Minecraft content creator Dream has announced that he will be “unrevealing” his face. Boasting over 30 million subscribers on YouTube, the 23-year-old started making content nearly a decade ago and surged in popularity five years later when a video went viral. In both 2020 and 2021, Dream won YouTube’s coveted Streamy Award for Gaming, and all of this success arrived despite Dream never having shown what he looked like.
Dream’s online avatar was a simple white smiling face, and whenever he appeared on camera, he wore an actual mask with the same image. As his popularity grew, however, an increasing number of people became curious about what he looked like and did everything they could to uncover his identity. This resulted in him being doxxed in January 2021, which led to him preempting the bad actors and officially removing the mask on October 2, 2022. Nearly 1.5 million people tuned in to watch the Dream face reveal premiere, and that number grew to double digits in a matter of hours.
People online can be incredibly harsh, though, and some immediately began teasing Dream for his appearance, to put it mildly. The “hate” has become so extreme that Dream announced that he will be putting the mask back on. In a YouTube video titled “bye, from Dream,” the content creator explains that he has deleted his face reveal video and will be taking steps to remove his image from the internet. He will be deleting all pictures of himself along with any other videos that show his face, including an extremely popular collaboration he did with MrBeast.
“After face revealing and removing my mask, I regretted the attention and hate, and am walking it back,” Dream explained in the video’s description. The Minecraft player will be attempting to reload his save, so to speak, and go back to a time before he showed his face to the world. His new mask can even be worn in public, “at McDonald’s or any place I need to go.” Dream thanked everybody who had supported him, “even though I am ugly.”
Despite this, Dream’s video isn’t negative at all but is rather lighthearted. The whole scenario is presented in a joking manner and in some ways mocks those who have made rude comments since the face reveal. In the video, Dream’s friends encourage him to put the mask back on and never take it off, facetiously asking, “What if we’re shooting a video and you’re in the background and we see your stupid face?” Another exclaims, “People will like you again!”
Dream isn’t the only content creator who started out with their face hidden, though most people eventually reveal what they look like, simply because it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain anonymity as their audience grows. Some “masked” content creators like Corpse Husband have shared that they will never willingly reveal their face because they fear rejection or ridicule and feel certain that they would lose their audience. Other creators envy those who have remained hidden, and even Pokimane has said she wishes she’d started out faceless.