'I don't love it': Vikkstar on social media algorithms and the future of YouTube

To understand the sheer influence of YouTube juggernaut the Sidemen, it’s worth starting with the raw numbers. 

Not just the 22.9 million subscribers to the group’s main YouTube channel, but also the combined following of each of its members, which pushes the figure to well over 100 million. 

It’s an absurdity not lost on one of the group’s founding members, Vikram Singh Barn. 

“We could be a great country if we could just get everyone together!” he tells triple j hack. 

“You can't visualise how many people this really is because it is so big.” 

Barn, 30, is better known as “Vikkstar” to his millions of fans. 

He is one of seven internet celebrities to make up the Sidemen, a UK-based group of mega celebrities who started making gaming videos together for YouTube in the early 2010s. 

They have since become one of the platform’s most popular brands, selling out London’s 90,000 seat Wembley Stadium in just three hours last year, partnering with Netflix for a reality show, and collaborating with the world’s biggest YouTuber MrBeast. 

“I would say it’s quite surreal,” Vikkstar tells hack. 

“We started making YouTube videos before you could even put adverts on the videos.  

“Going from that to having a team of 50 people helping us put together videos … it’s something we never expected.” 

The spectacle of YouTube 

Despite the global fame, Vikkstar admits many people still do not know who he is. 

“We sometimes describe it as just a huge bubble," he tells hack. 

“I feel like there's a big divide between online culture and traditional entertainment culture and we sit somewhere in the middle.” 

The big audiences demand big spectacles, and the Sidemen crew deliver. 

In one of their biggest videos in 2022, the group collaborated with the world’s biggest YouTuber MrBeast for a video that racked up more than 40 million views. 

“We hired a warehouse for two weeks and set designers to build Takeshi's Castle-themed challenges,” Vikkstar says. 

“The cost of that was around $500,000 ($705,000), just for one YouTube video. 

“It was awesome.” 

The pressure to create 

Vikkstar says he could never have imagined that creating gaming videos in his bedroom at 14 would ultimately led him to the world of internet celebrity. 

He admits that during his early years of creating content, he was spending 16 hours a day on YouTube. 

“I had three different channels, and I was uploading five or six new videos every single day.  

“Looking back, it was it was a little bit crazy.” 

What started as a passion, soon started to feel like work, with Vikkstar saying it’s clear he was battling an internet addiction. 

“I had a bad diet, I wasn't getting outside, I wasn’t getting enough exercise.  

“You're thinking about this audience of millions of people who are now expecting content and I have to live up to their expectations.” 

In 2024, Vikkstar revealed he has Crohn’s disease – an autoimmune condition impacting the bowel -- which he describes as “frustrating”. 

Other creators including MrBeast have also opened up about their battles with Crohn’s in recent years. 

“There were definitely moments where I felt like I'm the only one with this problem and I wish there was other people who I could relate to and feel less alone.” 

Social media ban 

Despite his warnings about screen addiction, Vikkstar does not believe banning young people from social media is the answer. 

“If this rule was passed many years ago, I wouldn't have a career,” he says, referring to the Australian government’s social media ban for children aged under 16. 

“I definitely can't say I support it.” 

A proposal for a similar ban in the UK was voted down recently, but other countries including Indonesia and Denmark have announced they will introduce bans. 

But the YouTuber says it is crucial creators are mindful of the content they’re producing and the impact it’s having on young people. 

He says his real concern is social media algorithms – the mechanisms used by social media platforms to sort and rank content, determining what content users see in their feeds, and in what order. 

“I don’t think that’s great for younger people who are forming their opinions of the world. 

“Everything becomes, hyper-optimised and maybe slightly less human, creating this hyper-addictive cycle. 

“I don’t love it, if I’m honest.” 

Vikkstar says it’s this algorithmic content that Sidemen are fighting against. 

“We try and keep making long YouTube videos of more than one hour. 

“Real experiences, rather than this entertainment driven short-form content.” 

‘It’s so special’ 

It’s Vikkstar’s most recent career pivot that he’s most excited about. 

As a DJ, he’s featured at some of the world’s biggest events, including the annual Tomorrowland electronic music festival in Belgium. 

He is also performing several shows while in Australia. 

“We can sit there on a Sidemen video and say, ‘oh, this one only got four million views’ … but then you play a DJ set to 400 people in a room and you see them enjoying and reacting to the music," Vikkstar says. 

Future of YouTube 

Dismissing any suggestion that he might retire from social media after more than 15 years in the business, Vikkstar maintains he is committed to YouTube. 

Currently on his “13^th gap year”, he says it’s unlikely he’ll end up in the corporate job he imagines he would have landed if he had continued with his university studies.  

“That will only come from a true passion for something, and I don’t regret anything I’ve done.” 

He also doesn’t want to dissuade other young people from following in his footsteps and dreaming big. 

While he believes it would be “astronomically difficult” to start a YouTube career now, he says there’s always opportunity. 

“There are more eyes watching YouTube than ever before," Vikkstar tells Hack.  

“There’s always a niche, and always a way to really blow up.”