Sidemen (YouTube Group)
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
2013–2020: Origins and initial popularity
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."
.jpg)
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.
In 2016, Olatunji, Minter, Bradley, and Barn moved into another "Sidemen House", living in a 15,000-square-foot, $8.5 million mansion in Bromley, London. In November 2016, the Sidemen collaborated with Rocket League to release an in-game SDMN FC community flag that users can get for free inside the game.
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.
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.
2021–present: Expanded content and continued growth
In August 2021, the Sidemen signed with a London-based digital talent management company called Arcade Media.
In April 2023, the Sidemen garnered controversy when Olatunji 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 Olatunji speaking the slur went viral, including criticisms from DJ and presenter Bobby Friction and comedian Guz Khan among others. Hours later, Olatunji 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."
On 26 September 2023, the Sidemen signed with United Talent Agency, an American talent agency, for their representation in all areas of North America.
YouTube channels
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 June 2024, the Sidemen channel has over 21.3 million subscribers and 6.2 billion views, MoreSidemen has over 8.5 million subscribers and 4.4 billion views, SidemenReacts has over 5.6 million subscribers and 2.9 billion views,Sidemen en Español has over 8.8 thousand subscribers and 170 thousand views and SidemenShorts has over 2.1 million subscribers and 1.8 billion views.
