Sidemen
The Sidemen is a British YouTube group consisting of internet personalities KSI, Miniminter, Zerkaa, TBJZL, Behzinga, Vikkstar123, and W2S.
The group produce videos of various challenges, sketches, and video game commentaries across their YouTube channels, which have a combined total of over 138 million subscribers as of October 2022[update].
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| Origin | London, England | ||||||||||||
| Occupation | YouTubers | ||||||||||||
| Website | sidemen | ||||||||||||
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| Years active | 2013–present | ||||||||||||
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| Subscribers | 146.2 million (combined) | ||||||||||||
| Total views | 43.6 billion (combined) | ||||||||||||
| Associated acts | Jme | ||||||||||||
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Last updated: 9 February 2024 | |||||||||||||
Members
The group has the following members:
- Olajide "JJ" Olatunji – known online as KSI (2013–present)
- Simon Minter – known online as Miniminter (2013–present)
- Joshua Bradley – known online as Zerkaa (2013–present)
- Tobit "Tobi" Brown – known online as Tobjizzle or TBJZL (2013–present)
- Ethan Payne – known online as Behzinga (2013–present)
- Vikram "Vik" Barn – known online as Vikkstar123 (2013–present)
- Harry Lewis – known online as Wroetoshaw or W2S (2014–present)
History
Some of the members knew each other before the group was formed. Bradley and Brown both attended Bexley Grammar School in London and Olatunji and Minter both attended Berkhamsted School in Hertfordshire.
The group originates from a Rockstar Games Social Club group made on 19 October 2013 in Grand Theft Auto Online, called "The Ultimate Sidemen", which included all the members except for Lewis. In January 2014, Bradley met Lewis while at a FIFA gaming event in New York City and invited him to join the group. Describing the group name, Minter said in a video that "A sideman is basically someone's bitch who just follows them around [...] I was basically JJ's bitch that followed him around."
In February 2014, Olatunji, Minter, Bradley, and Barn moved into a house together near London, which they referred to as the "Sidemen House", which allowed them to collaborate more often.
On 1 December 2020, the group's eponymous YouTube channel surpassed 10 million subscribers. Each member of the group was awarded their own Diamond Play Button by YouTube to mark their milestone.
YouTube content
The group has five YouTube channels, Sidemen, MoreSidemen, SidemenReacts, SidemenShorts and Sidemen en Español across which it publishes a variety of videos including challenges, sketches and video game commentaries.
As of March 2024[update], the Sidemen channel has over 20.9 million subscribers and 5.9 billion views, MoreSidemen has over 8.2 million subscribers and 4.1 billion views, SidemenReacts has over 5.5 million subscribers and 2.8 billion views, and SidemenShorts has over 2.1 million subscribers and 1.7 billion views.
On 18 June 2018, the group released a web television series titled The Sidemen Show, available exclusively on YouTube Premium. It comprises seven 30-minute episodes filmed around the world alongside a number of celebrity guests.
In March 2020, the Sidemen released a twenty-minute YouTube video titled "#StayHome". The video featured the Sidemen and more than one hundred other YouTube video creators and other celebrities raising awareness of the UK's "stay at home" campaign which aimed to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in the UK. All of the advertising revenue generated from the video was donated to the NHS.
In April 2023, the Sidemen garnered controversy when KSI said the racial slur "Paki" in a Sidemen Sunday video published on 2 April; a parody of the British game show Countdown. The Sidemen group were criticised on Twitter after a clip of KSI speaking the slur went viral, including criticisms from DJ and presenter Bobby Friction and comedian Guz Khan among others. Hours later, KSI tweeted an apology for the slur and announced that he would be taking a break from social media. The Sidemen Twitter account also released a statement the following day apologising for the slur, with the statement reading, "We stand against racism and discrimination of any kind and we failed to do that." The full video in question has since been privatised. In an interview held before the 2023 Sidemen Charity Match, Barn told the BBC regarding the slur that the group had "very serious meetings" about the acceptability of what they joke about, saying, "We had to acknowledge that things are different to when we first all started platforms and the world has changed as a place. We saw it as a lesson and moved on from there and I think people were very understanding of that and allowed us to carry on doing what we're doing with a better sense of responsibility."
Other projects
Since 2014, the group has sold and distributed Sidemen Clothing merchandise. On 15 July 2023, they opened their first physical store in the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent.
On 18 October 2016, the group released a book titled Sidemen: The Book, published by Coronet Books, and embarked on a UK-wide promotional tour. A number one best-seller in the UK, the book sold 26,436 copies within the first three days of its release.
In 2021, the Sidemen launched a subscription service known as Side+. They also launched a restaurant chain known as Sides, and a vodka known as XIX Vodka.
On 14 February 2024, a documentary film about the Sidemen called The Sidemen Story was released on Netflix. The film was directed by Luke Hyams, a former Head of Originals for YouTube EMEA.
Charity football matches
The Sidemen Charity Match is an annual football friendly match run by the Sidemen to raise money for various charitable causes. They have been held since 2016, barring a four-year hiatus between the third and fourth matches. In all matches so far, the group's seven members and various affiliated YouTubers competed as the Sidemen Football Club, while various other YouTubers competed as the YouTube Allstars. The first match, on 3 June 2016, was held at St Mary's Stadium, Southampton, raising over £110,000 for the Saints Foundation.
Discography
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | |||||||||||
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| UK | UK R&B | UK Ind. | IRE | NZ Hot | SCO | ||||||||
| "Merry Merry Christmas" (featuring Jme & LayZ) | 2019 | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||
| "The Gift" (featuring S-X) | 77 | 40 | 11 | — | 27 | 26 | |||||||
| "This or That" | 2022 | — | — | 23 | — | 14 | — | ||||||
| "Christmas Drillings" (featuring Jme) | 3 | — | 2 | 25 | 7 | — | |||||||
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | |||||||||||||
Publications
- The Sidemen (18 October 2016). Sidemen: The Book. Coronet Books. ISBN 978-1473648166.
Awards and nominations
| Award | Year | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
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| British Book Awards | 2017 | Non-Fiction: Lifestyle Book of the Year | Sidemen: The Book | Nominated | |
| Shorty Awards | 2019 | Best YouTube Ensemble | Sidemen | Nominated |
| Publication | Year | World record | Record holder | R. Status | Ref. |
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| Guinness World Records | 2023 | Most viewers for a charity sports match live stream on YouTube | Sidemen | Record |
Notes
References
External links
This article uses material from the Wikipedia English article Sidemen, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license ("CC BY-SA 3.0"); additional terms may apply (view authors). Content is available under CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
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