Streamer IShowSpeed Became A Millionaire At 16 Years Old And His First Major Purchase Was A House For His Mom

Popular streamer and creator IShowSpeed made his first $1 million at 16.

Also known as Darren Watkins Jr., he currently boasts an impressive 33.5 million subscribers on one of his YouTube channels alone, as well as an additional 26.9 million followers on Instagram.

His early motivation to keep creating content as a freshman in high school also stayed with him, he explained on the “Club Shay Shay” podcast with Shannon Sharpe.

“My sophomore year, I kind of gave up on school. I kind of gave up on everything that I had in my old life and just put everything on my stream. I streamed every day. I didn’t care about nothing else except Youtube streaming,” IShowSpeed said on the podcast.

His mother initially had hesitations about streaming, even after his first viral clip garnered 30,000 views. She gave him an ultimatum: quit streaming or leave her home. With 2,000 subscribers at the time, he chose the latter and moved in with his father in Detroit, MI.

“Once I start something, I’m not stopping,” he mentioned on “Club Shay Shay.”

Betting on himself paid off early because at 16 years old he was already a millionaire.

“I was just so locked in on my craft,” IShowSpeed said. “I just didn’t really take a realization on the position that I was in as a 16-year-old kid, and right now I’m still locked in. Now when I think back on like I was 16, I was a junior, had all this money. I was really locked in. I didn’t take that into consideration really.”

While he was earning a substantial amount of money at that time, IShowSpeed also shares he was not making various splurges on himself. His first major purchase was for his mother in Ohio.

“I’m not even a purchase person type of guy,” he said . “My first big purchase was mainly buying my mom a house. I was never a guy who was like ‘I wanted a chain. I wanted that clothes.’ I was 16, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want a car because I didn’t like to drive…I just kind of had money.”

While it is unclear what IShowSpeed’s net worth is in 2024, it is said he was worth between $10 million and $12 million in 2023, as AFROTECH™ previously reported.