Dream Revealed His Face After Years of Streaming, Defined

On Oct. 2, the nameless gaming streamer Dream lastly confirmed the world what was behind the cartoon-smiley masks he’s worn for somewhat over three years. The YouTuber teased the “face reveal” to his greater than 30 million YouTube subscribers on Sept. 19 with a submit on his Group Tab that stated, “My subsequent add shall be me face revealing… Tremendous nervous but additionally extremely excited for the long run! I can’t wait to begin assembly you guys in particular person.” On Sunday, he uploaded a video to YouTube titled, “hello, I’m Dream.” In it, he drew out the reveal, cropping his face out of the body, standing behind a inexperienced display, and shielding his face with the masks till he eliminated it and confronted his followers for the primary time.

“My title is Clay, possibly you’ve heard of me, possibly not,” he stated within the video. “Possibly you clicked on this video out of pure curiosity, and also you don’t care who I’m.”

His video obtained over 1.1 million views throughout the hour, and the hashtag #DreamFaceReveal turned the No. 1 trending matter in the USA on Twitter on Sunday. The tweet containing his first-ever selfie amassed greater than 800,000 likes. Whereas his followers had been typically excited to lastly see him, some took the chance to remark negatively about his look, main “He’s Ugly” and “#PutTheMaskBackOn” to development alongside the extra impartial hashtag following his submit.

Whereas it might seem to be a small deal to anybody exterior the YouTube gaming group, Dream’s reveal displays a fervent fandom and the dangers of messing with a profitable method on-line.

Who’s Dream, and what does he do?

Dream is a 23-year-old streamer who has had an Web presence since 2014 however is finest recognized for creating the Dream SMP (“survival multi-player”) server together with his buddy GeorgeNotFound on Minecraft. The invite-only server launched in April 2020, and in response to the WikiFan Web page, it’s fashionable for its “principally improvisational plot and a protracted historical past of alliances, wars, factions, eras, and characters.” Dream’s YouTube web page, the place he posts his Minecraft gaming movies, is three years previous and has amassed over 30 million followers.

He additionally has a collective of pals whom he streams with who should not nameless—Tubbo, who has over three million subscribers on YouTube and shut to 5 million on Twitter, and TommyInnIt, who has over 11 million subscribers.

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Dream’s anonymity has been one of the vital alluring elements of his persona on-line and that intrigue, paired together with his vibrant persona, have helped him construct a loyal following throughout social media platforms. With a big following typically comes some stage of controversy and criticism, and Dream has not been immune. He’s beforehand been accused of dishonest throughout recreation play by utilizing recreation modifications throughout Minecraft speedrunner, however he claimed the usage of so-called “mods” was not intentional and that he he didn’t know they had been energetic through the recreation.

Why has he been nameless, and what made him reveal his identification now?

In a 2021 interview with YouTuber Anthony Padilla (previously of the YouTube duo Smosh), Dream stated, “I simply blew up so rapidly after which it turned part of the fan artwork, and part of the group so rapidly. It wasn’t a calculated transfer, it was simply one thing that occurred.” He defined within the interview that whereas he didn’t got down to be nameless, his reputation snowballed and it turned too necessary part of his persona to desert.

Few folks had seen what Dream appears like, and even a few of the folks he usually streams with had by no means seen his face earlier than he revealed it. He promised a face reveal when his buddy, UK-based streamer GeorgeNotFound, strikes to Florida as a result of they’ve been pals for a very long time and he wished to indicate his face to his shut buddy. He appeared to determine it was pretty much as good a time as any to indicate himself to extra than simply George. George posted a tweet on Sept. 18 that he acquired his visa and the next day, Dream introduced {that a} face reveal was coming.

In his video, Dream stated, “My objective was to simply begin doing issues; get out, meet creators, say hello to my pals lastly, simply get out on this planet, be an precise creator, be an individual.”

How the Web responded to Dream’s face reveal

Dream’s anonymity allowed his followers to think about what he may appear like, and lots of of his followers had been “excited” concerning the face reveal. “It could be fairly good to lastly put a face on his voice,” one fan informed BuzzFeed Information. One other stated, “I’m simply nervous he’s gonna get terrible messages if he doesn’t appear like they anticipate him to look.”

Terrible messages are precisely what he acquired. Quickly after the hashtag #DreamFaceReveal began trending, “He’s Ugly,” and #PutTheMaskBack on started trending as nicely. Folks additionally made jokes about his appears. In response, there was an outpouring of help, with many followers calling detractors’ claims baseless and imply.

“HE LOOKS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THAN I WAS EXPECTING HIM TO,” one particular person tweeted. “BUT BROS SO CUTE WTF.” YouTuber Joey Graceffa joined in and tweeted, “Dream is cute” with a pair of eye emojis.

What does this imply for different nameless creators?

Dream just isn’t the one nameless streamer (or the one one to disclose their face following a interval of anonymity). One of many different hottest creators within the gaming group is Corpse Husband. His deep voice is without doubt one of the most recognizable options about him, as his followers have additionally by no means seen his face.

It stays to be seen how this transfer will have an effect on Dream’s content material (though he says he won’t be forgoing the masks throughout his streams), but it surely appears attainable that it may serve to bolster his profession. He has extra alternatives now to be a creator in each sense of the phrase, with out worry of his identification unintentionally being leaked. As somebody who ascended to fame through the pandemic, he lastly has an opportunity to fulfill his followers in particular person and join with them as he’s executed over the Web.

Outdoors of the gaming world, different nameless creators have constructed devoted followings, together with YouTuber tea drama channels like SpillSesh and the favored celeb blind merchandise Instagram web page DeuxMoi. The latter additionally revealed their faces (not by alternative—they had been found by Web tradition journalist Brian Feldman, who pieced the puzzle together utilizing public data). For Dream, solely time will inform if assigning a face to the creator outweighs the attract of thriller he cultivated up till now.

Write to Moises Mendez II at [email protected].