The Sidemen are 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 .
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 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.
, 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 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.