X’s Nikita Bier faces iShowSpeed fan backlash over apparent slight

Khizar Mundia Published 23/04/2026

X’s Nikita Bier faces iShowSpeed fan backlash over apparent slight

Darren “iShowSpeed” Watkins Jr. reacted to X’s decision to remove the community feature, with viewers criticising Head of Product Nikita Bier over a response they saw as disrespectful towards the popular streamer.

iShowSpeed is known for his wholesome personality and for typically staying away from drama and controversies, which helped him become the most-subscribed streamer in the world in 2025. It appears drama found the streamer recently, however, when he reacted to X removing the community feature from the platform.

iShowSpeed requested the platform rethink its decision, but the Head of Product, Nikita Bier, responded, apparently talking down to the massive content creator. This started a chain reaction, which is why many in the streaming community are calling out Nikita Bier, alleging he insulted iShowSpeed.

Nikita Bier says iShowSpeed’s community isn’t active, so he won’t be impacted

iShowSpeed posted in reply to the announcement that X communities would be shut down on May 6. The streamer stated he has a community with over 100,000 members that allows him to talk to fans, so he doesn’t think “this is a good idea”. Nikita Bier replied to iShowSpeed’s post alleging that the streamer has over 150,000 members in his X community, but less than 300 are active per day since April 14.

Image credit: X

iShowSpeed didn’t respond to his slight, but the streaming community has been vocal about their displeasure at Nikita apparently trying to talk down the content creator. Some viewers are questioning why Nikita only used the data for the past week for iShowSpeed rather than the entirety of April. Others criticized X’s Head of Product and questioned whether he knows the difference between daily active members and monthly active members. On top of that, some viewers also claimed that many members prefer to lurk, and so they aren’t counted as active viewers.

Nikita Bier’s post was also community-noted, with analytics being shared, displaying that iShowSpeed’s community averaged between 2,200 and 8,900 members weekly when the streamer is live and 659 when inactive. Kick co-founder Bijan Tehrani was one of the bigger names to react to the situation, stating their new platform Club is working on a solution. He also asked creators with higher members in their X communities to reach out. Fellow creator Félix “xQc” Lengyel also reacted to the Nikita Bier and iShowSpeed drama, defending the streamer.

Nikita Bier didn’t respond to the backlash at the time of this writing, but did announce that the removal of the community feature has been extended from May 6 to May 30.

Feature image credit: iShowSpeed, Nikita Bier

Khizar Mundia

About Khizar Mundia

Khizar Mundia has been playing video games for as long as he can recall. Things have come a long way since the many days he spent playing the original NES, though. He now covers a variety of competitive games and esports, as well as the world of streaming, ranging from Twitch to Kick. If it’s of interest to gamers, it’s of interest to Khizar.

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