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 130 million subscribers as of April 2022

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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.

The group has four YouTube channels, Sidemen, MoreSidemen, SidemenReacts and SidemenShorts across which it publishes a variety of videos including challenges, sketches and video game commentaries.

As of March 2022, the Sidemen channel has over 14.2 million subscribers and 3.5 billion views, MoreSidemen has over 6.3 million subscribers and 2.2 billion views, SidemenReacts has over 3.9 million subscribers and 1 billion views, and SidemenShorts has over 1.5 million subscribers and 560 million 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. Since 2014, the group has sold and distributed Sidemen Clothing merchandise.

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.

The group has hosted three football events to raise money for various charitable causes. The first match, in 2016, was held at St Mary’s Stadium, Southampton, raising over £110,000 for the Saints Foundation. The second and third matches were held at The Valley Stadium, London, raising £210,000 for the NSPCC and the Charlton Athletic Community Trust, and £65,747 for the Young Minds Trust and the Charlton Athletic Community Trust, respectively.

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. In 2022, the Sidemen launched Side+ on Xbox and is set to release on other platforms in the future.