Cover Speed meeting his fans in his livestream from China (Photo: IShowSpeed/ YouTube)
Speed meeting his fans in his livestream from China (Photo: IShowSpeed/ YouTube)
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With millions of followers on social media, everyone’s feeling the need for Speed
Darren Jason Watkins Jr’s name may not be immediately recognisable but on social media he’s a global superstar. Known as IShowSpeed or Speed, Watkins is one of the world’s most popular streamers. For someone who got into streaming relatively late, his numbers are very impressive.
On YouTube, he currently has 38.4 million subscribers with 3.9 billion views. On Tiktok, he has 41.3 million followers, along with 32.5 million on Instagram. It’s all a far cry from the 20-year-old’s early days of livestreaming video games such as NBA 2K, FIFA and Fortnite from his bedroom in Ohio as a pre-teen in 2016. While he’s not yet at the level of MrBeast, Speed is quickly catching up.
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The early days of Speed
Above IShowSpeed's TikTok videos (Photo: IShowSpeed via TikTok)
IShowSpeed's TikTok videos (Photo: IShowSpeed via TikTok)
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While initially starting on YouTube, Speed hopped on Twitch as well, gaining fame and, to some extent, notoriety from live streaming Valorant, a popular first-person shooter. A lot of his early YouTube fans would also post his videos on TikTok as his popularity started to rise, helping him gain millions of followers. By 2021, he already had a million subscribers on YouTube. Speed’s forte is raw, unscripted content. He has hundreds of hours of this type of content on his social media channels.
Speed’s early trademark was his over-enthusiastic attitude and unfiltered outbursts. Fans found his personality authentic and infectious. His intense reactions quickly became the stuff of memes. Over the years, Speed has retained his core traits that have resonated with a lot of his audience.
Speed the sports fan
While he’s known for his gaming antics, he’s also a big sports fan. In particular, he’s a big supporter of football player Cristiano Ronaldo. Speed has even watched Ronaldo’s international matches until he finally met the player in 2023. His reaction to seeing his idol was nothing short of dramatic.
Speed wears his love of sports on his sleeves. In 2023, he participated in the Sidemen Charity Match, a football charity match held regularly in the UK. Speed joined a roster of online influencers such as Airrack, xQC, Kai Cenat and JiDion.
Above Speed tries his hand at boxing with a professional fighter
In collaboration with streamer MrBeast, Speed went up against Noah Lyles, an Olympic track and field sprinter. He almost won the match. Speed also fought KSI, a professional English fighter, in a boxing match. He also tried his hand at other sports such as professional American football and pro wrestling, tangling with WWE superstars for the latter.
His most famous stunt that flaunted his extreme athleticism was his Lamborghini jump video. In the video, Speed faced off with a Lamborghini hurtling towards him at 45 mph. Speed jumped over the car with ease—and repeated this move with another sports car in the same video.
Speed the travel ambassador
Above The next Bourdain? IShowSpeed goes on a world tour (Photo: IShowSpeed via YouTube)
The next Bourdain? IShowSpeed goes on a world tour (Photo: IShowSpeed via YouTube)
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In 2023, Speed went on to create a different type of content. Speed switched things up a bit by going on a world tour. His goal was to live stream in every country. For his European tour in 2024, he focused on his love for soccer by visiting UEFA Euro matches in Germany, Italy, Poland, Norway, Albania, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Austria, Bulgaria, Romania, Ireland and Denmark. He amassed over 2.5 billion views for his European tour.
After this massive streaming success, he set his sights on Southeast Asia, where he made a new record. While live streaming in Indonesia, he garnered over one million concurrent viewers.
Above IShowSpeed livestreaming in China (Photo: IShowSpeed via YouTube)
IShowSpeed livestreaming in China (Photo: IShowSpeed via YouTube)
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His latest stop was his tour of mainland China, where he is one of the most-followed English-language streamers. He toured Shanghai, Beijing, Henan, Chengdu and Chongquing. In each region, he put a spotlight on the food, people, culture, technology, landmarks and architecture.
With the five live-stream episodes from China with a running time of four to six hours each, he got over 36 million views. The videos were widely shared on Chinese social media and his global audience. Because of his unfiltered, entertaining and earnest live streaming of a modern and vibrant China, he even got praise from the country’s foreign ministry and earned the reputation as a cultural ambassador.
As a creator, he is now setting his sights on his business ventures, endorsements and creating more compelling content. He’s even gone on record to say that he’d love to stream in space one day.
