On July 7, Darren ''IShowSpeed'' Watkins Jr made his long-awaited return to Twitch after a four-year hiatus. His comeback stream marked the kickoff of his new IRL tour across Europe. His broadcast ran for about four hours, and it quickly became obvious that Speed’s YouTube viewership far surpassed what he gets on Twitch.
IShowSpeed launched his new European tour in Croatia, where he met with fans, explored local landmarks, and even took a swim in the Adriatic Sea. His comeback Twitch stream peaked at 21,026 viewers: a new personal record for his channel on the platform. This broke his previous record from July 2021, when his channel was unbanned, which drew just over 7,200 viewers.
It’s worth noting that while in Croatia, IShowSpeed also streamed simultaneously on YouTube, where he reached a peak of 169,664 viewers — more than eight times his numbers on Twitch. It’s worth noting that this isn’t even close to Speed’s record on YouTube. Just a few weeks ago, he peaked at over 480,000 viewers during a race with Danielle Labelle. Speed’s current viewer record on YouTube is 1,043,028.
During his stream, IShowSpeed opened up about his future on Twitch, saying that YouTube will remain his primary platform. He added that any Twitch broadcasts will be reserved for “special projects”, making it clear he has no intention of multistreaming regularly.
Following the announcement of IShowSpeed’s new IRL tour, many fans took to the comments to express disappointment that he once again chose Europe as his destination. Viewers had hoped to see him explore Africa in the future.
