Four years ago, the streamer Darren “IShowSpeed” Watkins Jr. was banned from Twitch and had to continue streaming on YouTube. Now he is making a comeback and is immediately successful.
Why was IShowSpeed banned from Twitch? In 2021, IShowSpeed was prohibited from streaming on Twitch indefinitely. In a video by fellow streamer Adin Ross, he went through some E-Dates. He was paired with women in video chats to get to know them.
He asked a woman, Ash Kaashh, a model, if she would have children with him if they were the last two people on Earth and could save humanity that way. His date declined, saying the children would have to sleep with each other as well.
In response, IShowSpeed shouted into the camera: “Who is stopping me? If we are the last two people on Earth, who is going to stop me?” (Source: YouTube). Twitch found these comments too much and subsequently banned the streamer permanently.
The ban forced IShowSpeed to continue streaming on YouTube. Here he was able to grow, reaching over 40 million subscribers on his YouTube channel.
IShowSpeed reaches follower milestone
What is this milestone? In 2023, Twitch lifted the ban, but IShowSpeed initially did not return to the platform. During his Eastern Europe trip in July 2025, IShowSpeed finally went live on Twitch.
Not only did he outrage Turks with his opinion about Döner, but he also gained quite a few new followers. After just eight days of his comeback, he reached 1 million followers (Source: TwitchTracker.com).
In one of his livestreams, IShowSpeed reacts to having reached this milestone: “Wow, this is crazy. Who would have thought? I returned to this platform after four years. After four years, I got 1 million followers. This is crazy.” (Source: X).
However, IShowSpeed did not start with 0 followers on his Twitch channel. On July 7, 2025, when he began his journey in Europe and streamed it on Twitch, he had over 538,000 followers. Within just 10 days, he managed to break the 1 million followers mark (Source: TwitchTracker.com).
How IShowSpeed’s success continues to evolve remains to be seen. However, it is clear that the streamer has a large and active community behind him, which sometimes goes overboard and destroys a bridge for their favorite streamer.
The YouTube streamer IShowSpeed is not the only one who has been banned from the Twitch platform. Adin Ross was also banned from the platform starting in 2023. He moved to the competitor Kick, became even bigger there, before returning to Twitch: Twitch bans big streamer, who gets even bigger at the competition, is now allowed to return
