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The Times of India
The Times of India
World
Global Sports Desk

In 2020, IShowSpeed had just 1 or 2 viewers; 6 years later, he became the first Black creator to hit 50 million YouTube subscribers

IShowSpeed Darren Watkins Jr Cincinnati

For a guy now sitting at 60 million YouTube subscribers, IShowSpeed's early numbers sound almost unreal. Darren Watkins Jr. had already created his YouTube channel in 2016, but the serious streaming grind did not really begin until 2020. Back in Cincinnati, Ohio, during his freshman and sophomore years of high school, he was playing NBA 2K and Fortnite for tiny live audiences. Sometimes, there were only one or two viewers watching. That quiet bedroom phase feels miles away from where the channel stands now. His highly expressive reactions helped change the pace of his growth in 2021, when the audience started climbing at a ridiculous speed. He reached 100,000 subscribers in April that year. By July 2022, the number had jumped to 10 million, turning those nearly empty 2020 streams into the starting point of a much bigger story.

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