As the rise of the content creator rages on, one young streaming legend is currently outshining the rest, becoming one of the biggest internet stars ever, so much so that it seems he can’t even walk outside.
In a viral video from earlier this year, the teenage online personality who has amassed millions of followers and dedicated viewers , was in Norway where he was mobbed by hundreds of people. The scene is quite something, as a young, Black American social media star, is chased by a mostly white crowd, yanking and grabbing at him as he makes his way.
Yes, we’re talking about IShowSpeed, the American online personality who has taken social media platforms by storm. With 36.2 million followers on TikTok, 27 million on Instagram, and 34.1 million subscribers on Youtube, Darren Watkins Jr. is, without a doubt, one of the brightest stars in the streaming world. But how did IShowSpeed gain this massive following, with millions of people tuning into his every move and chasing him on the streets of Norway?
Early Days
IShowSpeed first started uploading content to YouTube in 2016 when he was 11-years-old at the time. He posted content surrounding video games like Fortnite, before eventually transitioning to live-streaming content in 2019. In his clips, he became known for his over-the-top reactions while gaming, giving huge reactions to his fellow players online, friends in person with him, and even to his own camera. He took off even more in 2021, gaining millions of followers in just days and becoming one of the biggest content stars ever.
He found himself “giving up” on school as his online career took off, as he explained in his interview on Shannon Sharpe’s “Club Shay Shay” earlier this year. “My sophomore year, I kind of gave up on school,” he explained. “I kind of gave up on everything that I had in my old life and just put everything on my stream. I streamed every day. I didn’t care about nothing else except Youtube streaming.”
A 16-Year-Old Millionaire
In 2021, IShowSpeed went incredibly viral, with various streaming clips of him from YouTube and Twitch making their way to TikTok. Suddenly, his gaming reactions were trending sounds on the popular social media app, and his popularity skyrocketed from just streaming and gaming to social media at large.
The success was so massive that at 16 years old, he became a millionaire. “I just didn’t really take a realization on the position that I was in as a 16-year-old kid, and right now I’m still locked in,” he explained to Sharpe in the interview, recalling just how wild it was that he made that much money, that fast, at such a young age.
“Now when I think back on like I was 16, I was a junior, had all this money. I was really locked in. I didn’t take that into consideration really.”
He did wind up getting his high school degree. Thanks to his mom put who him into online classes to make sure he would graduate.
Major Deals and Soccer Content
After reaching massive success on his own in 2021, naturally, deals and opportunities came pouring in for the streaming star. With a major interest in soccer, his content shifted more towards the global game, specifically dedicating much of his content to Cristiano Ronaldo.
In 2023, he finally got to meet the soccer star, in a post that got over a million likes on X, formerly known as Twitter, alone. At the same time, he had signed an exclusive streaming deal with Rumble, a video-sharing platform, and hit 20 million subscribers on his YouTube account.
His global reach is truly something to behold, as that viral Norway video clearly shows.
Music Career and Future
The internet star has also invested in a music career, dropping songs as early as 2021, complementing his rabid interest in soccer. His song 2022 “World Cup,” dedicated to the international soccer tournament of the same name, has over 150 million streams on YouTube alone, proving that his fans will follow him should he choose to go full-force into a music career.
As he explained in his Club Shay Shay interview, it seems he is finally settling into his success after his massive rise to fame and fortune, even giving back to his mom with one major purchase. “I’m not even a purchase person type of guy,” he explained during the interview. “My first big purchase was mainly buying my mom a house. I was never a guy who was like ‘I wanted a chain. I wanted that clothes.’ I was 16, I didn’t know what to do.”
While his net worth is reportedly $10 million, as his popularity only continues to grow, it’s clear that number may be on the lower side. He even hinted at this in an interview this year, teasing that with over 100 million followers across platforms, his estimated net worth may be quite larger.