DanTDM Warned Us About KSI... And He Was Right All Along

Uh, wait, you did THE SAME AS DAD. YOU

MADE UH TOY SWIFT TUBE HEROES. UH, WELL,

OKAY THEN.

HE WAS TALKING ABOUT FOOD.

>> He He loves the whole back and forth.

That's what the whole boxing is about.

Look, I get it. I I understand it. It

was funnier to not feed into it.

>> This was a KSI in his KSI crypto era and

we got this big shiny presentation for

the Sidemen NFTs, one of 10,000. Launch

NFT project, make $20 million

that day. What happens afterwards,

everyone should make money, but if they

don't, who cares?

>> KSI just left the Sidemen. 13 years, the

group that built him, gone.

And his team's response was to plant a

hit piece in the Daily Mirror claiming

he was frozen out and that his own

friends were happy when he lost boxing

match. And this is the same person who 2

years ago was tweeting in defense of

Logan Paul while Logan's crypto project

had only refunded 12% of the money it

owed victims.

DanTDM called this in 2024.

Jacksepticeye called it even before that

and KSI has spent every moment since

proving them right.

Here's how it actually happened.

September 2024.

KSI, Logan Paul, and Mr. Beast launched

Lunchly, a pre-packaged kids meal

marketed as a healthier alternative to

Lunchables and the internet immediately

started pulling up the nutrition labels

because healthier turned out to mean

about one extra gram of protein and the

same level of processed everything else.

It wasn't a food product. It was three

massive YouTube channels pointing their

combined audience at a snack box and one

person said exactly that out loud,

DanTDM, 30 million subscribers, someone

who spent a decade building a genuine

relationship with a young audience,

posted one tweet. He said this was

selling stuff for the sake of making

money, that it was selling things to

kids who trusted the people selling to

them and that they should do better.

That was it. One tweet. And KSI

responded with weeks of content.

>> Looks like crap to me while showing his

toys that he sold to kids.

>> [laughter]

>> How does this benefit your fans, Dan?

Now, obviously people didn't realize

that I was shining a mirror in his face.

Instead, THEY WERE LIKE,

>> WAIT, YOU DID THE SAME AS DAN. YOU MADE

UH TOYS WITH TUBE HEROES.

>> And yes, that's fair, but I'm not the

ONE COMPLAINING.

>> [laughter]

>> UH WELL, OKAY, THEN.

HE WAS TALKING ABOUT FOOD, NOT

MERCHANDISE and toys.

>> And I'm like, okay, sure. Let's keep

moving the goal post. But okay, then I

replied to this. He was sponsored, then

promoted, and made a whole video on

Munch Pack, a monthly sub box full of

food and candy to his Minecraft audience

[music] full of kids. Now what?

>> The response video alone was 20 minutes

long, and instead of actually defending

the product, he spent it trying to find

dirt on Dan.

Digging up a years-old Munch Pack

sponsorship, going after the Tube Hero

figures Dan released in 2014, a small

one-off toy line that cost about 15

pounds. The man who co-founded a global

snack brand with Logan Paul and Mr.

Beast was dunking on a one-off toy drop

from a decade ago.

And then he deleted a tweet where he

called Dan a name, posted what looked

like an apology link that turned out to

be a redirect to his new song,

>> [music]

>> and then admitted on Logan's podcast

that the whole thing was partly a

marketing strategy for his music. So, to

recap, Dan posted one tweet, then went

back to his life.

KSI made multiple videos, multiple

tweets, name-called, faked an apology,

promoted a song off the back of it,

[music] and admitted it was calculated.

And Dan's response to all of that?

>> I couldn't be bothered to like fight.

Like, he he loves the whole back and

forth. That's what the whole boxing is

about. Like, I get it. I I understand

it. Um but it was funnier to not feed

into it because

>> It's just exhausting.

>> just watch it happen. It was It was fun.

I think some of it as well was

interesting where I think he thought

like it was all my fans going for him.

When actually I don't I don't think that

was the case.

>> it was the internet.

>> funny as well. My wife was always like

just think before you tweet. That was

one time I didn't really think too much

before tweeting. Usually I'll type out

and be like no, I can't bother. Delete

it. So I and then I didn't tell her for

like 3 days. And she's not on Twitter

really, so I didn't tell her. And then I

kept getting notifications from my phone

that was like Logan Paul responded.

Jimmy messaged you. Uh KSI responded. I

was like I have to mention something

now. Um she was like well, I agree with

you, but maybe you should just not stoke

the fire anymore. I was like okay,

that's fair. And then there were moments

where I was like oh no, it's actually

getting out of hand.

>> He didn't engage because he understood

immediately what KSI was doing.

The back and forth is the product for

KSI.

Feeding into it would have just given

him more material. So Dan watched it

happen, didn't respond, and KSI kept

going for weeks.

And while KSI was doing all of this, a

much bigger name stepped into the

conversation.

Jacksepticeye.

31 million subscribers. Someone who has

been on the platform since the early

Markiplier and PewDiePie era. Who

doesn't tweet about drama, who doesn't

chase engagement, posted you mess with

DanTDM, you mess with YouTube.

And the reason that landed the way it

did is because Jack had already laid out

exactly why he felt this way. A full

year before Lunchly even existed.

>> Now Jack, a completely unrelated

question.

>> [laughter]

>> Do you like Mr. Beast?

>> No.

>> Good try, Jack.

Do you think Mr. Beast ruined YouTube?

>> Yes.

>> Ooh.

Now in all honesty, Jack, why?

>> Because it became more [music] about

views, money, and popularity than it did

about having fun.

>> You still have to have fun playing Squid

Games.

You still have fun riding on yachts,

BUILDING WELLS IN AFRICA, I DON'T KNOW.

>> IF HE HAD FUN DOING those videos, they'd

be longer.

We'd see the fun.

Ooh.

>> Thought you were going to get me on that

one, didn't you?

>> I'll be honest about that and be like,

yeah, I don't like the videos. And then

it was like, do you think he ruined

YouTube? And I said, yes, which

I I mean, I don't really think Mr. Beast

ruined YouTube. By By saying that, I

mean, I think everybody that copies him

is kind of putting YouTube in like a

weird spot. And if anything, YouTube

have ruined their own platform, not Mr.

Beast outwards.

>> Jack's argument was specific. It's not

Mr. Beast himself. It's everyone copying

him. Because what gets copied isn't the

creativity, it's the extraction model.

Bigger production, bigger products,

bigger revenue targets, and the audience

becomes the funnel.

And in 2026, KSI became the clearest

possible example of exactly that.

>> do with YouTube. I just wasn't enjoying

it anymore. I had to keep up with a

persona that was just so taxing on me

and my general well-being, to be honest.

And I don't know, but in my opinion,

YouTube has changed a lot. I don't

believe it's about the you in YouTube

anymore. Gone are the days where people

would just make videos for fun. Now it's

all about people making videos for

monetary gain. People now have

directors, editors, cameramen, and other

things to help them out. Whereas before,

it was only the YouTuber that would do

that themselves. That essentially is the

game right now. That is the YouTube

game. That's how you remain relevant

nowadays. And personally, I just don't

want to be a part of that game anymore.

From now on, I'm going to be making

content that I want to put up. I just

hated how YouTube became like a chore

for me, having to always keep up with

these [ __ ] trends and [ __ ] I

started making videos because that's

what I wanted to do like from the

beginning. It was just fun for me. I

just enjoyed doing it. So, I feel like I

want to end doing videos that I want to

do, rather than doing videos that people

want me to do.

>> I'm trying to compete with Jimmy, Mr.

Beast. Yeah. And he's on

He gets about 4 billion

every month in shorts and about 600

million long form.

>> I mentioned Sidemen boys, I'm going to

get more subscribers than Sidemen. And

I'm also going to get more views than

Sidemen. So, I got more views than

Sidemen in a month. So, now I just need

to get more subscribers than Sidemen.

And then it's just keep it up. And then

it's all "All cool. I'm going to speed

now. All right, I need to try to get

more views than Speed." And then, after

Speed, "All right, who's next?" until I

get to Jimmy. And then, they say, "Yeah,

me and Jimmy going back-to-back."

>> That old clip is incredible in context.

He said he didn't want to make content

for anyone but himself, that YouTube had

become about monetary gain, that he

wanted out of that game. And then, the

recent clip shows him treating the

Sidemen,

his friends of over a decade, as a

benchmark to beat, working his way up

through IShowSpeed toward Mr. Beast like

it's a leaderboard.

That's not burnout.

That's not needing space.

That's a strategy. And the people who

got in the way of it got left behind.

But the Sidemen situation is actually

the most recent entry in a much longer

pattern.

>> Has there ever been something that's

gone so far down the line and then last

minute you've got this just isn't going

to work. We need to sack this.

>> NFTs.

>> NFTs.

>> Oh my god. This was a KSI in his KSI

crypto era. And we got this big shiny

presentation for the Sidemen NFTs, one

of 10,000.

>> Wow.

>> And that's an NFT project, especially

back then, were like, launch the NFT

project, make $20 million that day. What

happens afterwards, everyone should make

money, but if they don't, who cares? You

made 20 mil. And we had this big, big,

like, deck. And like, JJ thought it was

the best idea. And then, the other guys

were like, unsure. And I was like, I

will not let this happen. So, I had to

like do a detailed breakdown of every

reason why I thought it was a bad idea.

Cuz I was like, I want to kill this dead

now, cuz I do not want there to be a

Sidemen NFT.

>> Yeah.

>> I do not ever want to make millions of

dollars at the expense direct expense of

fans getting nothing for it. A a useless

useless token online. And also, with the

way we've got a bunch of businesses,

like, if you effectively scam people or

like, [ __ ] the mobile with one business,

everything else loses credibility.

>> Dickster had to prepare a detailed

counter argument to stop his own friend

from launching a project that would have

made them millions at the direct expense

of fans who'd get nothing for it.

KSI thought it was the best idea.

Vik described the NFT logic at the time

perfectly.

Make 20 million on launch day, and

whatever happens to the buyers after

that isn't your problem. And that's the

exact same logic Dan was calling out

with Lunchly. Launch it, take the money,

move on.

And KSI's response when his closest

friend got exposed for doing something

similar? He publicly defended him.

>> You ask me, I think KSI tried to use his

influence to move the market for himself

in crypto through a few pump and dumps.

He may have lost all his money

eventually in a Ponzi scheme, but that

does not make what he did okay. In fact,

I think it's fair to say that a lot of

his followers, we saw that, you know, he

influenced millions of dollars in

trading volume, went into some coins

that are now doing very poorly. But

ultimately, I think the true piece of

cosmic irony for KSI here, though, is

that he would have gotten away with all

of this. No one would have known about

any of it if he just hadn't logged back

into Twitter.

>> So, KSI was doing his own version of it

the whole time, influencing millions of

dollars in trading volume through pump

and dump activity, and would have gotten

away with it entirely if he hadn't gone

back online to engage. And when Logan's

CryptoZoo refund program came out, and

it turned out it only covered 12% of

what victims were owed while waving

their right to sue, KSI's public

response was to tweet in support of him.

Then 2 years later, he had his team

plant stories in the Daily Mirror about

the same friends who apparently weren't

good enough to stay loyal to.

>> [music]

>> The loyalty argument KSI makes doesn't

hold up even internally. He was loyal to

Logan through an active legal scandal

over a crypto scam.

And he left the Sidemen, the group that

built the foundation his entire career

sits on, to chase Mr. Beast's model

while briefing against them in the press

on his way out. Dan and Jack aren't

anti-business. They both do brand deals.

They both have merch. They've both made

real money from YouTube. But the content

is the thing they actually built their

careers on, and the products are extras

that make sense alongside it.

What KSI is doing is structurally

different. The audience isn't a

community, it's a revenue stream, and

every product launch, every drama, every

departure is optimized around

extraction.

Jack said everyone copying Mr. Beast is

putting YouTube in a weird spot, and KSI

left his friends of 13 years to become

exactly that person.

So, here's the question.

Was DanTDM right to call this out

publicly?

Or should he have stayed quiet and let

the audience figure it out on their own?

Leave your thoughts in the comments

below, and if you enjoyed the video,

smack the like and subscribe buttons,

and I'll see you in the next one.