IShowSpeed

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IShowSpeed
Personal information
Born
Darren Watkins Jr.[1][2][3]

Cincinnati, Ohio
NationalityAmerican
Occupations
YouTube information
Channels
Years active2016–present[4]
Genres
[4]
Subscribers
  • 11.5 million (main)
  • 15.3 million (combined)[b]
Total views
  • 829.17 million (main)
  • 1.6 billion (combined)[a]
Associated acts
100,000 subscribers
1,000,000 subscribers
10,000,000 subscribers

Darren Watkins Jr.,[1][2][3] better known by his online alias IShowSpeed, is an American YouTuber, streamer, and rapper. He is known for his variety livestreams in which he primarily plays video games such as Fortnite and NBA 2K.

Watkins is best known for his rapid growth as a live streamer, at a rate unprecedented in YouTube history.[4] He is also known for his songs "Shake", "Ronaldo (Sewey)" and "God Is Good" which have received traction on his YouTube channel.[5]

Life and career

Personal life

Watkins' age is unknown; he has claimed to be 16 years old in his 2021 songs and 19 in a live stream in the same year.[4]

2016-2019: YouTube beginnings

Watkins joined YouTube in 2016, uploading gameplay videos occasionally.[4] His first video would be uploaded in December 2017, titled {2K18}-{First Video}.[6]

Around mid-2019, Watkins began livestreaming and uploading videos games such as NBA 2K and Fortnite. his uploads were without commentary or face cams. intially he saw a few hundred to a few thousands views until mid-2020. however his monthly subscriber saw a rise in a span of a few months. In fact, between the months of May and June of 2021, Speed gained almost 1 million subscribers.[7]

2021-present

Influencer career

Watkins became prominent in 2021 after numerous memes on TikTok circulated of his often violent behavior during live streams towards games, players, and his camera. His outbursts have resulted in bans from the streaming platform Twitch and video game Valorant.[8] He has been described by Kotaku as "one of the biggest and fastest-rising streamers" on YouTube.[4] A game that has majorly contributed to his growth in popularity is Talking Ben. Watkins' videos on Talking Ben the Dog was credited for bringing the mobile app newfound popularity, with it becoming the best-selling game on the App Store over a decade after its initial release.[9] In July 2022, his room almost caught fire after he set off a Pikachu firework inside of it.[10][11] In August 2022, he was swatted while livestreaming on YouTube, he was handcuffed and his camera person was being forced to end the stream.[2] Also in August 2022, he attempted to cheat in a "United States and Global Economics" course he was taking at the Ohio Digital Learning School by asking his viewers for the answers to his quiz. His viewers instead took the opportunity to prank him and purposely give him the wrong answers. He got a 0/10 on his test.[12] In September 2022, he played in charity football match between the Sidemen and a YouTube AllStars team.[13] During the match, he became frustrated at Mark Clattenburg over a strike. He proceeded to whip him with the shirt he removed while celebrating.[14]

Musical career

In August 2021, Watkins released his first single, "Dooty Booty", on his YouTube channel. Following its upload, the song quickly became popular on YouTube and other social media sites such as TikTok.[15] In November 2021, Watkins released a single titled "Shake" which received over 130 million views on YouTube.[5]

Controversies

In December 2021, he took part in a Twitch "e-dating" livestream show, hosted by Adin Ross. In the stream, Watkins asked Ash Kash whether she would reproduce with him if it was the end of the world and they were the only two people on earth.[4] When Kash said no, he aggresively asked her, "Who gonna stop me?" which was interpreted as a rape threat.[4][1] Ross muted him from the Discord call. However, he later rejoined the call and started sexually harassing Kash and calling her slurs repeatedly. Watkins was kicked out of the call again, with Ross apologizing to Kash for his behaviour.[1] Watkins was later banned from Twitch.[4] According to a Twitter post by him, Watkins was banned for "sexual coercion or intimidation."[16][17]

In April 2022, an old clip of Watkins playing Valorant on a live stream surfaced. In the clip, he tells a female player to, "Get off the fucking game and do your husband's dishes."[4][8] This resulted in one of the game's producers, Sara Dadafshar, permanently banning Watkins from Valorant and all other Riot Games titles.[4][18][19] YouTube global head of gaming creators, Lester Chen, replied to the clip, saying he was "on it."[4] DramaAlert anchor Keemstar defended Watkins, saying he appeared to be a minor and that what he said "wasn't real." Watkins soon apologised for his behaviour, saying it was "wrong" and that he had been receiving racist comments from other players that day, such as one made by two players who told him "only the white characters can heal".[4][20]

In July 2022, Watkins was temporarily suspended from YouTube for simulating a sex act in the video game Minecraft.[3]

Discography

Singles

As lead artist

Title Year Album
"Dooty Booty"[21] 2021 Non-album singles
"Shake"[5]
"Bounce That Ass"[22]
"One More Chance"[23]
"NFL Freestyle"[24]
"Love In These Streets"[25]
"I Don't Like You"[26]
"Crazy"[27] 2022 Non-album singles
"F.U.C."[28]
"Single"[29]
"Shake Pt. 2 (Get Get Down Version)"[30]
(with DJ Shawny)
"God Is Good"[31]
"Ronaldo (Sewy)"[32]

Notes

  1. ^ Views, broken down by channel:
    829.17 million (IShowSpeed)
    475.51 million (Live Speedy)
    295.75 million (Speedy Boykins)
  2. ^ Subscribers, broken down by channel:
    11.50 million (IShowSpeed)
    3.05 million (Live Speedy)
    751 thousand (Speedy Boykins)

References

  1. ^ a b c d Alford, Aaron (December 13, 2021). "Adin Ross stream sparks outrage after IShowSpeed threatens to sexually assault guest". Inven Global. Archived from the original on January 25, 2022. Retrieved April 8, 2022.
  2. ^ a b c Nathan, Grayson (August 15, 2022). "Streamers Keffals, Adin Ross and IShowSpeed all swatted in the same week". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 1, 2022.
  3. ^ a b c Cheong, Charissa (July 25, 2022). "IShowSpeed sparks controversy over Minecraft video simulating sex act". Insider. Retrieved October 1, 2022.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Winslow, Jeremy (April 7, 2022). "YouTube Streamer With 6.9M Followers Banned After Valorant Tirade Clip Surfaces". Kotaku. G/O Media. Archived from the original on April 7, 2022. Retrieved April 8, 2022.
  5. ^ a b c Cohen, Justin (September 27, 2022). "Is IShowSpeed The New King Of Content?". Yahoo! News. Retrieved October 1, 2022.
  6. ^ "{2k18}-{First-Video}". youtube.com. July 11, 2022. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
  7. ^ Mukherjee, Shreyan. "Breaking down IShowSpeed's meteoric rise to fame". Sportskeeda. Sportskeeda. Retrieved August 11, 2022.
  8. ^ a b Harrison, Christian (April 7, 2022). "YouTuber IShowSpeed banned from VALORANT, all Riot games following viral sexist rant". Dot Esports. Gamurs. Archived from the original on April 9, 2022. Retrieved April 8, 2022.
  9. ^ Johnson, Stephen (April 8, 2022). "The Out-of-Touch Adults' Guide to Kid Culture: What Is 'The Ick'?". Lifehacker. Retrieved April 17, 2022.
  10. ^ Wee, Jared (July 7, 2022). "US streamer nearly sets rooms on fire after lighting Pikachu firework during 'live' stream (VIDEO)". Malay Mail. Retrieved October 1, 2022.
  11. ^ Mustafa, Filiz. "YOUTUBER SPEED SETS OFF FIREWORKS IN HIS ROOM DURING INSANE 4TH OF JULY STREAM". HITC. Retrieved October 1, 2022.
  12. ^ Fenley, Nick (August 30, 2022). "YouTuber Gets Trolled Into Scoring A Big Fat 0% On Quiz After Asking Livestream Chat For Answers". Yahoo! News. Retrieved October 1, 2022.
  13. ^ Slot, Owen (September 30, 2022). "Chunkz, Pieface, and a YouTube-inspired sporting apocalypse". The Times. Retrieved October 1, 2022.
  14. ^ Marsh, Dan (September 24, 2022). "Speed calls out Mark Clattenburg after whipping him with shirt in Sidemen charity match". Daily Mirror. Retrieved October 1, 2022.
  15. ^ Crates, Jake (26 August 2021). "IShowSpeed – "Dooty Booty"". AllHipHop. Archived from the original on March 13, 2022. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
  16. ^ Alford, Aaron (December 14, 2021). "IShowSpeed banned after threatening sexual violence on Adin Ross stream". Inven Global. Archived from the original on March 11, 2022. Retrieved April 8, 2022.
  17. ^ Press-Reynolds, Kieran (December 15, 2021). "Twitch reportedly bans streamer after he said an influencer couldn't 'stop' him from reproducing with her if they were the last people on Earth". Insider. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  18. ^ Shutler, Ali (April 8, 2022). "Streamer IShowSpeed banned from every Riot Games title after sexist tirade". NME. Archived from the original on April 9, 2022. Retrieved April 9, 2022.
  19. ^ Masters, Tim (April 7, 2022). "IShowSpeed banned from all Riot Games for sexist abuse". Inven Global. Retrieved April 19, 2022.
  20. ^ Cheong, Charissa (April 8, 2022). "A gaming YouTuber with 7 million subscribers apologized for screaming 'go do your husband's dishes' at a female player". Insider. Retrieved April 19, 2022.
  21. ^ "IShowSpeed - Dooty Booty". August 24, 2021. Retrieved October 1, 2022.
  22. ^ "IShowSpeed - Bounce That Ass". September 23, 2021. Retrieved October 1, 2022.
  23. ^ "IShowSpeed - One More Chance". October 16, 2021. Retrieved October 1, 2022.
  24. ^ "IShowSpeed - NFL Freestyle". October 19, 2021. Retrieved October 1, 2022.
  25. ^ "IShowSpeed - Love In These Streets". November 24, 2021. Retrieved October 1, 2022.
  26. ^ "IShowSpeed - I Don't Like You". November 25, 2021. Retrieved October 1, 2022.
  27. ^ "IShowSpeed - Crazy". January 22, 2021. Retrieved October 1, 2022.
  28. ^ "IShowSpeed - F.U.C". January 22, 2022. Retrieved October 1, 2022.
  29. ^ "IShowSpeed - Single". January 22, 2022. Retrieved October 1, 2022.
  30. ^ "IShowSpeed - Shake Pt. 2 (Get Get Down Version)". February 1, 2022. Retrieved October 1, 2022.
  31. ^ "IShowSpeed - God Is Good". April 29, 2022. Retrieved October 1, 2022.
  32. ^ "IShowSpeed - Ronaldo (SEWY)". June 23, 2022. Retrieved October 1, 2022.

External links

Category:Living people Category:2016 establishments in the United States Category:21st-century American people Category:American YouTubers Category:English-language YouTube channels Category:Gaming-related YouTube channels Category:Gaming YouTubers Category:Male YouTubers Category:YouTube channels launched in 2016 Category:American video bloggers

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