Countries are paying IShowSpeed to visit and help boost tourism

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YouTube personality Darren ‘IShowSpeed‘ Watkins Jr is being sponsored by the government for a tour across Europe, with nations such as Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia collectively spending approximately $35,000 USD per visit to welcome the live-streamer.

In every visit I’ve been following closely, it appears that the bill comes up to around €30,000 for taxpayers, with a whopping €20,000 of that going directly into Speed’s pocket. The remaining €10,000 is used for local logistics and hospitality expenses.

The investment, according to tourism officials, is well worth it.

Kaarel Kovatu, Tourism Marketing Project Manager at the Estonian Entrepreneurship and Innovation Foundation, stated that every destination competes for the interest of the same travelers. Whenever Estonia becomes part of an influential figure’s itinerary who has a massive fanbase, we seize that opportunity.

IShowSpeed makes a killing traveling the globe

As stated by Kovatu, Speed’s live stream on July 15th from Estonia attracted approximately 1.9 million individual viewers. Furthermore, he pointed out that the post-stream chatter, with hundreds of viral video clips circulating across various social media platforms, significantly amplified the influence past the initial broadcast.

During his visit, IShowSpeed had the opportunity to be personally guided around the home of Estonia’s Prime Minister. To his surprise, he was also presented with unique tokens as a gesture of goodwill. 🔥

— FearBuck (@FearedBuck) July 15, 2025

In Estonia, Speed had the opportunity to visit with Prime Minister Kristen Michal, who graciously provided him with a private tour of his home.

In Lithuania, a 20-year-old individual explored Vingis Park and had the opportunity to throw a discus alongside Olympic silver medalist Mykolas Alekna. Meanwhile, in Latvia, the driver of Speed’s vehicle boasted about having driven Michael Jackson at one point, but noted that the crowd was even more thrilled for the streamer.

As an ardent fan, I’d rephrase that statement as follows: “I’ve been lucky enough to be behind the wheel for iShowSpeed in Latvia, but let me tell you, the excitement I see here pales in comparison to the frenzy that surrounded driving Michael Jackson! 😮

— ryan 🤿 (@scubaryan_) July 15, 2025

Speed’s rapid travels contribute to an expanding collection of international journeys. He’s traversed through Europe, Asia, South America, and Oceania.

In a statement, Watkins Jr expresses his aspiration to collaborate with Elon Musk for a live transmission from space. This is an area where he and Kai Cenat are in competition, striving to become the pioneers who broadcast beyond Earth’s boundaries first.

This journey signifies a comeback to Twitch for the content creator, as it’s his initial live broadcasts in years on this Amazon-owned platform following his reinstatement. Interestingly, he managed to accumulate more than 600,000 followers within an astounding eight days.

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2025-07-16 20:18