Valkyrae, from Gamestop employee to Creator of the Year

Meet Rachell Hofstetter, better known as Valkyrae on the internet.

Valkyrae is a 28 year old content creator who streams various games and just recently was named The Game Award’s Content Creator of the Year. But behind all the success is a larger story that starts with humble beginnings.

Hofstetter was born in Washington and she’s been always been interested in gaming.

Her first interaction with gaming was when she was babysitting a family friend’s daughter and they played Bubble Bobble on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) game system.

For those that are not familiar, Bubble Bobble came out in 1986 and is basically similar to PacMan in terms of gameplay. As you can see, the game is quite simple and has very simple graphics and UI. There’s no bells and whistles, it’s a classic arcade type game from the mid-80s.

Rachell has said that ever since that day she was hooked on video games and her mother was the first one to support her love for video games by seeing how happy it made her daughter to play.

Without getting too deep into her family life, Valkyrae has said that her mom just wanted her daughters to be happy despite some family troubles. And that form of happiness for her daughter came thru playing video games.

Her first audience was actually her own family. Her sister would read off gameplay cheatbooks for certain games while she was playing and help her through games and the camaraderie and team building only made their relationship stronger. It was also the first audience Valkyrae would play in front of and interact with and realize she loves playing video games and loves entertaining people with her love of video games.

Fast forward and Valkyrae went to community college because she didn’t know what to do with her love of video games and thereafter worked at a car wash, then a bank and then GameStop (finally finding a place where she could share her video game passion with others).

While at GameStop, she made an Instagram page where she would post content about upcoming releases, small clips and such and the page quickly grew to over 15K followers.

With the new found following, she asked her followers if she should start making YouTube videos and her followers were the ones that actually introduced her to Twitch.

Starting on Twitch

She started streaming on Twitch and is known as a variety streamer. Most streamers grow their following by primarily streaming one game so their audiences know what to expect each time they tune in. Valkyrae started streaming Zelda then Dark Souls then to a whole variety of games, but her following didn’t skyrocket until she started streaming Fortnite consistently.

If you equate streaming to professional sports, it’s the equivalent of tuning into the NBA game and seeing them playing cricket. You’d be a bit confused as to what you’re watching and you’d mostly be watching the person for their personality, not necessarily their prowess at the game or to learn new game tactics.

But that personality and interaction with her chat is what set Valkyrae apart and led to people returning to her streams to watch her play games. It became her competitive differentiator from watchers viewing other people’s streams.

The other thing to note is that it was a hobby for Rachell. She didn’t think about growing a following or doing it for money. She just loved playing games.

One day when she was very close to beating Dark Souls 2, someone in her chat asked her to play a Battle Royale game. So, she turned to Fortnite and never looked back. She fell in love with the game and that became her staple game at the beginning of 2018.

With her getting better at Fortnite and playing with other streamers, her channel skyrocketed. She got better, more people knew of her from other streams and she was making a name for herself amongst the Fortnite streaming community.

Her growth led her to eventually want to join an organization as many do. She was presented with many opportunities and eventually in her words “settled on the best one”.

Joining 100 Thieves

In October 2018, she joined 100 Thieves as a full-time content creator for the brand as well as relocating to Los Angeles to live int he 100 Thieves LA Content House along with 100 Thieves founder, Matt “Nadeshot” Haag (pictured above holding cake), Jack “CourageJD” Dunlop and many others.

Her growth within 100 Thieves was absolutely amazing.

100 Thieves is led by Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag and funded by Scooter Braun, Drake, Dan Gilbert, Marc Benioff and many others. The organization has grown quickly through major sponsorships with Rocket League and Cash App. The compound (pictured above) is a vast LA warehouse known as the 100 Thieves Cash App Compound. On top of that, there are two creator houses where 100 Thieves members live together, create content together and stream/compete in tournaments.

After joining 100 Thieves, she would go to TwitchCon and basically have her own booth. People stood in massive lines for their few seconds of interaction with their favorite streamer, Valkyrae.

She is always about her fans and would even recognize some names from her chat and then meet them in person.

That feeling of being heard or seen by someone you look up to is something everyone strives for and being able to give that to her fans in a genuine way is huge.

How Valkyrae makes money

The streaming industry is difficult to explain how money is made by popular streamers but I’ll break it down so it’s easier to understand.

The majority of income is made from exclusive platform deals or sponsorships.

More income can be made in a combination of YouTube and platform ad sense. Another area is merch and exclusive brand deals. For Valkyrae, it’s 100 Thieves as the brand she mainly reps and the organization she represents. Similar to professional sports teams, there is a contract and an associated payout.

Streamers have a unique difference because people that tune into their livestream can send real-time tips or donations to the stream and depending on platform, the creator gets a percentage of that. Tips can range in the form of $1 all the way up to a custom amount. Some big YouTubers like MrBeast have been known to donate $10,000 via donations to streamers.

To learn more about how content creators as a whole make money, this breakdown in various areas of content creation by Blake Robbins is fantastic.

Valkyrae’s Switch To YouTube

In January of 2020, Valkyrae left streaming on Twitch to stream exclusively on YouTube. Reportedly, the deal was just under $1M a year to stream exclusively on YouTube which gives her much needed financial freedom and security for her and her family. The main goal? Giving back to her mother who supported her through her hard times and continues to support her.

This story isn’t over, but it does have a full circle moment.

Last year, Valkyrae was able to buy her mom a home in the Phillipines (where her family is originally from) and pay for her mother to live there.

“In essence, I was able to pay my mom for everything she’s done for me. She’s the kid now and I have my whole gaming and streaming community to thank for that.” - Valkyrae

In September 2020, she switched from Fortnite to the massively popular Among Us social deduction game and her growth on YouTube absolutely skyrocketed again.

She quickly became known as the most successful active female streamer.

This tweet from the head of YouTube gaming shows some numbers for Valkyrae on a monthly basis in 2020 from Jan 15th 2020 to late October.

You can also see this on her social blade when you look at her YouTube growth as it is a huge hockey stick growth pattern right after switching to Among Us. It’s not uncommon for a streamer to gain a huge following after switching games but this growth is unprecedented and can only be attributed to people liking Valkyrae for who she is, a very likable and relatable person.

The best part is that this is just the beginning for Valkyrae. As I mentioned at the beginning of the year, Valkyrae won The Game Awards, Content Creator of the Year. The award is given to a streamer or content creator who has made a huge impact on the community in 2020.

She was nominated alongside Alanah Pearce, Jay Ann Lopez, Nickmercs, and TimtheTatMan. For those that are not familiar, Nick and Tim have bigger followings that Valkyrae and she still ended up winning the award.

It’s one thing to have a bunch of fans, but it’s a different thing altogether to gain the respect of your peers and people that are industry and gaming heavyweights. Valkyrae has earned that and she is here to stay.

The future is incredibly bright for her and I’m excited to see what big moves she makes.

You can check out her YouTube channel below and tune into her streams to check out more of her content.

This is the sixth edition of the Creator’s Digest.

I dive deep into a single creator on a weekly basis and look at things like their background, business model, and provide some links on their content.

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