Dream, a massively standard YouTuber recognized for creating Minecraft content material, took what may need been one of many largest and most necessary steps of his profession on Sunday evening. No, he didn’t have a model partnership or make content material with some movie star. Rather, he did one thing that sounds easy: He confirmed his actual face to his tens of millions of followers. The unusual half was, they’d by no means seen it earlier than.

Before Sunday evening, Dream had solely been seen by the world by means of his avatar, which consisted of a white masks with a black smiley face drawn on it. The reveal has made a giant splash, and since he posted his unmasking video, his title began trending on Twitter; at time of publication, the video has over 29 million views.

The second was outstanding, however it was additionally quiet and awkward. He sat alone in a darkish room with black partitions and a single mattress. Despite having spent a whole lot of hours modifying and releasing video content material and turning into one of many most-viewed content material creators on YouTube, Dream regarded barely uncomfortable about being on digicam — in any case, it was taking place for the primary time. As he reached behind himself to level at an indication within the background, he pointed the unsuitable manner as a result of as he defined it, he wasn’t used to the best way the video mirrored the feed. In this second, he simply appeared like a traditional child. But the reveal was an enormous deal to his followers, who’ve been ready years for this.

Who is Dream?

Dream, whose actual title is Clay (final title unknown), is a 23-year-old American YouTuber recognized for creating content material that includes the survival sandbox recreation Minecraft. Unlike Twitch streamers, who narrate video games as they play them, Dream is basically recognized for his closely edited movies, through which he layers cartoonish sound results and music on prime of his recreation footage. He’s a co-founding member of a collective of different Minecraft content material creators referred to as DreamSMP; the group carries out role-play eventualities which have overarching narratives, making their movies really feel extra serialized and dramatic. Dream launched his personal channel in 2014, however it took off roughly three years in the past after he printed a video about looking for PewDiePie’s Minecraft seed. Today, his hottest type of content material is “manhunt” movies, through which he tries to beat the sport as shortly as attainable whereas another person tries to hunt him down and kill his character.

Dream has shortly risen to turn out to be a YouTube sensation, going from 1 million subscribers to over 30 million subscribers on his primary account in lower than two years. In 2020, he was named YouTube’s prime breakout star of the 12 months, after which he shot as much as turn out to be the No. 2 creator on the complete platform. That 12 months, he co-founded the DreamSMP; the DreamSMP group of creators and their Discord server have since turn out to be a type of an incubation chamber for a few of YouTube’s prime expertise, since every creator who has participated has grown an enormous viewers in their very own proper. All this prime expertise comes collectively and primarily makes use of Minecraft as a playground for no matter tales they wish to inform and act out.

Dream and the remainder of the members of DreamSMP have additionally impressed one of many largest and most prolific fandoms of the late 2010s and early 2020s. DreamSMP isn’t only a standard YouTube channel — it pulls from an advanced net of normal fan exercise, dwelling by means of memes on Tumblr, chatter in Discord servers, video edits that take off on YouTube and TikTook, and fan artwork on varied platforms. In 2021, a fanfic a couple of fictional romance between Dream and fellow DreamSMP member GeorgeNotFound turned the highest-rated fic on fanfic platform Archive of Our Own. Dream and the DreamSMP recurrently development as matters on Twitter. Dream and his roommate Sapnap, who recurrently joins him in content material, are the fifth and eighth most tweeted-about creators on Twitter, respectively.

After Dream catapulted to fame, it wasn’t lengthy earlier than the creator needed to take care of some main blowback. In 2020, he was on the heart of a dishonest scandal, through which a moderation workforce overseeing Minecraft data got here collectively and printed a 14-minute video and analysis paper that summarized a two-month investigation into his speedruns. The paper confirmed the acute improbability of among the runs attributable to randomized components of sure gadgets in Minecraft, main some to accuse Dream of dishonest in speedruns.

At the time, Dream vehemently denied the allegations, and to today, he hasn’t admitted to any dishonest. He talked in regards to the controversy extra not too long ago in an interview with YouTuber Anthony Padilla, the place he mentioned he regretted his rapid response: “I handled the situation horribly. When it originally came out, my response was, You guys are idiots, blah blah blah.” When requested how he thought he ought to have dealt with the state of affairs, Dream mentioned, “I should have shut off all my devices for a couple days and been like, OK, let me not react with emotion.”

To today, Dream offers with ongoing points tied to the bigger fandom as effectively. Specifically, followers argue that he hasn’t performed sufficient previously to intervene and cease his followers from harassing different folks on-line.

Why did Dream reveal his face?

According to Dream, he confirmed his face as a result of he wished to satisfy up with pals, just like the streamer GeorgeNotFound, and get out into the world. Now that his followers know his face, he can do meetups as a creator and do extra work in actual life, away from his desk. In his interview with Padilla, Dream additionally talked about that exhibiting his face would open him as much as doing new sorts of content material as effectively, like collaborations with the favored YouTuber Mr. Beast, or making TikToks.

Why is Dream revealing his face such a giant deal?

For years, followers have been attempting to determine what Dream seems like. That mystique, coupled together with his large following, fueled a type of self-supporting hype machine of voracious followers who wished a giant reveal. Imagine: You have the breakout star of a technology who’s the second hottest creator on an enormous platform and an enormous supply of leisure. For all intents and functions, he is without doubt one of the largest celebrities of his time, besides followers by no means get to see his face. But now, all these followers don’t need to guess anymore.

In addition to that, the creator knew easy methods to milk the face reveal for all it was value. Prior to revealing his face to most people, he constructed as much as the reveal by exhibiting his face on video to main creators first, after which individuals posted response movies. In addition to different well-known DreamSMP members like TommyInnit, main influencers like Addison Rae posted movies reacting to the face reveal. Both the preexisting intrigue and the media circus drummed up a ton of hype. TikTook was crammed with excited followers who expressed how “proud” they had been of Dream’s face reveal, and in addition individuals who simply wished to get in on the enjoyable for seemingly no motive. On the flip facet, some folks on Twitter began a hashtag to make enjoyable of the creator for his seems.

Why did Dream wish to conceal his face?

In the interview he gave to YouTuber Anthony Padilla, Dream defined that he really didn’t plan to be an nameless YouTuber firstly. He had begun by designing a easy avatar impressed by an identical Discord image his ex-girlfriend had made. But then, he began making movies and his account took off. “It just all blew up so quickly and became a part of the fan art and community. It wasn’t a calculated move, it just happened so quickly,” he mentioned.

Although Dream framed the choice as type of serendipitous in his interview with Padilla, he had different ideas to share about it in his unmasking video. He talked in regards to the masks as a manner for folks to see themselves in him, even when he’s ascended to a celebrity-like stage of title recognition now. The masks let him serve virtually as a vessel, permitting everybody to venture a facet of themselves onto him.

“This channel is living proof that anyone can do anything. Anyone can be under the mask, and I don’t want my face reveal to take away from that fact,” he mentioned. “Because it’s true, and it can be. And you can do it if you want to. Dream could have been anyone from anywhere.”