Valkyrae’s new YouTube Gaming deal will see her stay on platform until 2024

Isaac McIntyre
Valkyrae holds up fingers on YouTube.

Rachell “Valkyrae” Hofstetter will sit on her YouTube streaming throne for another two years, the 100 Thieves co-owner has revealed, extending her time on Google’s powerhouse video website to at least four years.

Valkyrae first joined YouTube back in early 2020 and spent the next two years streaming exclusively on the Google-owned website as her fanbase continued to grow.

There were question marks over whether the 100 Thieves owner would be staying with YouTube after her 24-month deal, especially after she hurried to wrap up all her agreed hours at the tail end of 2021. These questions only compounded after she dropped a cryptic teaser in January.

On January 31, however, she confirmed she’s staying.

Not only that, but Valkyrae’s extension will see her stay on the red platform until January 2024 ⁠— the 100 Thieves star has signed a two-year extension.

Valkyrae in Build a Bitch music video.
Hofstetter has pledged herself to YouTube streaming for another 24 months.

Valkyrae’s new contract is likely quite similar to her original 2020 sign-up, where the 30-year-old agreed to stream a certain amount of hours each calendar year on YouTube’s Gaming category. This deal left her racing the clock late last year after she realized she still had 198-hours to serve.

It also confirms her status as YouTube’s stream-queen.

Dexerto first dubbed Hofstetter the “Queen of YouTube” back in March 2021, days after the streamer appeared in Machine Gun Kelly’s “DAYWALKER!” video clip. Since then, Valkyrae has climbed to even greater heights.

This year saw her barrel right past 3.6 million subscribers on YouTube, and regularly rakes in nearly 20k viewers ⁠— on average ⁠— with each of her streams. The 30-year-old is so popular that only Amouranth and her 38.8 million hours watched overshadowed the Los Angeles personality last year.

Across the 2021 calendar year, Valkyrae boasted 30.6 million streaming hours watched, firmly confirming her as the world’s second-largest female stream-star.

The 100 Thieves co-owner’s eventual choice to stay on YouTube is, in the end, not a surprising move ⁠— Valkyrae has been a major advocate for streamers joining the platform since she ditched Twitch in a shock 2020 swap.

Since her pivot, YouTube has managed to score several major streamer scalps too. TimTheTatman and Ludwig became two of the most high-profile signings at the tail end of last year, and other major stars like DrLupo and CouRage also stream exclusively on the platform too.

On her YouTube future, Hofstetter said: “The streaming side has a lot of room to grow. They’re working on it. I’m happy here. Seeing how hungry they are is exciting.”

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About The Author

Isaac was formerly the Australian Managing Editor at Dexerto. Isaac began his writing career as a sports journalist at Fairfax Media, before falling in love with all things esports and gaming. Since then he's covered Oceanic and global League of Legends for Upcomer, Hotspawn, and Snowball Esports.