Valkyrae Clears The Air

Popular streamer Valkyrae, real name Rachel Hofstetter, recently suggested that she may be stepping away from streaming and social media, instead moving into a career in business. During an April 27 stream, the content creator opened up about how she doesn't want to, "live this way for the rest of [her] life," citing social media scrutiny and constant online trolling as a major factor in her decision to discontinue streaming. She also said that social media fame wasn't "fulfilling," calling it "incredibly invasive."

According to Valkyrae, however, her words have been taken out of context.

In a tweet from Valkyrae's secondary Twitter account, she asked, "LOL WHY ARE THERE ARTICLES OF ME QUITTING?!?" In another tweet, she directly addressed speculation that she might be stepping away from the streaming game for good, explaining, "When I said I planned to 'pivot out of streaming to do business/investing' I didn't mean entirely!!"

She added that, as long as her friends wanted to play new video games with her, she would continue to stream. She remarked, "I've been [gaming] my whole life why would I ever stop!"

The GameStop employee-turned-award-winning streamer isn't lying, either. By all accounts, Valkyrae — who recently announced she'd be moving out of the house she has shared with Pokimane and other content creators — has had a lifelong love affair with gaming.

Although Valkyrae might not be stepping back from streaming and using social media completely, it's easy to see why she might want to pump the brakes a bit.

First off, the drama involving Valkyrae and fans of Tik-Tok star Addison Rae, which centered around a rumor that Valkyrae had gotten "Minecraft" streamer TommyInnit kicked off of the "Minecraft" Dream SMP server, clearly took its toll on her. The torrent of hate that Valkyrae received came to a head during an April 27 stream, in which she admitted, "I actually really, really hate social media."

This was the same infamous stream in which she suggested she was "for sure ... gonna pivot into business and investing," sending her fans into a tizzy about the possibility of the content creator's retirement from streaming. Thankfully, that's been cleared up — but Valkyrae's interest in a future in business begs the question: What exactly would such a career move entail?

The most likely scenario involves Valkyrae leveraging her new role as co-owner of 100 Thieves to some degree. In an April 7 video uploaded to 100 Thieves' YouTube channel, the organization's founder, Nadeshot, formally announced that both Valkyrae and fellow streamer Jack "CouRage" Dunlop had become co-owners of the esports organization. While it remains to be seen exactly how Valkyrae will use her newfound influence, there's a high likelihood that she'll bring the same commitment and tenacity that rocketed her to streaming fame in her future business endeavors.