After 5 years, Valkyrae is returning to Twitch

Five years ago, Valkyrae joined a mass of streamers who moved from Twitch to stream exclusively on YouTube. Now, the streamer is headed back to where it all began with a return stream on the Amazon-owned platform in just over a week.

In a new announcement to X (formerly Twitter) today, Valkyrae informed fans that she had ended her final exclusive contract with YouTube and would return to Twitch with her first stream back on Jan. 8.

“After 3 contracts and 5 years later, I’ve officially completed my last contract streaming exclusively on YouTube,” the 32-year-old streamer wrote in the announcement post to her fans. “I’ll be doing my first stream on Twitch on my birthday, January 8th! Celebrating 10 years of streaming as well as a special marathon announcement.”

Valkyrae hopped platforms in 2020, joining the likes of fellow 100 Thieves content creator CouRageJD in making the move. Other high-profile content creators would follow suit, including DrLupo, TimTheTatman, Ludwig, Myth, and Sykkuno—just to name a few. Valkyrae would later re-sign with YouTube in 2022 and again at the end of 2023, marking her third exclusive contract with the company.

In the years that followed, a number of streamers ditched Twitch for other platforms outside of YouTube, expressing frustration with the Amazon-owned platform and its rules. A multitude of creators opted for Kick over YouTube, including Destiny, Trainwreck, Adin Ross, Amouranth, and xQc. Many streamers these days, however, choose to multistream across a variety of platforms instead of exclusivity deals, giving viewers the option for where they want to watch their favorite streamers.

Multistreaming may be something Valkyrae looks to do as part of her return to Twitch. In a response to her tweet, fellow streamer Ludwig asked her why she “[doesn’t] just multistream?” to which Valkyrae responded “What’s that?” with a smiling face emoji—a sly remark that could hint at what’s to come.

Shortly after Valkyrae’s initial move to YouTube in 2020, Valkyrae spoke to Dot Esports about her reason for switching platforms. Besides financial stability, Valkyrae said she wouldn’t have to “worry about numbers” with an exclusivity deal and could “focus on making content that [she’s] proud of and that people would enjoy.” She also expressed the importance of focusing on one’s brand and how she felt YouTube’s team listened to feedback from creators with the goal of improving the livestreaming side of the platform.

At the time, she also agreed with a former statement from CouRage that expressed YouTube was the optimal platform to livestream, upload, and share content. With her move back to Twitch, though, fans can expect the streamer to discuss more of the rationale behind her return in her first few broadcasts back on the platform, and whether that sentiment from 2020 still holds.

Fans can catch Valkyrae’s first stream on Twitch in five years on Jan. 8.