IShowSpeed Delivers Indonesian Acceptance Speech After Third Streamer of the Year Win

A thank you in Indonesian on a Los Angeles stage

IShowSpeed accepted the Streamer of the Year award in Los Angeles on November 12, 2026, wearing a red and white jacket and delivering his entire acceptance speech in Indonesian. The American YouTube creator also won Best IRL Streamer, completing a night that brought his connection with Indonesian audiences to an international awards stage.

The victory was his third consecutive win in the top category, following awards in 2024 and 2025. He finished ahead of fellow nominees CaseOh, Joe Bartolozzi, Jynxzi and Stable Ronaldo, then celebrated with a backflip while holding his trophy.

For viewers in Indonesia, where it was already November 13, the language choice gave the celebration a familiar sound. IShowSpeed, whose full name is Darren Jason Watkins Jr., thanked supporters, recalled starting with little more than a childhood ambition and described his fans as family.

The moment followed his September 2024 travels through Jakarta, Bali and Yogyakarta, where broadcasts introduced his global audience to Indonesian food, music, clothing and everyday expressions. Those streams attracted more than one million simultaneous viewers.

What he told his supporters

IShowSpeed delivered the speech during a ceremony broadcast on The Streamer Awards YouTube channel. His message focused on the people who had followed his career from its beginnings, rather than on the other nominees or the competition.

The streamer thanked his supporters in Indonesian. In English translation, his speech read:

Thank you so much, everyone. I started from zero, just a little kid with a big dream. You guys have been with me from the beginning. You're not just fans. You're my family. I won't stop. I'll keep fighting for you all. I love you all.

Indonesian viewers praised his delivery online. His speech used informal language suited to a conversation with fans, including familiar ways of saying that he would keep going and that his supporters were his family.

No explanation was given for his decision to deliver the whole speech in Indonesian. His earlier visits and continued use of Indonesian expressions, however, had already made the language a recurring part of his public persona.

Two awards for a career built around live audiences

The Streamer Awards recognises creators working in live broadcasting. IShowSpeed received both its leading individual award and Best IRL Streamer, a category closely connected to the travel broadcasts that helped build his following in Indonesia.

IRL means "in real life". In streaming, it describes broadcasts showing activities away from a conventional gaming setup, such as walking through a city, meeting supporters or trying local food. Viewers watch events unfold as they happen, including unexpected encounters and changes of plan.

IShowSpeed was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on January 21, 2005, making him 21 at the time of the ceremony. He launched his YouTube channel in 2016 and gained widespread attention in 2021. By November 13, 2026, his channel had surpassed 62 million subscribers.

His broadcasts span video games, football, reaction videos and international travel. His admiration for Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, whom he eventually met, has also been a recurring part of his content. The Indonesian acceptance speech brought another familiar element of his broadcasts into his awards appearance: addressing audiences across national and language boundaries.

How the connection with Indonesia developed

Jakarta was a major stop during IShowSpeed's September 2024 tour of Southeast Asia. On September 18, he broadcast from Kota Tua, the historic district in West Jakarta, wearing an Indonesian national football team jersey and meeting crowds of supporters.

His activities gave viewers more to watch than a walk through a tourist destination. He tried angklung, a musical instrument made from bamboo, sampled local food and interacted with performers. Foods he ate included gorengan, a broad name for fried snacks, and nasi Padang, rice served with dishes associated with West Sumatra.

In Yogyakarta, his activities included wearing traditional Surjan clothing, trying batik making, playing kendang drums and learning jemparingan, a traditional form of archery associated with Mataram culture. His Indonesian travels also included Bali.

The broadcasts reached more than one million viewers watching at the same time. That measure describes a live audience gathered at a particular moment, while the 62 million subscriber figure describes accounts subscribed to his channel. Together, the figures show both the size of his established following and the audience drawn to particular events.

From everyday expressions to a complete speech

IShowSpeed picked up expressions during his Indonesian travels that later appeared in his broadcasts. They included awas, meaning "watch out", and santai, meaning "relax" or "take it easy". He also learned monggo, a Javanese expression used to invite someone to proceed or to say "please".

Indonesia contains many languages, so those expressions have different linguistic roots. Indonesian is the national language used across the country, while Javanese is a regional language widely associated with Java. His travels exposed him to both.

Some phrases associated with his streams were less polite. He has used minggir lu miskin, an insulting expression roughly meaning "step aside, you poor people", while addressing crowds. The language of his acceptance speech was different in tone, centred on affection, gratitude and persistence.

The awards appearance moved beyond the short expressions that had become familiar to viewers. He delivered a connected message about his career and his relationship with supporters, allowing Indonesian fans to hear an entire acceptance speech in their language at an event in the United States.

Indonesian has a formal international role too

Indonesia's government has pursued a separate, formal effort to expand the language's international use. Article 44 of Law No. 24 of 2009 directs the government to develop a systematic strategy to increase Indonesian's function as an international language.

In 2023, Indonesian became the tenth official language of UNESCO's General Conference. The General Conference is the gathering at which member states of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization discuss the organisation's policies and programme.

That recognition concerns Indonesian's use within the General Conference. It gives the language a formal place in that international forum, alongside the wider cultural visibility generated by entertainment, education and exchanges between people.

On November 4, 2025, Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Abdul Mu'ti delivered Indonesia's national statement in Indonesian at UNESCO's 43rd General Conference in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. The address marked the language's first official use at the conference following its recognition in 2023.

Mu'ti opened and closed his statement with pantun, a traditional form of verse. He noted that UNESCO had recognised pantun as intangible cultural heritage in 2020. His address paired the formal use of Indonesian with a literary tradition from the region.

Teaching abroad gives the language another route

Education ministry figures for 2024 recorded Indonesian teaching in 54 countries through 523 institutions, with about 174,000 active learners worldwide. The figures describe an organised teaching network extending well beyond Indonesia's borders.

The Language Development and Fostering Agency owns the government's language teaching dataset, which covers the number of countries teaching Indonesian in 2024. Its listing covers all regions and education levels, was uploaded on February 3, 2025, and specifies an annual update schedule.

Indonesian is taught abroad through programmes including Bahasa Indonesia untuk Penutur Asing, commonly shortened to BIPA, meaning Indonesian for foreign speakers. Countries with Indonesian language teaching include the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Australia.

The ministry's figures put the number of Indonesian speakers at about 275 million. Classroom programmes give overseas learners a structured way to study the language, while broadcasts such as IShowSpeed's bring words and expressions to people who may never have enrolled in a course.

The dates behind the awards moment

IShowSpeed's speech followed several years of developments in his own career and in Indonesian's international recognition. The main dates show how those separate stories arrived at the same moment of public attention.

• 2023: Indonesian became the tenth official language of UNESCO's General Conference.
• September 18, 2024: IShowSpeed broadcast from Kota Tua in Jakarta during his Southeast Asian tour.
• 2024 and 2025: He won consecutive Streamer of the Year titles before his 2026 victory.
• February 3, 2025: The government's dataset on countries teaching Indonesian in 2024 was uploaded.
• November 4, 2025: Abdul Mu'ti delivered Indonesia's national statement in Indonesian at UNESCO's General Conference in Samarkand.
• November 12, 2026: IShowSpeed accepted Streamer of the Year and Best IRL Streamer in Los Angeles.

The awards speech brought the story back to a direct relationship between a creator and his audience. Two years after his Indonesian travels, he used the language of many of those supporters to thank them during his third consecutive victory.

Key Points

• IShowSpeed delivered his Streamer of the Year acceptance speech entirely in Indonesian in Los Angeles.
• The November 12, 2026, victory was his third consecutive win in the category, and he also received Best IRL Streamer.
• His September 2024 Indonesian travels included Jakarta, Bali and Yogyakarta, with broadcasts attracting more than one million simultaneous viewers.
• Indonesian became an official language of UNESCO's General Conference in 2023 and was used for Indonesia's national statement in November 2025.
• Education ministry figures for 2024 recorded Indonesian teaching in 54 countries through 523 institutions.