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System builder PC Specialist is on cloud nine after sponsoring a YouTuber charity football event that has been watched more times than the Champions League final.
It was headline sponsor of the Sidemen FC vs YouTube Allstars match, which took place on June 3rd at Southampton FC’s St Mary’s Stadium – and has generated more than seven million views overall.
Comparatively, the Champions League final between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid on May 28th was watched by six million (4.3 million on TV and 1.8 million on digital platforms). That’s also despite BT Sport airing the final for free – and broadcasting it live on YouTube for the first time.
The YouTuber match was streamed live on the Sidemen YouTube channel, the fastest-ever growing YouTube channel which gained more than one million followers in the space of three days.
It has raised almost £100,000 for charity, split between the Saints Foundation and Special Effect. All net profits from the match are going to charity, and none of the players received any fees for attending – they were just provided accomodation.
Here’s some more stats from the event:
- The combined reach of the YouTubers playing was in excess of 100 million subscribers
- Total event exposure is expected to be around 150 million views (when taking Vlogs from players and pre-event videos into account)
- Peak concurrent views of the live stream reached 500,000
- Total views during the live stream reached in excess of three mililon viewers
- 13,500 tickets were sold out in two weeks.
Stuart Jones, director at talent management firm Upload Agency, told PCR: "We could have easily sold the stadium out, but due to local council restrictions on road closures, unfortunately we couldn’t sell any more tickets.
"This is the first of many Sidemen events, with more to be announced in the coming weeks. We really appreciate the support of brands such as PC Specialist, who help make the events feasible and also help us raise lots of money for good causes."
"The match now has over seven million views online and that is just through the Sidemen channel alone. When you add up the subscribers across all of the YouTuber’s channels I’m sure it’d be close to 100 million."
John Medley, PC Specialist
As a headline sponsor, PC Specialist had Sidemen FC Shirt sponsorship, LED boards around the pitch, live YouTube stream overlay sponsorship, VIP sponsorship and commentator box sponsorship.
PC Specialist have been partnered with the Sidemen for a while now, having shown off special Sidemen-branded PCs at the Insomnia55 gaming event last year.
John Medley, PC Specialist marketing and product development manager, commented: "The partnership with the Sidement continues to grow stronger as each day passes by. The match was groundbreaking in terms of online views – it was the biggest ever event on YouTube Gaming with over 500,000 concurrent viewers.
"Although the branding was great, it was a more about being involved in an event which displayed the power of social media and YouTube, whilst supporting two amazing charities; Special Effect and The Saints Foundation.
"A huge thanks must go to the Sidemen and Upload Agency for making it possible – I think they’ve just about hit the £100,000 mark to be split between the charities.
"The match now has over seven million views online and that is just through the Sidemen channel alone. When you add up the subscribers across all of the YouTuber’s channels I’m sure it’d be close to 100 million."
The Sidemen consist of YouTuber gamer stars KSI, Ethan, Harry, Josh Simon, Tobi and Vikk, who invited along other celebrities to play in their team on the day such as UK rapper JME (pictured, being interviewed by presenter Julia Hardy) and football YouTuber Spencer FC. The YouTube Allstars was formed of players including Joe Weller, Calfreezy, Callux, Poet and more.
You can see the match in full here:
