Rachell “Valkyrae” Hofstetter is known as the “Queen of YouTube” and recently became co-owner of the esports organization she streams for, 100 Thieves. With 3.57 million YouTube subscribers, Valkyrae is considered one of the most popular female streamers in the world. So how did this content creation powerhouse become one of the biggest names in gaming?
Valkyrae is 29 years old. She was born on January 8, 1992. Valkyrae was raised in Washington, where she grew up with her parents and sister. She is part Filipino and part German.
Valkyrae is known for being open with her fans, which is one reason she has become so popular. In line with this, she tweeted in 2018 that she was just 5’3″ inches tall.
Valkyrae has loved video games since she was a kid. She worked at GameStop while earning a degree from a community college, using her Instagram to talk about video games with her followers. Her Instagram followers asked her to stream on Twitch, so she decided to try it out in 2015.
Valkyrae started streaming around the time that Fortnite was taking off. She began playing the battle royale, leading to a quick blow-up on popular streaming platform Twitch. This gained the attention of gaming and esports organization 100 Thieves, and she became the first female content creator to be signed by the team.
“It was very humbling. It made me feel like I was doing something right,” Valkyrae said. “I realized it was actually happening. It changed the game.”
VALKYRAE JOINS 100 THIEVES
As part of 100 Thieves, Valkyrae started to become even more popular in the gaming world. She initially moved to the 100 Thieves content house in 2019 but later roomed with popular female streamers like Imane “Pokimane” Anys to feel some distinction between her work and home life.
At the start of 2020, Valkyrae switched to streaming on YouTube Gaming exclusively. Her initial agreement with YouTube was for $1 million a year, according to sources at the time.
Valkyrae opened up at the time about the gaming community’s support through various difficult times. She said she has been able to “give back to others” thanks to her fans and has continued to grow and “keep moving forward.” She called YouTube the “next chapter” of her career.
Valkyrae quickly became the “Queen of YouTube” after the move and was crowned one of the most popular female streamers of all time. The Game Awards 2020 called her the Content Creator of the Year.
By April 2021, 100 Thieves had named Valkyrae and Jack “CouRage” Dunlop as co-owners of the esports organization. The two streamers are the brand’s largest content creators. As a co-owner of 100 Thieves, Valkyrae joins Drake, Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, and more.
This gave Valkyrae another first to her name: The first female co-owner in esports.
“I’m proud to be one of the first women co-owners in esports and beyond excited for our future together,” Valkyrae said after the announcement.
While Valkyrae has largely been known for her lighthearted content and engaging streams with other popular names in the space, Valkyrae hasn’t escaped controversy altogether.
In March 2021, some fans called out Valkyrae for saying she “wished she was gay” on stream. The community responded that her statements were harmful, leading Valkryae to apologize on Twitter. She promised to do better.
Valkyrae has also been very open about the creepy comments she gets when she streams, leading to another questionable statement. Valkyrae opened up about the situation in a Q&A video, saying she “appreciates the simps and white knights” because they’re “kind.” Valkyrae said that all they do is give her compliments.
While Valkyrae escaped other smaller situations largely unscathed, a more recent situation has left Valkyrae in deeper waters. Big-name streamers such as Pokimane and Felix “xQc” Lengyel have called out Valkyrae for not only co-founding a questionable line of skincare products, but also for continuing to defend them and playing the victim when others questioned the validity of the science behind the products.
RFLCT was a skincare line focused on protecting gamers and streamers against the alleged harms of “blue light pollution.” This is something that many people were skeptical about, feeling that Valkyrae may have been manipulating her impressionable fans to purchase a product for a made-up issue.
In response, Valkyrae claimed that a lot of research had been put into the products but that the owners of RFLCT refused to share the information out of fear of the studies being “stolen.” This didn’t sit right with the streaming community, who continued to call out Valkyrae for her involvement and her lack of proper research.
Valkyrae then had a conversation allegedly leaked between her and fellow streamer Ludwig. In it, Valkyrae jokes that she will embrace the “scammer life,” explaining how much she wants to leave RFLCT due to the refusal to share the supposed research behind it. People continued to question Valkyrae’s motives, still feeling like she was playing the victim and not taking responsibility for her part in the launch.
RFLCT was later shut down after weeks of drama.
“While we believe in the formulations created, after further reflection, we have decided to move forward on new paths, effectively terminating the RFLCT brand,” the website now states.
Valkyrae has not discussed the situation further and has remained largely silent on social media. It’s not clear when she will return to streaming now that RFLCT is shut down after two years in the making.
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