"Finally reached the Pokimane stage of her career": Netizens react to Valkyrae's magazine cover debut

Twitch streamer Rachell "Valkyrae" has become the topic of discussion online after being chosen as the face of the Philippines edition of the Cosmopolitan magazine. With the news of her being featured on the magazine's cover page becoming viral online, many netizens have stated that the Twitch star has reached the "Pokimane stage" of her streaming career, referring to fellow female Twitch star Imane "Pokimane."

Valkyrae is one of the most popular female content creators on Twitch, with a substantial following of over 1.45 million as well as a watch time of over 12.8 million hours.

As such, it is no surprise that her recent breakthrough has invited a variety of reactions from netizens, with some comments under a post on X talking about the design of the cover itself, or Valkyrae's appearance in it in particular:

"0 light behind her eyes shes finally reached the pokimane stage of her career," wrote X user @HANCXCK

"To this day I don't understand why this streamer is popular, I have never seen a clip of her ever," wrote X user @SeanAlgerian

"Am I crazy or she doesnt look interesting at all? like why is she on a magazine cover?," wrote X user @xMakkusu

Many critiqued the photoshoot itself, stating that the photos picked for the cover did not accurately reflect how the streamer looked:

"Is it just me, or are these unironically very bad photos of her? I feel like every other picture I've seen of her looks better than these professional shoots," wrote X user @Mr_Axel_Gear

"Tbf i think the direction on every one of these mainstream fashion photoshoots is to look as soulless as possible for some reason," wrote X user @joshaing

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Exploring Valkyrae's rise to fame over the course of her career

Valkyrae began appearing on Twitch back in 2015, streaming throughout the next few years until the release of Fortnite. She then became a successful Fortnite content creator, getting signed with the 100 Thieves organization in 2018 as their first female content creator.

She eventually shifted to YouTube in 2020, signing an exclusive contract with the platform. Despite the move, she continued to grow exponentially and established a solid fanbase there as well, totalling 4.08 million subscribers as of now. During her career, she has been the recipient of multiple awards, including the Game Award for "Content Creator of the Year" in 2020. Notably, she was listed in the Forbes' 30 Under 30 list in 2022.

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Now, with content creators having the provision of multistreaming, Valkyrae continues to stream on both Twitch and YouTube along with other streamers like CinnaBrit, Emiru, and Pokimane.