There used to be a clear order of things, a recipe if you will, to becoming a wealthy professional athlete: youth sports, high school, college, and if you are fortunate, you get drafted. After you established yourself as a pro, if you had the swag, the looks, the brand, you’d land endorsement deals through your agent.

It’s 2026, and Darren “IShowSpeed” Watkins Jr. has remixed this formula — not by playing in an organized league, or even playing professional sports, but by leveraging charisma, explosive athletic performance, and real-time connection to build a global brand that rivals many traditional sports stars.

At only 21, IShowSpeed, or Speed, as he’s known to fans, is one of the most popular online personalities in the world. He currently boasts over 50 million YouTube subscribers and has reportedly logged billions of views across multiple platforms, drawing audiences with marathon live streams, high-energy reactions, and a willingness to turn his adventurous life into content. For reference, Spain's population is estimated at over 44 million. Every move he makes, the world chooses to watch.

Speed is not a fad or trend; he is leading a shift in culture where talent no longer needs gatekeepers to be seen, paid, or validated.

Owning the audience = control

Chances are you’ve already seen Speed in action on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube. You’ve likely seen him do things that seem impossible or improbable, such as his most recent “Speed Does Africa” tour, which was streamed across 20 African countries live as it happened. Clips like Speed racing a Cheetah, Speed livestreaming from inside the pyramids in Egypt, and even Speed competing against the strongest woman in Africa (a 28-time gold medalist) dominated social media.

While on tour in Kenya, he saw live audiences peak at 200,000 concurrent viewers. These are numbers that traditional sports broadcasts envy. Speed has turned his life into a sport, where his joy in experiencing all life has to offer mesmerizes audiences around the world. His unyielding work ethic and persistent creativity in pursuing the unbeaten path, while allowing us to tag along for the ride, have captivated the collective imagination and translated into dollars.

Although there is no official data on Speed’s net worth, some insiders estimate he may be hovering around $20M due to social media views, brand deals, and appearances on global stages like WWE's Royal Rumble, and signed with Warner Music and released the single "World Cup”, according to Forbes. Unlike traditional professional athletes, he created and owns the audience, doing so without participating in traditional sports.

Speed wasn’t a draft pick or top recruit. He wasn’t scouted out and invited into the spotlight of fame. Rather than waiting to be picked for stardom, he created a YouTube channel in 2016 as a preteen posting gaming videos from his bedroom.

From the start, his content was raw and unscripted, and in late 2019 and into 2020, he began livestreaming while playing games like NBA 2K and Fortnite. His authenticity while playing e-sports translated into views across channels, with his clips spreading beyond the original platforms. Speed directly engaged with fans from the beginning, a move that propelled him to GOAT status.

A new kind of professional

What’s fascinating about content creators is how they are free from the constraints of tradition. For example, the criticism LeBron James endured leaving Cleveland for Miami in his 20s seems unfathomable to creators, who are contractually beholden to no one. But can you imagine if the cameras didn’t stop rolling after James’ “Announcement,” if they kept filming continually through the night and into the next day? That’s the level of professional commitment that live stream creators like Speed must possess.

So, on the one hand, creators are free from the constraints of corporate execs and front office, while on the other hand, they are subject to the monster they create. Followers who are liking and subscribing are never satiated, often leaving comments on posts requesting more videos or recommending what should happen next. The audience, although not in charge, is highly engaged and invested in the content.

The upside is that creators can exert complete creative control over their content, down to the frequency of their output, because they are not part of the traditional machine. Consider that the hottest comedian right now (Druski) and the most popular self-development podcaster (Steven Bartlett) are not under contract to a broadcast network. The audiences they created also empower them to keep expanding creatively, like Speed, because the game has changed.

What’s more is that while the world watches Speed, he, in turn, travels the world. “That’s what I am here for, I’m for the people that can’t travel,” he said during his live African safari. “I try to give y’all the best experience... I show y’all [the] live, true experience of me being at that certain location, whether it’s a country, a safari, whatever experience it is. I’m your test dummy.” His ability to stay connected to his audience is far from dummy status; more accurately, he has the poise of a seasoned professional.

A showman beyond social media

Speed draws you in with his athleticism and then captivates with his showmanship in a way that doesn’t allow you to look away. By simply being true to himself and showing up consistently on social media, he has transcended the traditional path of a pro athlete. While you may click to see him flip on a pyramid, you stay because of his unabashed wonder of being on top of a pyramid in the first place.

At no other time in history has a young Black man had the ability to shape global culture while simultaneously experiencing the world with a vulnerability that draws in millions to watch him take it all in.

Speed is a cultural ambassador who weaves athletic prowess and spectacle into a tapestry that practically prints money. He’s the next iteration of what it means to be a professional athlete by lifting the curtain and bringing the show to the palm of our hands. And the way he is unapologetically himself, it seems we will keep eating out of the palm of his hand.