KSI Decided to Leave the Sidemen After 13 Years — What Drove His Decision

The British YouTube collective Sidemen is losing one of its members — KSI (real name: Olajide Olatunji). KSI announced via YouTube on May 31, 2026, that it would be his last day as part of the Sidemen group. He began by explaining, “This is honestly the hardest video I’ve ever had to make in my life,” adding that he had “gone back and forth on this decision for a very long time.”

Ultimately, he decided his time with the Sidemen had come to an end, with May 31 marking his final Sidemen video after being part of the collective for about 12 or 13 years.

Naturally, the news came as a shock to many, leaving plenty of fans wondering what prompted his abrupt exit from the group. Here’s the reason he gave.

KSI decided to leave the YouTube collective Sidemen at the end of May 2026 because it’s causing him to spread his time too thin and leaving him without enough time for himself or his loved ones.

In a YouTube video shared on May 31, 2026, KSI admitted that he had given this decision a lot of thought over the last few months and he ultimately “decided that I will be no longer be doing Sidemen videos,” adding that such an admittance “just doesn’t feel real.”

But KSI says his departure has nothing to do with anything negative involving the group. “The truth is, nothing bad has happened, this decision is completely my own.”

He also gave some specifics about how working with the group has caused him to spread himself a little too thin.

“Over the last few years, I felt myself being pulled in a lot of directions than ever before. Between everything else in my life, I feel like I’ve been running at full speed at 100 miles an hour. I’ve spent so long trying to be everything for everyone, trying to be everywhere, trying to do it all… trying not to let anyone down. But somewhere along the way I started losing the balance of my own life.”

KSI added that he “found it hard to make enough time for myself” and that he “definitely found it hard to find time for my family… to make time for the people I love,” and so he realized that “something has to change.”

Since KSI says he can no longer give 100 percent of himself to the Sidemen, which he said is what they deserve, he has decided it’s time to walk away, admitting, “Walking away from something you love is painful, trust me this has not been easy but deep down I know it's the right thing to do.”

Despite how difficult it was for KSI to leave the Sidemen, he says he’s “so incredibly grateful” for the experience he’s had with the group, sharing, “The Sidemen have been such a huge part of my life… for over 12, 13 years, for almost half my life the Sidemen have been my second family.”