Entertainment
IShowSpeed’s Music Career: From “Shake” to Stadium Performances
Darren Watkins Jr., better known as IShowSpeed, crossed 50 million YouTube subscribers this week on January 20, 2026, which was his 21st birthday. The milestone marks the peak of a rapid rise that now includes a real music career in addition to streaming and live content. Since 2021, the Cincinnati-born creator has released songs that have earned hundreds of millions of streams and has performed his music live at festivals and stadium events.
IShowSpeed’s first released song was the humorous “Dooty Booty”, released August of 2021. However, the more serious “Shake”, released on November 24 of the same year, was Speed’s first mainstream success. The track sampled the Fugees’ “Ready or Not” and Ray Charles’ “Hit the Road Jack,” combining nostalgic hip-hop elements with high-energy delivery that aligned with his streaming persona. The music video reached over 230 million views on YouTube, introducing millions to his music beyond his existing fanbase. The success of “Shake” proved that IShowSpeed’s appeal extended beyond his stream entertainment value. Listeners responded to the track’s infectious production and playful aggression, and the song became a reliable fixture in his live sets. On Spotify, “Shake, Pt. 2 (Get Get Down Version)”, a remix to the song, has accumulated over 71 million streams, and remains one of his most-played tracks nearly five years after release.
Following “Shake,” Speed has released multiple projects that showed range and experimentation. “World Cup,” released during the 2022 FIFA World Cup, became another major entry in his discography, with over 91 million Spotify streams. The song tapped into his international reach and real-time entertainment instincts, delivering music tied to global events he covered on stream. Speed’s releases span multiple languages and genres. Collaborations with Brazilian artists and Portuguese-language tracks like “Amar De” featuring MC Kevin o Chris and MC CJ reflect his willingness to adapt his music to his international audience, capitalizing off of local connections and travels. Spee’s total catalog has over 229 million combined streams on Spotify oline. While not all of his 22 releases achieved the scale of “Shake” or “World Cup,” the breadth of Speed’s output demonstrates commitment to music as a serious creative venture rather than a secondary project.
IShowSpeed’s first major festival appearance came at Rolling Loud Portugal in August 2023, where he performed alongside DJ Scheme. For Speed, performing at Rolling Loud Portugal validated his transition from content creator to working musician. He performed “Shake” and his World Cup track, establishing his live setlist and proving he could deliver energy to a crowd outside his typical streaming environment. Since his festival debut, IShowSpeed has maintained live performance as part of his brand. He continues to perform live at events and venues during his international tours, frequently incorporating music segments into his IRL streams. These performances reach his existing audience while introducing his music to new listeners through festival platforms and media coverage.
IShowSpeed’s music strategy mirrors his broader content approach. He tours internationally, documents his travels on stream, and uses those experiences to create music. Speed benefits from a young, digitally-native audience that follows him across platforms, translating stream viewership into music streaming and concert attendance.At 21, IShowSpeed has already built multiple revenue streams and creative outlets. His music career, while secondary to his streaming dominance, shows measurable success. Over 229 million Spotify streams, multiple viral videos, and festival performances establish legitimate standing in music industry circles.
For Speed, future growth likely depends on his willingness to invest more heavily in music production and touring. His current approach balances streaming content with music releases and occasional live performances. Now, IShowSpeed represents a new category of creator: someone whose primary fame comes from streaming and personality but whose music career has real traction. His path demonstrates that building a music career no longer requires traditional gatekeepers or industry backing. A large, engaged audience on streaming platforms can sustain a music career independently.
What began as seven friends recording themselves playing FIFA has now become a hugely successful entertainment and commerce company. The Sidemen (KSI, Zerkaa, Miniminter, TBJZL, Behzinga, Vikkstar123, and Wroetoshaw) have turned a decade of internet clout into a diversified, nine‑figure business. Their output looks less like a creator channel and more like a small network that programs different formats for different levels of engagement. That structure gives them both the attention and the operational footprint of a lean digital studio with its own product
The Sidemen operate a compact media built around a flagship YouTube channel for larger videos, auxiliary channels for gaming, behind‑the‑scenes, and reaction content, and their premium streaming service Side+, as a subscription tier for the most invested fans. Together, they reach tens of millions of subscribers and deliver a consistent baseline of content that also helps them mark their brands. Their calendar leans on set pieces such as long‑form challenges and charity football matches that play more like live events than standard uploads, with weekly videos and shorts filling in the gaps between those spikes. Their latest charity match filled a Premier League stadium, attracted millions of live viewers, and raised a multi‑million‑pound total for U.K. charities, showing how a creator‑led match can now move audience and capital at the scale of a mid‑tier sports property.
The group’s first meaningful business move outside of content creation was Sidemen Clothing, positioned from the outset as a standalone apparel line rather than a basic merch shelf. The brand has shifted toward seasonal drops and collaborations that sit closer to streetwear than fan gear and gave the group a direct‑to‑consumer revenue stream with higher margins than standard ads. From there, the playbook expanded into category‑specific brands that could stand on their own. Sides, their fast‑food concept, uses ghost kitchens and franchise partners to serve customers across multiple markets, with reporting that the business has reached seven‑figure weekly revenue as it scales locations and delivery volume. XIX Vodka, their move into spirits, lets the Sidemen monetize an aging core audience through a premium product that can live in retail, nightlife, and events where creators usually appear as short‑term endorsers rather than long‑term owners.
Analysts and business press now estimate that the broader Sidemen ecosystem is worth nine‑figures when adding up channels, brands, and IP, with most of the upside sitting in assets they control. Ads across their channels are estimated to generate millions of dollars per year on their own, but the more material story is how that attention converts into subscriptions, food orders, alcohol sales, and apparel purchases where the group participates as equity holders. Internally, equal revenue splits and a shared company structure keep all seven members aligned, which reduces the incentive to peel off for individual deals and helps explain why the group has stayed intact through multiple growth phases. That alignment also supports slower, more capital‑intensive bets such as brick‑and‑mortar Sides locations and in‑house production infrastructure that would be hard to justify inside a looser collective.
Their latest phase is about turning a decade of uploaded content into catalog and licensing opportunities. The Sidemen Story, their documentary distributed on Netflix, moves part of the business away from platform‑dependent content toward a film‑length asset that can live across territories and windows and sit alongside traditional entertainment IP. For a company built on weekly releases, that type of project functions as a hedge against changes in recommendation systems and ad markets and puts them on the radar of partners who do not normally transact at the YouTube channel level. Around that core, the group continues to run live events, recurring charity matches, and new product launches in food, beverage, and merchandise that do not rely on a single platform to succeed. The result is a creator business that now looks less like an influencer collective and more like a self‑financed entertainment and consumer brand portfolio with seven founders still on screen to market what they own.
As of early January 2026, an AI Twitch channel surpassed every human streamer on the platform in paid subscribers, counting over 162,000 active subscribers at one point. Meet Neuro-sama, a Twitch channel hosted on creator Vedal’s account vedal987.
Neuro isn’t operated by a hidden human. Her speech, reactions, and presence come from machine-driven models that analyze chat and gameplay in near real time. Sometimes even reacting to what she “sees” on screen.
She has a community that funds her growth. A majority of her subscriptions are “gifted” by viewers, meaning fans are buying subs as a way of indirectly investing in her future development which is something almost unheard of in traditional streaming economics.
She’s setting records no humans has yet. During a long subathon push last December, Neuro-sama broke Twitch’s Hype Train records reaching levels no human streamer had previously.
This isn’t novelty. It’s dominance.
Why It Matters
This moment is bigger than an AI hitting No. 1. It’s a cultural shake-up in how audiences decide what and who deserves their attention and money. YouTube shook up AI creators a few months ago when announcing they were tightening up heir monetization policies in regards to fully AI generated content.
For decades, creators have had to hustle constantly showing up live, grinding content schedules, battling burnout, and juggling personal life. Now with AI unlimited outputs seems more than possible. Neuro-sama doesn’t sleep or get tired. She doesn’t take holidays. She shows up every day in ways human creators simply cannot.
And consumers don’t seem to resent that.
They support it. Other creators however, it’s too early to tell.
We’ve yet to see any big Twitch streamers collab with an AI streamer.
What Does This Reveal About Consumers?
People don’t just want to watch they want to belong, influence, impact. They want to feel as if their involvement matters not just as a consumer, but as a contributor. Neuro-sama’s subscribers aren’t tipping for perks, they’re underwriting her evolution.
That’s a creator economy we haven’t quite seen before.
What’s Next?
There are several things that I could see happening in the very near future:
More AI creators. If one AI streamer can reach the top, expect others to emerge. There may be perhaps genre-specific AIs (gaming, music, education). The only limiting factor becomes imagination + compute power.
Humans creators will collab with AI creators. Real creators lean in to the trend and some may even mimic a robot style character or NPC. The tension won’t be human vs. AI but human-AI collaboration.
Fandom economics will change. Audiences are already proving they will financially sustain something they believe in even when that something isn’t human. That shifts the balance of power from hosting platforms and algorithms to communities themselves.
Neuro-sama isn’t just a streamer anymore, she’s a case study in community-powered entertainment.
Whether you love that future, fear it, or just don’t fully understand it, more change is coming.
This moment marks a new chapter in creator culture. Are you excited for what’s to come?
At the center of Diamond Gym’s social media rise to fame is Haddy Abdel, whose approach to social growth isn’t rooted in hype, gimmicks, or temporary attention. His focus has been on documenting the legendary diamond gym’s culture in a way it wasn’t before. Their unique style of intense gym reels that capture the middle of some of the most insane gym workouts you’ve ever seen has created a huge social buzz for them. Their success has come with many critics but in the words of Wallo267 “your haters are your marketing team”. And Diamond Gym has had some incredible marketing.
Alongside him is the OG of the gym, Unc, who represents the grounding force of the gym. Many refer to the New Jersey gym as “the most dangerous gym in America” and a large part of that has to do with Unc. He demands a high level of commitment, effort and grit in every work out session regardless of who is coming by. The culture is largely influenced by Unc’s rarer as a fire fighter and he faces deadly situations on the regular. Unc applies that same attitude to the gym with his famous, “now we die” catch phrase.
Likewise, Haddy shared a similar sentiment with his “Till The Death” catch phrase which would go onto to become the brand that this whole movement is built on.
The Brand
Diamond isn’t loud for the sake of attention. Members seem to show up not just to just to work out but for the sense of community. In a recent workout they did with comedian, Matt Rife, Unc went on to explain why people decide to join their gym:
To have a real friend group is a blessing… a lot of them [Diamond Gym members] are dealing with things, whether it’s father issues, school problems, taking care of loved ones, or life stress. Their support system manifested in the gym.”
Diamond has naturally developed into a community where discipline is normal, conversations have depth, egos get checked, and brotherhood actually means something.
From Physical Gym to Media Ecosystem
Diamond Gym’s impact doesn’t stop at the four walls of the gym.
Through lifestyle content, celebrity collabs, gym moments and conversations Diamond has unintentionally built a media empire. Their media page @train.to.failure currently has over 441K followers on Instagram, Unc instagram @smthedon191 has over 468K followers on Instagram, and Haddy has over 1 Million followers on his page @haddy_abdel with over 360K subscribers on his Youtube where all the long form Diamond gym videos are uploaded.
TTD The Brand
Alongside the gym comes Till The Death, the clothing brand and cultural emblem born out of the Diamond ecosystem.
Now, if you pay close attention to the Diamond gym videos you’ll notice that they’re very intentional about their product placement. In every video those participating in the workouts are wearing TTD merch especially the celebrity guest. From Alex Eubank, to The Tren Twins, to social media fitness star, Ashton Hall. They’ve all worn TTD merch while working out in Diamond’s gym.
Most celebrity guests bring their own camera crews so the content captured in the gym sessions are mutually beneficial for everybody but TTD is able to get more than just content. Through collaborations their merch brand is able to establish even more notoriety, credibility and desire.
Haddy’s business partner and fellow diamond’s gym member, Anthony Lorenzo, has played a huge role in the brand’s success as well. Addressing some internet rumors in the summer time due to a fallout with one of their previous member, Skolla Da Legend, Anthony addressed his role with the brand.
People associate the clothing brand with hardwork, grit and those who get after it in the gym. That is something people want to feel and the sales have showed. Haddy and his team have shared several reels showing how quickly the merch drops sale out every time.
They’ve been able to master what many have yet to, how to monetize attention.
Why It Matters
Whether you watch workout videos or you’re a diamond gym fan is not the point.
What diamond has shown us as consumers is a master class in marketing, branding and ownership. It’s easy to promote some else brand but to scale your own takes intention. They’ve used their virality to attract big names and indirectly promote their brand. Very subtly but very efficient.
Diamond isn’t trying to be part of a moment.
They’re trying to build something that outlives one.
Take notes.
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