# Valkyrae

Rachell "Rae" Marie Hofstetter (born January 8, 1992), better known as Valkyrae, is an American online streamer and YouTuber. She is a co-owner of the gaming organization 100 Thieves and founder and CEO of the media company Hihi Studios.
Hofstetter began streaming on Twitch in 2015. She had her breakthrough by playing the competitive online game Fortnite in 2018 and joined 100 Thieves as their first female content creator. In 2020, she switched streaming platforms by signing an exclusive contract with YouTube. Later that year, she saw significant follower growth and reached her peak viewership when playing the online social deduction game Among Us, which led to her winning the Game Award for "Content Creator of the Year" and the Streamy Award for best live streamer. She was also named "Gaming Creator of the Year" by Adweek in 2021 and was included on Forbes' 30 Under 30 list in 2022.

## Early life

Rachell Marie Hofstetter was born on January 8, 1992, and grew up in Moses Lake, Washington. She is of Filipino and German descent and has three brothers and one younger sister. She cites her mother as the reason she became interested in video games, who encouraged her to pursue it as a hobby from a young age. She attended community college and worked a job at GameStop to support herself, later graduating with an associate degree in arts and science.

## Career
### 2015–2019: Early career, initial popularity, and joining 100 Thieves

While working at GameStop, Hofstetter began sharing her gaming hobby on Instagram, gaining a following. After being encouraged by her followers, she started live streaming on Twitch in 2015. She later began uploading her gaming content to YouTube and had her breakthrough by playing the competitive online game Fortnite in 2018. That October, she became the first female content creator for the gaming organization 100 Thieves. In May 2019, she was nominated for the Gaming award at the 11th Shorty Awards.

### 2020–2024: Move to YouTube, continued growth, and business ventures

On January 13, 2020, Hofstetter left Twitch for an exclusive streaming contract on YouTube. In her first three months on YouTube, she averaged around 1,500 concurrent viewers. Her stream then experienced significant growth and, in late 2020, regularly peaked at concurrent viewer counts exceeding 100,000. This was driven by her playing the online multiplayer social deduction game Among Us and collaborating with popular streamers like Disguised Toast, Sykkuno, Pokimane, PewDiePie, and Cr1TiKaL, in addition to public figures like politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, musician Lil Nas X, and television personality Jimmy Fallon. Hofstetter became the fastest-growing female streamer of 2020 and surpassed Pokimane as the year's most-viewed female streamer. In December 2020, she won Content Creator of the Year award at the 2020 Game Awards.
On April 7, 2021, Hofstetter and CouRageJD joined the ownership group of 100 Thieves, alongside Dan Gilbert, Scooter Braun, Drake, and its founder, Nadeshot. As co-owners, they received equity in the company, which Forbes valued at $190 million at the time. In May 2021, she won Gaming Creator of the Year award at the 2021 Adweek Creator Visionary Awards. Throughout 2021, she made appearances in music videos for "DayWalker" by Machine Gun Kelly featuring Corpse Husband, as well as "Build a Bitch" and "Inferno" by Bella Poarch. In December 2021, she won the Livestreamer award at the 11th Streamy Awards.
In 2022, she was named to Forbes' 30 Under 30 list in the games category. In March 2022, she was nominated for Best Variety Streamer at the 2022 Streamer Awards. In September 2022, she became an ambassador for the fitness apparel brand Gymshark. In December 2022, she was nominated for Streamer of the Year and Variety Streamer at the 12th Streamy Awards. On March 11, 2023, she co-hosted the second annual Streamer Awards alongside the event's creator, QTCinderella; the ceremony averaged 425,000 live concurrent viewers. Later in August 2023, she was nominated for Streamer of the Year and Variety Streamer at the 13th Streamy Awards.
In February 2024, she won The Sapphire Award at the third annual Streamer Awards. In May 2024, Hofstetter's streaming heavily involved playing a character on the modded Grand Theft Auto V roleplaying server NoPixel. Later that month, she was named among Gold House A100 honorees. In July 2024, she participated in the MrBeast video "50 YouTubers Fight for $1,000,000". In September 2024, Hofstetter founded the media company Hihi Studios to "develop and produce IP for graphic novels, TV and film projects with a specific emphasis on anime-inspired content." In October 2024, Hofstetter launched her podcast Press Esc with artist Alyssa "Alythuh" Dios as her co-host. In December 2024, she was nominated for The Sapphire Award at the fourth annual Streamer Awards.

### 2025–present: Return to Twitch

By January 2025, Hofstetter's exclusive streaming contract with YouTube had expired. She returned to Twitch on January 8, while celebrating her 10th streaming anniversary and her 33rd birthday. During her first week, she was the most-watched female streamer on Twitch, based on hours watched.
On February 24, 2025, Hofstetter began a week-long IRL streaming marathon in Los Angeles with fellow streamer Brittany "Cinna" Watts titled Sis-A-Thon. Hoffstetter and Watts had planned on holding the marathon in January, but it was postponed due to the January 2025 Southern California wildfires. On March 2, the final night of the marathon, Hoffstetter, Watts, and their guest Emily "Emiru" Schunk, were targeted by a stalker at Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier. A man, who introduced himself as "Russell", had approached the live streamers and asked Emiru for her phone number, who declined but offered to take a photo with him. The man would change clothes and reapproach the women again over a half hour later, asking Emiru for her number after they got off the Ferris wheel. The man became aggressive after they told him no again, threatening to kill the streamers and requiring to be held back by Cinna's cameraman Rosii as they called for park security. The streamers ended the marathon early and contacted the police, Hofstetter tweeting the following morning: "We are all ok and have been with police. We decided we are done with the marathon and need time to process! Thank you for all the love and support this past week, we had so much fun and hope you all enjoyed. That end of marathon brunch stream we had planned tomorrow with friends will be rescheduled for sometime in the far future :’) Please send love to emiru, Cinna, Rosie [sic] and Emily! Everybody is in shock but I’m so glad were [sic] together". Later that day, Hofstetter and Watts went live to address the incident and officially conclude the marathon.

## Other activities
### Philanthropy

On April 6, 2021, Hofstetter participated in an Among Us charity livestream held by The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon with several notable celebrities such as Gaten Matarazzo and Noah Schnapp of Stranger Things, American hip-hop band The Roots members Questlove, Black Thought, and Captain Kirk Douglas, and fellow streamers and YouTubers Sykkuno and Corpse Husband. The event raised over $25,000 for Feeding America.
In June 2022, Hofstetter participated in a Minecraft charity tournament held by the MC Championship with several other creators to raise money for The Trevor Project. Hofstetter also donated $10,000 towards the charity. In late November 2022, Hofstetter donated $15,000 towards No Kid Hungry during Ludwig Ahgren's charity event. In December 2022, Hofstetter participated in "Thankmas", an annual charity livestream event hosted by YouTuber jacksepticeye, to raise money for World Central Kitchen. The event raised over $10 million in donations.
Hofstetter donated $10,000 towards the victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria on February 6, 2023.

### RFLCT and controversy

On October 19, 2021, Hofstetter announced the launch of her skincare brand, RFLCT. The brand, primarily geared towards gamers and those who put in heavy screen time, claimed that users are susceptible to skin damage caused by prolonged exposure to blue light and that their products protect against it.
RFLCT received backlash due to insufficient evidence supporting the claim; according to Kathleen Suozzi, the director of the aesthetic dermatology program at Yale University, unless someone was already prone to melasma or hyperpigmentation, they were unlikely to suffer any consequence of sitting in front of a screen for long periods of time. Hofstetter responded by stating that "all of the hate, doubt, concerns, and criticisms are all warranted and valid" and that she was "very upset and confused" with the lack of information on its website, promising additional information supporting the products would be made available. She was later informed that the research conducted by RFLCT supporting the products—which she had been given access to during development—could not be released to the public.
Hofstetter then expressed a desire to part ways with RFLCT but was contractually bound. On October 30, 2021, RFLCT ceased operation of its website and online store. A statement on the website read: "While we believe in the formulations created, after further reflection, have decided to move forward on new paths, effectively terminating the RFLCT brand."

## Personal life

Hofstetter resides in Los Angeles. From 2016 to 2021, she was in a relationship with fellow streamer Michael "Sonii" Sherman. From April 2023 to July 2024, she lived with fellow streamers Leslie "Fuslie" Fu, Miyoung "Kkatamina" Kim, and Christina "TinaKitten" Kenyan, collectively known as "The Roomies".
Hofstetter endorsed Kamala Harris in the 2024 United States presidential election.

## Filmography
### Film

List of film roles :
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2023 | The Family Plan | Herself | |
| 2025 | Goldbeak | Ratchet | Voice role (English dub); direct-to-video |
| 2025 | A Minecraft Movie | TBA | Post-production |

### Television

List of television appearances and roles :
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
| 2022 | Tribe Nine | Hannya Squad Member | Voice role (English dub); episode: "Chiyoda Tribe Showdown" | |
| 2022 | Sonic Prime | Squad Commander Red | Voice role; episode: "Situation: Grim" | |

### Music videos

List of music videos :
| Year | Title | Artist(s) |
| 2021 | "DayWalker" | Machine Gun Kelly and Corpse Husband |
| 2021 | "Build a Bitch" | Bella Poarch |
| 2021 | "Inferno" | Bella Poarch and Sub Urban |
| 2022 | "Car Crash" | eaJ |
| 2022 | "Memories" | Yungblud and Willow Smith |
| 2022 | "Dolls" | Bella Poarch |
| 2024 | "Echoes" | Valkyrae, Fuslie and Ylona Garcia |
| 2024 | "Run Back to You" | Lay Zhang and Lauv |
| 2024 | "Girls" | The Kid Laroi |
| 2024 | "Drag Me Under" | Blessthefall and Alpha Wolf |

## Discography

List of singles, showing year released and album name :
| Title | Year | Album |
| "The Fortnite Rap Battle Round 2" (NerdOut featuring Valkyrae, TimTheTatman, SypherPK, Nate Hill and AvaGG) | 2018 | Non-album single |
| "Last Cup of Coffee" (with Natsumiii, featuring LilyPichu) | 2021 | Non-album single |
| "Echoes" (with Fuslie and Ylona Garcia) | 2024 | Non-album single |

## Awards and nominations

List of awards and nominations received by Valkyrae :
| Ceremony | Year | Category | Result |
| Adweek Creator Visionary Awards | 2021 | Gaming Creator of the Year | Won |
| The Game Awards | 2020 | Content Creator of the Year | Won |
| Shorty Awards | 2019 | Gaming | Nominated |
| The Streamer Awards | 2021 | Best Variety Streamer | Nominated |
| The Streamer Awards | 2023 | The Sapphire Award | Won |
| The Streamer Awards | 2024 | The Sapphire Award | Nominated |
| Streamy Awards | 2021 | Livestreamer | Won |
| Streamy Awards | 2022 | Streamer of the Year | Nominated |
| Streamy Awards | 2022 | Variety Streamer | Nominated |
| Streamy Awards | 2023 | Streamer of the Year | Nominated |
| Streamy Awards | 2023 | Variety Streamer | Nominated |

### Listicles

| Publisher | Year | Listicle | Result | Ref. |
| Forbes | 2022 | 30 Under 30: Games | Placed | |
| Gold House | 2024 | A100 | Honoree | |