Valkyrae Explains Why Streamers Are Quitting YouTube Livestreaming
2024 was a massive year for streamers, with household names like Kai Cenat and Caseoh becoming hugely successful. As streamers gain lasting repute and influence, they make new decisions on how to pivot their career paths — a growing group of creators including Ludwig, Timthetatman and Swagg are abandoning YouTube as the site shifts its priorities away from its streaming base.
Rachell 'Valkyrae' Hofstetter will join them in 2025 by returning to Twitch after a five-year YouTube exclusivity contract, and she has revealed her reasoning in a new episode of her Press Esc podcast. Here's everything we know about Valkyrae, why she's leaving YouTube and the greater trend of streamers returning to Twitch.
Who is Valkyrae?
Rachell 'Valkyrae' Hofstetter is an American streamer, entrepreneur and content creator. She began streaming on Twitch in 2015 and rose to fame during Fortnite's surge in 2018 as one of the game's most prominent content creators. Valkyrae continues to stream primarily gaming, chatting and vlog content. She is a co-owner of esports group100 Thieves and was its first female content creator.
Hofstetter also owns a media company, Hihi Studios, which publishes manga and comics. She has scored acting roles in series such as Sonic Prime and music videos including The Kid Laroi's 'Girls' and Bella Poarch's 'Build A B-----.' In 2024, Valkyrae landed a starring voice acting role in Lionsgate Studios' movie 'Goldbeak.'
Valkyrae runs a podcast, Press Esc, with entrepreneur and influencer Lisa 'Alythuh' and has hosted celebrity guests such as Markiplier, Jacksepticeye, Bella Poarch and QTCinderella.
Valkyrae Returns to Twitch
After 3 contracts and 5 years later, I’ve officially completed my last contract streaming exclusively on YouTube🥹🎉
— RAE (@Valkyrae) December 29, 2024
I’ll be doing my first stream on Twitch on my birthday, January 8th! Celebrating 10 years of streaming as well as a special marathon announcement.
See you then❤️
YouTube offered Valkyrae a multi-year exclusivity contract in January 2020. This contract was part of YouTube's efforts to bolster its 'YouTube Gaming' streaming platform. Hofstetter accepted the offer and renewed the contract multiple times throughout the years. She streamed exclusively on YouTube until 2025.
On December 28, 2024, Valkyrae revealed on X.com that she would return to Twitch, saying "After 3 contracts and 5 years later, I’ve officially completed my last contract streaming exclusively on YouTube." She also invited fans to attend her first Twitch stream back on the platform on January 8 2024 which would celebrate her tenth streaming anniversary and her birthday.
Followers and collaborators alike were excited at the announcement. Fellow streamers Ludwig, Pokimane, Fuslie, Hasan Piker and Jasontheween all commented to show their support, and fans rushed to send 'welcome back' messages.
Related Article: Valkyrae Returns to Twitch With Big Announcement
Valkyrae's Latest Podcast: Why She's Leaving YouTube
On December 29 2024, Valkyrae released a fresh episode of her Press Esc podcast cohosted with entrepreneur and influencer Lisa 'Alythuh'. The episode, "Why Valkyrae Is Leaving YouTube + Surprising Viewers w/ Gifts!', elaborated on Hofstetter's decision to abandon YouTube streaming and delivered particular insight on the platform's mechanics.
In the segment, Hofstetter notes that YouTube treated her well during her contract. She says that her decision to leave was "bittersweet" because of her good relationship with the platform, that she is "very grateful" and that she made " life-changing money."
For the first time since announcing her decision, Valkyrae also reveals the reason why she decided to leave: "there were things with the streaming side of it that I wanted changed that didn't change, and I've been there for five years."
Specifically, Valkyrae notes how YouTube's decision to prioritize short-form content has disadvantaged and stagnated its streaming efforts. The platform released YouTube Shorts in 2020, likely intended to compete with the rapidly rising app TikTok and Instagram's up-and-coming Reels. YouTube has invested heavily in this feature, and visitors will notice dedicated 'Shorts' tabs on their feeds. Valkyrae states:
You know, they told me they're focusing on Shorts. No matter what, YouTube is a video-first platform. So if you're streaming on YouTube, you're competing with every single YouTube video.
- Rachell 'Valkyrae' Hofstetter
Lisa agrees with Valkyrae's sentiment, saying 'that just doesn't seem that you're maximizing your potential because the platform is not prioritizing you.'
Hofstetter states YouTube has "pros and cons" — consistently uploading on the platform results in an uptick in stream viewers. However, she claims many YouTube viewers also hesitate to watch Twitch streams due to the platform's visible ad presence: "There are ads on YouTube as well, but not nearly as much as on Twitch [...] because Twitch needs those ads to survive." Lisa agrees that the decision is complicated, saying "There's so many pros and cons because YouTube is just bigger as an application but then Twitch serves you as a streamer way more and you get more benefit from it."
Hofstetter primarily 'views herself as a streamer,' saying, "I barely upload YouTube videos."
Her YouTube channel, @Valkyrae, has over four million subscribers but only posts about one to four videos monthly. When Lisa asks if she'd like to upload more videos in 2025, she says "I don't think it works with the type of content that I would want to upload."
In summary, Hofstetter states:
I feel like Twitch has been focusing more on improving the platform. YouTube isn't going to prioritize the streaming side of it. It's like their third priority.
- Rachell 'Valkyrae' Hofstetter
Is It a Trend? Additional Streamers Abandon YouTube Contracts
Valkyrae is far from the only streamer to abandon YouTube's streaming efforts in recent months. In Press Esc, she states "I'm pretty much the last contracted person on YouTube."
lmao why dont you just multistream???
— ludwig (@LudwigAhgren) December 29, 2024
Ludwig Ahgren, who has 6.4 million subscribers on his YouTube channel @ludwig, notably ended his exclusivity contract in late 2024 to return to Twitch in a week-long League of Legends stream. He appeared on Valkyrae's X.com post to satirically encourage her to consider multistreaming.
'Multistreaming' is a growing phenomenon in which creators stream on several platforms including YouTube and Twitch at once. Valkyrae discussed multistreaming in her Press Esc podcast, noting that fellow influencer @fuslie already does. However, YouTube's strict copyright enforcement deters her: "The DMCA is so strong on YouTube, I fear I'm going to be playing music on Twitch that is going to get me banned on YouTube."
Well-known gamers Timothy 'Timthetatman' Betar and Kris 'Swagg' Lamberson both returned to Twitch earlier in the year, with Betar opting to multistream and Swagg completely halting streams on his 3-million-subscriber channel @Swagg. Swagg even posted a video, "Why I'm Leaving YouTube," sharing Valkyrae's sentiments that while YouTube treated him well the platform was not "adaptable for streaming."
Related Article: Why Are Gaming Streamers Going Back to Twitch?
Uniquely, most of these streamers are opting to return to Twitch without any contract incentive. In Valkyrae's case, she mentioned simply following other content creators who chose to move back to Twitch and noticing their positive experiences.
Twitch has not made any statements on its dwindling streamer base. Only time will tell if the platform chooses to implement streaming changes and court influencers to return.
