On June 11, popular American YouTuber Darren ‘’IShowSpeed’’ Watkins Jr went head-to-head with fitness influencer Ashton Hall in a short-distance sprint, streamed live on both their YouTube and Kick channels. IShowSpeed came out on top with a clear win, not just in the race itself, but also in terms of viewership, dominating the stream stats.
IShowSpeed was live on YouTube as usual — chatting with fans, answering questions, hopping on Omegle, and getting some touch-up work done on his arm tattoo. A few hours into the stream, some trash talk with Ashton Hall quickly escalated into a challenge: a head-to-head footrace. The two agreed to race barefoot on grass, and before long, they met up at a local park to settle it on the field.
Before the race, IShowSpeed and Ashton Hall hyped things up with an extended warm-up session filled with trash talk, autograph signings, and plenty of antics. But the showdown itself was over pretty fast. In the first sprint, Hall didn’t even make it to the finish — he tripped and fell just a few feet from the line. Every race after that also went to IShowSpeed, despite Hall’s protests. He even tried to challenge the results using finish-line photos, but it wasn’t enough to overturn the outcome.
IShowSpeed’s viewership far outpaced Ashton Hall’s during their streams. That said, these numbers only reflect their YouTube and Kick audiences and don’t include Hall’s Instagram streams, where he boasts over 17 million followers.
Hall might’ve had some grounds to debate the race results, but when it came to viewership, he was completely outmatched. Speed’s YouTube stream peaked at 297,754 live viewers — his biggest audience since February 14, when he played in the charity Match for Hope alongside celebrity creators and professional soccer players.
As for Ashton Hall, he streamed the race on both YouTube and Kick, drawing a combined peak audience of 7,542 viewers. His YouTube channel pulled in 6,334 of those, marking a new personal best for Hall on the platform.
IShowSpeed has taken on a series of races against professional athletes with notable outcomes. In November 2024, he faced off against players from the AFL’s Greater Western Sydney (GWS) Giants. He first challenged Callum Brown to a 50m sprint with a $10,000 wager and “easily” beat him, though he later admitted he was only at “60 percent” effort. A rematch with Brown’s teammate Darcy Jones ended in a near-dead heat. Speed claimed victory, but many spectators disagreed.
Elsewhere in Europe, IShowSpeed raced Norway’s footballer of Viking FK in mid-2024. The challenge came with a promised professional contract if he won. Speed raced half a pitch and claimed victory, declaring, “Give me my contract!”. Though the contract never materialized, the stunt drew major attention and reinforced his reputation for athletic bravado and daring PR stunts.
