Streamer ShowSpeed Gen Zs’ ESPN
In days ahead of the 2026 World Cup, broadcaster ShowSpeed—one of the world’s most watched personalities, who often moonlights as a rapper—released a music video for “World Cup (Champions),” a song about changing national pride while talking about all 48 teams.
Like everything Darren Watkins Jr. does. 21 years old, the video went viral instantly. The song racked up over 7 million views on YouTube in less than 24 hours. The internet rushed to baptize it as the anthem of this tournament, even though the World Cup already has it. FIFA, following the hilarious outpouring of fans and perhaps realizing the immediate exposure it could bring, added the song to its official album.
That’s the power of Speed—a one-person, always-on media network.
Speed started posting on YouTube as a teenager in 2017. But it wasn’t until the Covid-19 shutdown, in 2020, that the native of Cincinnati, Ohio, committed to broadcasting full-time. His love for soccer, especially his favorite player, Cristiano Ronaldo, made him broadcast for the first time, where he was playing. FIFA again NBA 2K looking at people. His stature came thanks to the kind of scream-filled antics that the often-controversial Internet loved, but over time Speed The future of his brand lay outside his bedroom.
As his audience grew, so did his work. Broadcasters succeed by making fans stay tuned. Speed does not. The purpose, he tells me, is to be a channel to promote his nearly 55 million subscribers. When he started interacting with people outside of his computer, it gave him purpose. He wants his audience to experience that too. So in 2024 he got up and started recording traveogues from different countries, turning his broadcast into a global group discussion where he introduced his young audience to different cultures. He once ran with a cheetah in South Africa. He also left Manny Pacquiao in the Philippines. He was mobbed by fans in Jamaica and Barbados. While in Indonesia, he reached 1 million live viewers, making him the first English-speaking broadcaster since Chandrayaan-3’s month-long stay to break the record on YouTube. Last year, he embarked on a month-long, non-stop live tour of all 25 US states, never once turning off the camera, or sleeping.
His rise coincides with a complete revolution in how sports are consumed. Linear television is dead. Streaming services are struggling to keep viewers locked in due to rising costs. People are their own media platforms now. Few have pulled off that change with more boldness—and reach—than Speed, who is practically inseparable from soccer’s global storytelling tools at this point. For generations Z and Alpha, you are essentially ESPN.
For this year’s World Cup, Speed is fulfilling his love for the game by broadcasting from different host cities. FIFA estimates that the 2026 cup will attract more than 6 billion viewers worldwide during the month of the tournament and matches. Speed’s live stream will, no doubt, add more eyes to that number.
This interview is edited for length and clarity.
JASON PARHAM: You got into the game early, but now everyone wants to be a broadcaster or a podcast host. Is your level of fame still within reach?
SHOWSPEED: It is possible. Obviously, I played a big, big role in this current generation of broadcasting, but years from now there will be better people than me. There is a lot of history behind it, with YouTube and Twitch, but the industry is still being developed.
What defines your generation?
I am part of the first generation of media broadcasters. We are ordinary people. I mean, I would say that a channel with 50 million subscribers is 100 percent a network. Even a channel with a million or 500 subscribers—that’s why streaming is so popular. This industry is a game, but in the end you can’t beat someone else. I have to keep getting better with who I am.
