The Sidemen is a British

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

group consisting of Internet personalities

KSI Olajide Olayinka Williams "JJ" Olatunji (born 19 June 1993), known professionally as KSI, is an English YouTuber and rapper. He is a co-founder and member of the British YouTube group known as the Sidemen. He is the CEO of Misfits Boxing and ...

, Miniminter,

Zerkaa Joshua Bradley (born 4 September 1992), better known as Zerkaa and his stage name Josh Zerker, is an English YouTuber, Online streamer, streamer and Internet celebrity, Internet personality. He is also a co-founder and member of the British Yo ...

TBJZL Tobit John "Tobi" Brown (born 8 April 1993), better known as TBJZL, is an English YouTuber, streamer and Internet personality. He is also a member and co-founder of the British YouTube group known as the Sidemen. In 2019, Brown was listed as t ...

Behzinga Ethan Payne (born 20 June 1995), better known as Behzinga, is an English YouTuber, streamer, and Internet personality. He produces videos on gaming, football, comedy, and fitness, and is a co-founder and member of the British YouTube group S ...

Vikkstar123 Vikram Singh Barn (born 2 August 1995), better known as Vikkstar123, is an English YouTuber and Internet personality. He is a member and co-founder of the Sidemen, a British YouTube group. Early life and education Barn was born on 2 August ...

, 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 .

Members

The group has the following members: * Olajide "JJ" Olatunji – known online as KSI * Simon Minter – known online as Miniminter * Joshua Bradley – known online as Zerkaa * Tobit "Tobi" Brown – known online as Tobjizzle or TBJZL * Ethan Payne – known online as Behzinga * Vikram "Vik" Barn – known online as Vikkstar123 * Harry Lewis – known online as Wroetoshaw or W2S

History

Some of the members knew each other before the group was formed. Bradley and Brown both attended

Bexley Grammar School Bexley Grammar School is a co-educational grammar school with academy status in Welling, in the London Borough of Bexley, UK. It takes boys and girls aged 11–18 who have passed the eleven plus exam. History Founded in 1955, Bexley Grammar ...

in London and Olatunji and Minter both attended

Berkhamsted School Berkhamsted School is an independent day school in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England. The present school was formed in 1997 by the amalgamation of the original Berkhamsted School, founded in 1541 by John Incent, Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

. The group originates from a

Rockstar Games Social Club Rockstar Games, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in New York City. The company was established in December 1998 as a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, using the assets Take-Two had previously acquired from BMG Interactive. Foun ...

group made on 19 October 2013 in ''

Grand Theft Auto Online ''Grand Theft Auto Online'' is an online multiplayer action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It was released on 1 October 2013 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, 18 November 2014 for PlayStation 4 and Xbo ...

'', called "The Ultimate Sidemen", which included all the members except for Lewis. In January 2014, Bradley met Lewis while at a ''

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

'' 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

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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. , the Sidemen channel has over 16.9 million subscribers and 4.4 billion views, MoreSidemen has over 7 million subscribers and 2.8 billion views, SidemenReacts has over 4.8 million subscribers and 1.7 billion views, and SidemenShorts has over 1.8 million subscribers and 1 billion views. On 18 June 2018, the group released a

web television Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as TV shows, as streaming media delivered over the Internet. Streaming television stands in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air aer ...

series titled ''

The Sidemen Show ''The Sidemen Show'' is a British reality stunt web television series starring British YouTube group Sidemen, composed of JJ Olatunji, Harry Lewis, Ethan Payne, Vik Barn, Simon Minter, Josh Bradley, and Tobi Brown. The series is produced ...

'', available exclusively on

YouTube Premium YouTube Premium (formerly Music Key and YouTube Red) is a subscription service offered by the video platform YouTube. The service provides ad-free access to content across the service, as well as access to premium YouTube Originals programming ...

. 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 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

in the UK. All of the

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generated from the video was donated to the

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

Other projects

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 Coronet Books was established in 1966 as the paperback imprint of Hodder & Stoughton. The imprint was closed in 2004 but then relaunched in 2010, publishing fiction and non-fiction in hardback and paperback, including works by Chris Ryan, Lorna ...

, 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 A chain store or retail chain is a retail outlet in which several locations share a brand, central management and standardized business practices. They have come to dominate the retail and dining markets and many service categories, in many pa ...

known as Sides, and a vodka known as XIX Vodka. In 2022, the Sidemen launched Side+ on

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the na ...

and is set to release on other platforms in the future.

Charity football matches

The group has hosted four football events to raise money for various charitable causes. In all matches so far, the group's seven members and various affiliated YouTubers competed as Sidemen Football Club, while various other YouTubers competed as the YouTube Allstars. The first match, in 2016, was held at

St Mary's Stadium St Mary's Stadium is an all-seater football stadium in Southampton, England, which has been the home stadium of Premier League club Southampton F.C. since 2001. The stadium has a capacity of 32,384 and is currently the largest football stadium ...

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

, raising over £110,000 for the Saints Foundation. All subsequent matches since were held at The Valley, London. The second and third matches, in 2017 and 2018, respectively raised £210,000 for the

NSPCC The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) is a British child protection charity. History Victorian era On a trip to New York in 1881, Liverpudlian businessman Thomas Agnew was inspired by a visit to the New Yor ...

and the Charlton Athletic Community Trust, and £65,747 for the Young Minds Trust and the Charlton Athletic Community Trust. The fourth match, in 2022, raised over £1,000,000 for CALM,

Teenage Cancer Trust Teenage Cancer Trust is a cancer care and support charity in the UK that exists to improve the cancer experience of young people aged 13–24. Founded in 1990, the charity's key service is providing specialist teenage units in NHS hospitals. It ...

, Rays of Sunshine and M7 Education.

Discography

Publications

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

External links

* {{KSI British video bloggers English YouTube groups Comedy YouTubers English-language YouTube channels Gaming YouTubers Let's Players Male YouTubers Surreal comedy Video bloggers Video game commentators Vlogs-related YouTube channels YouTube channels launched in 2016 YouTube vloggers KSI