Ishowspeed World Cup Song Lets Play Football — IShowSpeed in a red Portugal jersey with arms spread on a blue futsal court

Ishowspeed World Cup Song Lets Play Football

2022viral videoclassic

Published June 12, 2026

IShowSpeed's 'World Cup' song, with the recognizable 'Let's Play Football' hook, dropped in November 2022 ahead of the Qatar World Cup and quickly became a TikTok sound used for ironic edits, Revive app dog videos, and sped-up remixes.

streamer memes tiktok sound trends viral song memes football memes ironic memes

Overview

The IShowSpeed 'World Cup' song is a track the American streamer dropped in late 2022 to hype up the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, built around the shouted hook 'Let's Play Football' followed by repeated chants of 'World Cup'1. The music video, with Speed listing off competing countries and breaking into his signature Speed Dance, racked up tens of millions of views within weeks of release2.

Online, the song landed as ironic comedy more than a sincere anthem. TikTok users latched onto how cringe and over the top it felt, then sliced out the 'Let's play football' line for edits, sped-up remixes, and Revive app videos where dogs appear to sing the lyric1. That gap between Speed's earnest delivery and the meme treatment is the whole joke.

Origin & Background

Platform
YouTube (music video) / TikTok (viral spread)
Creator
IShowSpeed
Date
2022

On November 4th, 2022, IShowSpeed (Darren Watkins Jr.) posted the official music video for 'World Cup' to his main YouTube channel2. In it, he shouts out countries playing in the 2022 tournament, throws the 'Let's play football' hook, and dances through the chorus while repeating 'World Cup'1.

The video pulled in roughly four million views in its first 24 hours, a number flagged by Genius on Twitter3. Outlets covering streamer culture, including Dexerto, wrote up the release the same day it dropped4.

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How It Spread

Reaction edits drove the first wave. Fellow streamer Kai Cenat filmed himself enjoying the song, and a TikTok clip of his reaction posted by @belguim.fifa on November 7th, 2022 pulled around 30.5 million plays and 3.6 million likes over two months1. Side-by-side joke edits followed, like a November 12th, 2022 post by TikToker @daniboy_032 comparing Speed's track to the official 2014 Brazil World Cup song, which gathered roughly 22.9 million plays in the same window1.

Throughout the actual Qatar tournament in November and December 2022, creators used the sound on their own World Cup content, with the audio attached to roughly 404,500 TikTok videos1. On November 7th, 2022, Speed's secondary channel Live Speedy uploaded a behind-the-scenes recording clip showing him singing without autotune, which then fueled 'Autotune vs No Autotune' reposts1.

After the final in mid-December 2022, the meme shifted toward isolating the 'Let's play football' line. On December 20th, 2022, TikToker @lovely.boyfriend paired the line with the Revive app and the So Wake Me Up Dog so the dog appeared to sing it1. Two days later, @unlimitedbounty1 posted a sped-up version featuring Leandro on the lyric, which hit around 820,600 plays and 67,500 likes in 15 days and seeded a sound used on more than 1,900 follow-up videos going into January 20231.

How to Use This Meme

Typical edits grab the isolated 'Let's play football' shout, sometimes sped up, and stick it over an unrelated visual for the bit. Common conventions include Revive-style dog videos lip-syncing the line, side-by-sides with older World Cup anthems, and 'autotune vs no autotune' cuts using Speed's recording booth footage1.

Frequently Asked Questions