Rachell “Valkyrae” Hofstetter was previously successful on Twitch before she exclusively switched to YouTube. There, the 31-year-old is one of the most successful female streamers, but her competitors have something that she does not.
This is the situation:
- In January 2020, Valkyrae was one of 3 Twitch personalities who signed exclusive contracts with YouTube.
- There, she was crowned the “biggest gaming streamer”.
- But in 2023, the scene changed; Vtubers have taken over YouTube.
In a list of the most-watched female streamers on YouTube Gaming that appeared on August 29, 2023 on Twitter/X, Valkyrae appears in 6th place as the only “real woman” and the only American: The rest are Japanese Vtubers. MMORPG streamer Asmongold has known for a long time that the time of anime girls has come.
“It’s too late for me”
What does Valkyrae say about it? The 31-year-old explained in a recent stream that she stumbled upon this statistic. She is somewhere in the middle; the others are all Vtubers. Valkyrae seemed quite surprised by this development and asked: “Where are the non-Vtubers on YouTube?”
The streamer does not envy the Vtubers their success; rather, she regrets having missed this opportunity: “If I had had a brain 8 years ago, I think [being a Vtuber] would have been a fun way. It would just be nice to be faceless.”
The 31-year-old seems to be thinking along similar lines as her streaming colleague Asmongold, who once called virtual streaming a “cheat” for women: Because they don’t have to get ready and can show up in a messy look without makeup.
However, for her, it is now too late; Valkyrae says she could never be a Vtuber.
Some viewers point out to Valkyrae that YouTube is not primarily a streaming platform. The 31-year-old agrees; actually, it is a platform for “video on demand”. Indeed, Vtubing does not yet seem to have the same dominance on the pure streaming platform Twitch:
Twitch: The 5 biggest German female streamers in August 2023
