Culture Society, Identity and Belonging
The most watched game of football this weekend won’t be Arsenal v Manchester United or Liverpool v Southampton.
It will be Sidemen v YouTube Allstars, a sold-out charity match in front of 90,000 people at a packed out Wembley and millions more online.
Now in its sixth year, the amateur fixture was set up by a group of British YouTubers and shows boxing isn’t the only sport in which influencers are getting more attention.
Last year’s fixture was watched 43 million times on YouTube and raised £2.4 million for charity.
On Wednesday night, Arsenal legend Thierry Henry spent some of CBS’s Champions League show announcing the YouTube Allstars captain: a streamer called IShowSpeed. A sign of the times, if nothing else.
