Sidemen FC match raises £4m for charities including BBC Children in Need

The sell-out Sidemen FC charity match at Wembley Stadium on Saturday raised £4,733,004 for charities including BBC Children in Need.

The YouTube Allstars beat Sidemen FC in a “tense” penalty shootout, following a 9-9 draw at full-time.

The Sidemen – a seven-strong group that includes content creators, musicians and boxer KSI – have more than 146 million YouTube subscribers between them.

Over 8 million people tuned in from around the world to watch the livestream, according to a statement from the organisers.

All 90,000 tickets for the game sold out in three hours, the statement added.

The Sidemen said that they raised almost double the amount raised in their previous charity match, at West Ham’s London Stadium, which raised £2m in 2023.

Other charities that will benefit, are Bright Side, which fundraises for organisations supporting equal opportunities, and educational charity M7 Education.

Captaining the two sides, were The Sidemen’s Miniminter for Sidemen FC, and IShowSpeed for YouTube Allstars.

YouTube phenomenon Mr Beast also featured for the All Stars.

At half-time, both teams were drawing 4-4, and surprise half time performances came from rapper AJ Tracey and The Sidemen’s own KSI who performed his track Thick Of It.

After a high-scoring 9-9 draw, the YouTube All Stars sealed the win on penalties.

The seven members of The Sidemen went from making gaming content in their bedrooms to running a multi-million pound internet empire.

Its members are: Olajide ‘JJ’ Olatunji (KSI), Simon Minter (Miniminter), Joshua Bradley (Zerkaa), Tobit ‘Tobi’ Brown (TBJZL), Ethan Payne (Behzinga), Vikram Singh Barn (Vikkstar123), and Harry Lewis (W2S).

Their YouTube channels have over 6 billion views globally, representatives said.