IShowSpeed hits a million subscribers in just 8 days after his return to Twitch

Streamer IShowSpeed is already hitting milestones within a week of his return to live streaming platform Twitch. The 20-year-old streamer has reached 1 million subscribers and counting on Twitch.

IShowSpeed, whose name is Darren Watkins Jr., reacted to the news of his Twitch account hitting 1 million subscribers during an IRL live stream from the sixth day of his European tour. While traveling in a car, Watkins reacted emotionally when he realized his subscriber count on Twitch had reached 1 million. He said,

“Oh I hit it! We hit 1 million. 1 million followers on Twitch, wow!…Who would have ever thought?  Who would have ever thought? I really came back to this platform after four years, after four years! After four years, I hit 1 million, that’s crazy! 650,000 followers in what? Nine days, eight days. Wow, y’all, that’s a mil on Twitch.”

While celebrating gaining 1 million followers on Twitch, Watkins referred to his four-year long hiatus from the platform. Back in 2021, Watkins was suspended from Twitch after making controversial comments against model Ash Kash during streamer Adin Ross’ live stream. At the time, Watkins told Kash that she wont be able to stop him from reproducing with her if they were the last two individuals left on the planet, as per Business Insider.

Twitch notified Watkins at the time that his account had been suspended for ‘sexual coercion or intimidation,’ noted the publication. His channel on YouTube remained active.

By 2023, despite his account being restored on Twitch, Watkins did not begin streaming on the platform, according to Dexerto.

IShowSpeed finally returned to Twitch on July 7, 2025. He had announced that he would be live streaming his tour of Europe on both YouTube and Twitch. As Watkins himself noted during his live stream, he gained around 600,000 subscribers since he began streaming his tour of Europe on Twitch.

IShowSpeed on his live streaming and content creation journey

IShowSpeed candidly reflected on the impact of live streaming during a conversation with Dazed Magazine in 2024. While speaking about live streaming one’s entire life, Watkins said,

“People think it’s a character, but nah. It’s part of me. It’s just who I am. I’m an entertaining, crazy, funny guy. That’s what I always am. There’s no such thing as [in] character and out of character. When I’m streaming on YouTube, it glimmers and comes out, but yeah. I am Speed…When I’m live, I’m just... live. Boom. It feels amazing. That’s why I love to be a streamer. That’s why I prefer to do lives. It kicks something in my body.”

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by IShowSpeed (@ishowspeed)

While reflecting on his viewership, Watkins also noted the paradoxical facets of being live constantly, and added,

“I have a super close connection to my fanbase. I can relate to them. They can relate to me. They just hate when I don’t stream. They do riots and stuff. They say I’m lazy and I don’t care and I lost motivation… People watch me sleep sometimes; my whole life is people watching me. They track my life, they know what planes I’m getting on sometimes, someone is always watching me.”

Even though IShowSpeed reached a million subscribers on Twitch now, he already has more than 42 million people following his antics on YouTube.