Featured Image Credit: Valkyrae / X / NurPhoto / Contributor / Getty
While many of you might not know the name Rachell Hofstetter, we're sure a lot of you will know her under her handle of Valkyrae.
With her name often thrown around alongside the likes of Imane "Pokimane" Anys and Kaitlyn "Amouranth" Siragusa, Valkyrae has made a name for herself as a competitive Fortnite player with a humble start back on Twitch in 2015.
Since then, Valkyrae has become a co-owner of the 100 Thieves gaming org, won the Game Award for "Content Creator of the Year", has taken part in MrBeast's 'biggest' video ever, and been included on Forbes' 30 Under 30 list.
While Hofstetter has largely seen her meteoric rise on YouTube, she's now hanging up her red socks and is heading back to the purple hue of Twitch.
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Back in 2020, Valkyrae became one of the first big streamers to leave Twitch and signed a lucrative deal to stream exclusively on YouTube. Others including Jack "CouRage JD" Dunlop and Benjamin "DrLupo" Lupo also switched sides, while the likes of Tyler "Ninja" Blevins have flipped between various platforms.
On December 29, Valkyrae announced her latest move, telling fans during her Press Esc podcast that she'd asked for change from YouTube but simply wasn't getting it: "YouTube is always going to be video first, right? YouTube is focusing on shorts.
“They’ve specifically told me that their priority is shorts, then that's not a good thing for streamers then because if they're prioritizing shorts you're not prioritizing streamers."
Saying it's her 10-year anniversary streaming and the end of her third YouTube contract, Hofstetter reiterated it's time to move on.
She claims that platforms aren't offering contracts anymore, leaving content creators free to choose where they want to stream based on what's 'best' for them: "There were things on the streaming side of things that I wanted changed, that didn’t change and I’ve been there for five years.
"No matter what, YouTube is a video-first platform. So, if you’re streaming on YouTube, you’re competing with every single YouTube video."
Valkyrae says the only reason there were contracts in the first place was to compete with Microsoft's short-lived Mixer, which offered popular creators like Ninja millions of dollars for exclusivity.
She points out that it felt like an 'anomaly' because it was during COVID-19 and a time when streaming was never bigger.
Still, she doesn't feel bitter toward YouTube, adding: "I'm very grateful [for the] life-changing money, obviously I will never take that for granted.
"I will never forget just how lucky I was to have that type of contract, I really do think it was like the right time, the right place."
She concluded by saying she felt like she 'won the lottery', but now, is looking ahead to Twitch.
As Valkyrae is known for her streaming of vlog-style videos, she thinks Twitch is the right fit for the foreseeable future: "When people go to Twitch, they go there to watch streamers. When people go to YouTube, they go there to watch videos."
Even though she's not completely closing the door on the idea of ever posting on YouTube, it seems their relationship has been put on pause for now.
