KSI just quit the Sidemen. On May 31, the 32-year-old co-founder uploaded what he called "the hardest video I've ever had to make" and walked away from the British YouTube collective he helped start in 2013. The exit lands six weeks after the Sidemen sold out Wembley, raised £6.2M for charity (per Tubefilter), and pulled 2.2M peak concurrent viewers. The reason he gave: burnout.
⚡ Key Takeaways
- KSI uploaded "I'm Leaving the Sidemen" on May 31, walking away from the YouTube collective he co-founded in 2013.
- He exits six weeks after the Sidemen sold out Wembley and raised £6.2M for charity at 2.2M peak concurrent viewers.
- Stated reason: burnout. KSI says he needs to fix his work-life balance and see his partner and family.
- He's leaving a personal $100M empire and a Sidemen business stack outside analysts value at £125M+.
- A Q1 2026 study put creator burnout at 62%. When the most successful UK YouTuber of his generation taps out at the peak, the whole maximalist-creator playbook gets re-underwritten.
What actually happened?
KSI, real name Olajide Olatunji, posted a 13-minute farewell to his 18.4M YouTube subscribers on May 31, 2026. CNN reported that he framed the move as a work-life-balance call after 13 years of running at full speed across YouTube, music, Prime Hydration, his boxing career (he retired in January), Britain's Got Talent, and the Sidemen's expanding business stack. The remaining six members responded on Instagram within hours, saying the news "came as a surprise" but committing to keep the group going.
Then the timeline got messy. On June 3, LADbible covered a follow-up message KSI wrote to the remaining members, in which he acknowledged the others were "grieving" and said "some of you might even hate me." That is not the cadence of a clean, mutual parting. Fans started reading every previous in-group spat as foreshadowing.
"Over the last few years, I've felt myself being pulled in more directions than ever before. I feel like I've been running at full speed at 100mph. I need to focus on fixing my work-life balance."
KSI, Sidemen co-founder, in his May 31 farewell video
Why does this matter for creators?
Because KSI is exiting at the absolute commercial peak. The Sidemen empire, valued by outside analysts at £125M+ per Arthnova's breakdown, spans Sidemen Clothing, the Sides restaurant chain, the Side+ subscription app, XIX Vodka, and Best Cereal. KSI personally is worth roughly $100M, holds ~46M subs across four YouTube channels, and co-owns Prime Hydration with Logan Paul, the hydration brand that has crossed $1B in retail sales.
The math says: keep grinding. The man says: I'm out.
That reframes the conversation about what the "maximalist creator" playbook actually costs. For a decade, the formula was stack everything (YouTube, music, boxing, brand deals, restaurants, an app, a hydration company) until something breaks. KSI just told the entire creator economy that the thing that breaks is the creator.
What's the bigger picture?
KSI's exit lands inside a documented burnout epidemic. A Q1 2026 study from The Creator Economy found that 62% of full-time creators report burnout symptoms and 47% considered quitting in the past six months. YouTube launched a Creator Wellness Program in January. TikTok rolled out "Creator Sabbaticals," and MatPat and Tom Scott had already stepped back last year.
But those were independents grinding for relevance. KSI is the opposite of that demographic. He is post-Wembley, post-BGT, post-Prime crossing $1B in retail sales.
He is the most commercially successful UK YouTuber of his generation, and his stated reason is still "I don't see my partner enough." The group-creator economy (Sidemen, Dude Perfect, AMP, OT7) now has to re-underwrite the assumption that its biggest single names will keep showing up.
What does Fanvault think?
The KSI exit is the loudest possible signal that the treadmill model of creator monetization has a ceiling, and the ceiling is the human. Stacking surface after revenue surface (subs, PPV, DMs, merch, restaurants, a hydration company, a boxing career) only works if the creator is willing to personally power all of it. Fanvault was built on the opposite bet: one storefront, one automation layer, one Telegram thread that handles the DMs, the scheduling, the listings, and the order flow. A creator should be able to monetize a fanbase at 92% margins without burning the next 13 years to get there.
The next generation of creators is watching KSI walk away from a £125M empire and asking a fair question: is there a version of this that doesn't end here?
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did KSI actually leave the Sidemen?
KSI framed his May 31 exit as a burnout decision in a 13-minute farewell video, saying he'd been "running at full speed at 100mph" across YouTube, music, Prime Hydration, his boxing career (which he retired from in January 2026), Britain's Got Talent, and the Sidemen's expanding business empire. He said he needed to fix his work-life balance and make more time for his family and partner.
Whether that's the full picture is unclear. KSI's June 3 follow-up acknowledged that some Sidemen "might even hate me," which is not the language of a fully amicable exit.
How big is the Sidemen empire that KSI is walking away from?
Outside analysts peg the Sidemen business stack at
KSI's personal empire is larger still: ~46M YouTube subscribers across four channels, ~16B lifetime views, an estimated $100M+ net worth, and co-ownership of Prime Hydration with Logan Paul.
Will the Sidemen continue without KSI?
Yes. The remaining six members (Simon Minter, Josh Bradley, Vikram Barn, Tobi Brown, Ethan Payne, and Harry Lewis) committed to keeping the group going in their June 1 Instagram statement. They acknowledged the departure "came as a surprise" and promised "lots of exciting stuff planned."
The harder question is whether the Sidemen brand survives the loss of its biggest single name at the exact moment the collective hit its commercial peak.
What does this mean for the rest of the creator economy?
The KSI exit lands inside a documented burnout epidemic. A Q1 2026 study put creator-burnout symptoms at
When the person at the literal top of the maximalist-creator playbook says the math doesn't work, every group-creator brand and every solo creator stacking verticals has to re-evaluate the assumption that talent will keep showing up.