On September 9, star influencers from live streaming industry participated in Sidemen Charity Match 2023, one of the biggest events on the market. The Sidemen FC and YouTube All-Stars teams met at West Ham's London Stadium in front of 60,000+ fans to have a great time and raise money for charitable organizations. The teams delighted the fans with their performance, and the show was truly spectacular. However, as for the viewership on the streams, this match fell slightly short of last year's edition.
In addition to the members of The Sidemen community, popular content creators, such as MrBeast, xQc, IShowSpeed, Kai Cenat, Jackscepticeye, ChrisMD, and others, also participated in the charity match. Throughout the event, viewers were entertained with replays of highlights, interviews with guests, as well as videos about charity organizations. During the break between halves, a small concert even took place. Ultimately, the competition ended with a score of 8:5 for the Sidemen team. Throughout the match, organizers managed to collect over three million dollars in donations, which will be distributed among five charity foundations.
At the beginning of the match, Kai Cenat scored a quick goal against the Sidemen team, however, it was disallowed due to offside. After this, the number of searches on Google for the terms "offside" and "football rules" in the United States increased by 200%.
After the match, almost all participants stated that they had a great time and would gladly repeat this experience. However, there were complaints about injuries, age, and poor physical condition. MrBeast in particular suffered, injuring his knee after colliding with IShowSpeed. Another "victim" of the match was xQc, who conceded 8 goals as the goalkeeper for the YouTube All-Stars. As a result, fans jokingly blamed him for defeat.
Sidemen Charity Match 2023 Viewership Results
Sidemen Charity Match 2023 viewership statistics
Sidemen Charity Match 2023 lasted just under four hours, which included a pre-match talk show, the actual match, as well as post-match award ceremonies and interviews. In total, the event accumulated 6.9 million Hours Watched; the broadcast reached 1.8 million Average Viewers and 2.7 million Peak Viewers in the second half.
Sidemen Charity Match 2023 was covered on 78 different channels, including YouTube, Twitch, Kick, and TikTok. The main broadcast was on the Sidemen YouTube channel, which reached 2.54 million Peak Viewers: slightly lower than the same channel achieved last year (2.59 million viewers). In addition to the official broadcast, there were many community casters participating, including Mizkif, LetsHugoTV, Im_Dontai, Symfuhny, and others, who streamed the event. However, the majority of viewers still followed the match on the organizers' main channel.
Comparison With Other Events
Sidemen Charity Match 2023 drew more Hours Watched than last year's event — this figure increased by approximately 15%. However, other metrics tell a different story: the Average Viewers number has decreased by 5%, and the Peak Viewers number has decreased by 3.6%. If we look at the official Sidemen channel, it attracted 2% fewer Peak Viewers compared to the same event last year. Nevertheless, it can be said that this is a minor decline.
Viewership statistics of the main broadcast channel
Sidemen Charity Match remains the leader in terms of one-time live viewership among the growing popular media football events. For example, it significantly surpassed the Spanish Kings League 2023 Split 1, which gathered 2.1 million Peak Viewers. On the other hand, the Sidemen games are currently far behind the boxing show matches featuring popular streamers — the Spanish event La Velada del Año III gathered almost 3.6 million Peak Viewers.
Most popular sports events with the participation of streamers
It is important to note that Kings League and La Velada del Año III are primarily aimed at Spanish-speaking audiences (not only in Spain, but also in Latin and South America). At the same time, the main audience for Sidemen Charity Match is in the United States and the United Kingdom. The media football match that took place in London was undoubtedly one of the largest sports events in the English-speaking segment of broadcasts.
