The Sidemen are telling their story with a Netflix original

The Sidemen are celebrating Valentine’s Day on Netflix. On February 14, the creator group consisting of members KSI, Zerkaa, Miniminter, Vikkstar123, TBJZL, W2S, and Behzinga will premiere The Sidemen Story, an original documentary that will track the septet’s rise from its humble beginnings to YouTube glory and beyond.

According to Deadline, the doc has been in the works since 2022. The Sidemen confirmed the project’s distribution deal on X, where the group’s official account shared the Netflix logo and the cryptic message “coming soon.”

Luke Hyams will direct The Sidemen Story, with Sunita Mirchandani Hyams producing through the Hyams’ media venture Pangaea. The directing half of the Hyams is well-versed in Sidemen lore, as he previously served as YouTube’s Head of Originals for the EMEA region.

Hyams left YouTube in 2022, when the platform pivoted away from original programming. The Sidemen previously landed a YouTube Original of their own; in 2018, they took on extreme challenges in The Sidemen Show. Hyams told Deadline that The Sidemen Story will tell “an inspirational decade-plus story of friendship, ambition, perseverance and seven grown men who still love to play Hide N Seek.”

Arcade Media, the firm that has helped build the Sidemen into a Gen Z media empire, is also attached to the project. Sidemen manager and Arcade Media Co-Founder Jordan Schwarzenberger shared a teaser for the upcoming project on LinkedIn.

The history of the Sidemen dates back more than a decade. They originally got together as a group of gaming buddies, and some of its members moved into the “Sidemen house” in 2014. Ten years later, the septet reaches more than 20 million subscribers on a shared YouTube channel, where new videos are uploaded on “Sidemen Sundays.”

Offline ventures launched by the Sidemen include a fried chicken brand called Sides, several sports team sponsorships, and annual charity football matches, the most recent of which raised £2.4 million and broke YouTube viewership records. The group’s breakout star, KSI, was one of the first creators to launch a secondary career as a boxer. He teamed up with his ring rival Logan Paul to launch Prime Hydration in 2022.

All of those exploits have earned the Sidemen a spot in the Netflix library, but the group’s busy schedule won’t let up after the premiere of The Sidemen Story. Last year, the Sidemen inked a “multi-million-pound deal” that will fund their future content operations.