Valkyrae overtook Pokimane as most watched female streamer in 2020

A new, in-depth streaming report shows that Valkyrae is officially the biggest female streamer on the internet, even beating out the likes of Pokimane for the number one spot.

Having just celebrated her 29th birthday, Valkyrae (real name Rachel Hofstetter) has shown no signs of slowing down in recent years, and her move from Twitch to YouTube at the start of 2020 has proven to be an incredible change for both herself and the YouTube streaming platform. As a variety streamer, Hofstetter is always on top of what her fans and the wider streaming audience wants to see, whether it’s Fortnite or Fall Guys, Among Us or Rust. So, it’s no surprise to see her rising the ranks, but now we know exactly how much of a success 2020 was for Valkyrae.

According to a new report from Stream Hatchet, Valkyrae tops the list of most viewed female streamers, just beating Imane ‘Pokimane’ Anys to the punch, with these two far exceeding the numbers put up by their closest competition.

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As you can see in the graphic below, it was an incredibly tight-knit race at the top, but Valkyrae’s 23.6m hours watched came out above Pokimane’s 23.3m. Scaling down the list is Korean streamer saddummy with 20.1m, Japanese VTuber Usada Pekora at 14.6m, and finally Jinnytty rounding out the top 5 with 14m hours watched.

At almost 24m hours watched in 2020, Stream Hatchet say Valkyrae grew over 7,304% year on year, an almost unfathomable amount of growth in the space of 12 months.

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Overall, the gap between male and female streamers is continuing to close, according to Stream Hatchet. Using their stats, Valkyrae places 63rd across all streamers for hours watched, with the likes of xQc, Gaules and summit1g taking the top overall spots. Anybody could tell you that Valkyrae had an incredible year, earning herself a nomination for Streamer of the Year in the Dexerto Awards, but it’s mind blowing to see just how much she has grown and cemented her place in the livestreaming space in the last year alone.