The Sidemen are bringing their annual creator showdown to the largest stadium in the U.K. On March 8, 2025, the seven-member supergroup will host a few famous friends and 90,000 ardent fans at London’s Wembley Stadium for the sixth iteration of their Sidemen Charity Match.
Emerging from humble roots in 2016, the Charity Match has become a hotly-anticipated soccer spectacle contested by some of the world’s biggest YouTube and Twitch stars. The 2025 edition will bring back some of the match’s typical conventions: The seven Sidemen and a few of their buddies will form a team that will compete against a group of “YouTube All-Stars.” Past participants have included MrBeast, Kai Cenat, iShowSpeed, xQc, and the Sidemen crew: KSI, Miniminter, Zerkaa, TBJZL, Behzinga, Vikkstar123, and W2S.
Planning the match is a balancing act
As its name implies, the Charity Match benefits a selection of organizations chosen by the Sidemen. The most recent iteration of the event, in 2023, set a new high mark by raising £2.4 million for charities like CALM, Teenage Cancer Trust, Rays of Sunshine, and M7Education.
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The Sidemen have a good shot to push that sum even higher in 2025, but to do so, they’ll have to consider other factors that energize their fans and encourage donations. “Charity is the primary purpose of the game so that always has to come first, however in order to raise money it has to be a draw and therefore entertainment is key,” said Jordan Schwarzenberger of Arcade Media, the management firm that reps the Sidemen. “A great show produces great fundraising, so that needs to be a priority.”
The Charity Match’s evolving storylines are part of what makes it so fun. iShowSpeed first participated in 2022 and has since developed a rivalry with KSI that gets more intense year after year. By putting Speed on the YouTube All-Stars against KSI’s team, the Sidemen guarantee new storylines that keep eyeballs glued to the screen.
Schwarzenberger explained that the Sidemen have full control over those narratives. He told Tubefilter that the guys pick the players and sort them into two teams. “Typically they’re looking for the most relevant creators alongside the most entertaining,” he said. “As it’s gotten bigger and bigger, a consideration increasingly is creating an international mix that appeals to a global audience.”
In 2025, the Charity Match has more potential participants than ever before. Creators like Stable Ronaldo and Hitch are angling for their first invites, while previous players are eager to return.
One way the Sidemen can cull that pool is by considering which creators will enhance the action the most. Case in point: xQc had a lackluster performance when he let in eight goals playing keeper for the YouTube All-Stars in 2023. That actually makes him a good candidate to return, because more goals means more excitement.
“You need a stinky keeper,” W2S said during a recent podcast appearance. “You need someone who is not super terrible, but not good either.”
The creators the Sidemen invite to play will need to be prepared for a rowdy crowd. The group needed only three-and-a-half hours to sell out all 90,000 seats at Wembley.
History of the Sidemen Charity Match
2016: The Sidemen’s first soccer face-off took place at a Premier League stadium. At St. Mary’s Stadium, the home of Southampton FC, the septet was only permitted to fill half of the seats. Despite the limited crowd, the event raised £110,000 and set a YouTube Gaming record with more than 600,000 concurrent viewers.
2017: Two big changes arrived for the match’s second year. It moved to London and filled up an entire venue. The YouTube All-Stars got their only win in Charity Match history with a 2-0 victory at The Valley, the 27,111-seat home of Charlton Athletic.
2018: The Sidemen returned to their winning ways with their most lopsided victory ever, a 7-1 drubbing of the YouTube All-Stars at The Valley.
2022: After a four-year hiatus, the Charity Match returned to The Valley with a thriller. Sidemen FC won 8-7, with an 88th-minute goal by Miniminter deciding the contest. This was also the first time the match raised more than £1 million for charity.
2023: A move to the massive London Stadium allowed the Sidemen to more than double the Charity Match’s in-person attendance. Its fundraising total also increased more than two times over, and the YouTube audience smashed records by topping out at 2.5 million concurrent viewers.
2024: No Charity Match was held. In a YouTube video, KSI suggested that the series took a year off as the Sidemen prepared to make the 2025 edition bigger and better than any previous iteration.
2025: With the move to Wembley, the Charity Match is growing up in the way KSI alluded to. “It was such a journey to get here. Months of planning but we got here and couldn’t be prouder of the boys and the team,” said Arcade Media’s Anna Sirius, who is serving as Project Director for the 2025 Charity Match. “To sell out Wembley is a massive achievement, and shows the power of YouTube and community. Honestly anything is possible, and I can’t wait to see where it all goes next!”
90,000 in-person attendees will get a first-hand look at how big the match has become. The rest of us will have to catch the action on YouTube. It will stream on the official Sidemen channel on March 8.
