. Try it with a few, and you will see it is real.
But, there is an explanation for what you see. There are not really as many cams websites in the world wide web, perhaps there are only 1% or less of the total quantity of cam websites that you can find in the web. Most of the sites that you see, are actually generic whitelabel websites from a big cams company, with a different brand name, but with the same content.
The reason is that, this way every website can have its "own" cam site without making the complex process of actually making one. And almost every website wants to give it a try, because is a cam website gets famous or successful, you can win a lot of money, as it is perhaps the most expensive kind of porn on the web, and people spends a lot in one day on those sites, in example, some may pay $30 a month, for a subscription to a common recorded porn; but some one in a cams website may spend those $30 in one night, or even a lot more -$200 or more-. So, imagine if you could get such a money...
If you want to give it a try for your own website, you can take a look at this program
http://tiny.cc/cammaster which is the same that I use on the website I showed you.
Even, another prove of their reality is that the are hiring new models always, and you can be a webcam model if you want -even if you are a man, or an ugly woman, as there are demand for every kind of person-. See the hiring site:
http://tiny.cc/webcammodel
Any other question?