Streamer IShowSpeed celebrated both his 21st birthday and hitting 50 million subscribers during his Speed Does Africa tour.
Popular streamer and content creator Darren Jason "IShowSpeed" Watkins Jr. celebrated a momentous milestone that intertwines both his career and life. He celebrated reaching 50 million subscribers on his 21st birthday. Here's what happened.
IShowSpeed now has 50M YouTube subscribers
In the middle of his Africa tour, IShowSpeed hit 50 million subscribers on YouTube. This places him in the top 100 most-subscribed channels on the platform according to data aggregator Socialblade.
He reached the milestone while in the Nigeria stop of the Speed Does Africa tour, in the middle of his fans singing him a happy birthday.
"50 million on my birthday, chat. That is the best birthday gift I could ever ask for. I love you all so much. I love all my fans from the bottom of my heart," said Speed while visibly being emotional on his stream. "I'm so happy, chat. We finally reached 50 million. There's no other birthday gift I could ask for [that would be] better than this, bro."
He then went on his social media to share another cake, this time adorned with flags of the countries and territories he has stopped by on his global tour.
Speed received many greetings on his birthday, including one from fellow content creator Kai Cenat. "Speed, Speed, Speed. Happy birthday. I love you so much. Remain being yourself, remain being positive, remain being brave. I love you so much, man. Be safe, bro. Happy 21st, I'll catch up with you soon.
IShowSpeed hit his first million subscribers on June 30, 2021 — a milestone that is still his pinned post on X. Since then, his growth has been exponential. He hit 10 million in July 2022, 25 million in June 2024, and by the end of 2025, he already had 47 million subs.
That's 3 million subs in the first three weeks of January 2026 alone.
Speed is still in the middle of his Africa tour. It is scheduled to end in the last week of January.
