Dream has been active online since 2014, but did not gain substantial popularity until 2019, with the release of his "Minecraft Manhunt" YouTube series. Dream also gained notability for his Minecraftspeedruns; however, several of his records were struck down due to evidence of cheating. Content created in the Dream SMP, Dream's invite-only survival multiplayer (SMP) Minecraft server that stars content creators engaged in roleplay, also attracted considerable attention, acclaim and a popular fandom.
As of August 12, 2023[update], his seven YouTube channels have collectively reached over 43.51 million subscribers[b] and over 3.66 billion views,[a] and his two Twitch channels have collectively gained 7.37 million followers[c] and 19.01 million views.[d] YouTube awarded Dream the Streamy Award for Gaming in 2020, 2021, and 2023.
Entertainment career
2014–2019: Early beginnings and Minecraft
Dream created his YouTube account on February 8, 2014,[6] under the username DreamTraps[7] and started to upload content regularly in July 2019.[8] The oldest accessible video on Dream's account involves him playing Minecraft poorly on purpose in order to "trigger" viewers.[8] As of December 2022, the video has amassed 18 million views.[9]
In July 2019, Dream figured out the seed of a Minecraft world YouTuber PewDiePie was playing on by using reverse engineering techniques that Dream learned from online forums.[8] In November 2019, Dream uploaded a viral video titled "Minecraft, But Item Drops Are Random And Multiplied..." that has amassed 49 million views as of January 2021.[8] In January 2020, Dream uploaded a video in which he and another YouTuber, GeorgeNotFound, connected an Arduino board to an electric dog collar, which emitted an electric shock whenever a player lost health in Minecraft.[10]
In December 2020, in place of their annual YouTube Rewind series, YouTube released a list of their top-trending videos and creators. On the U.S. list, YouTube ranked Dream's "Minecraft Speedrunner VS 3 Hunters GRAND FINALE" video as the number seven "Top Trending Video", and ranked Dream as the number two "Top Creator" and number one "Breakout Creator".[11] A livestream by Dream on YouTube in November 2020 with about 700,000 peak viewers was the 6th highest viewed gaming stream of all time as of January 2021.[12] A December 2020 Polygon article stated that "2020 has been a tremendous year for Dream", describing him as "YouTube's biggest gaming channel of the moment."[13]
In a January 2021 article, Steven Asarch of Business Insider attributed Dream's growth during 2019 and 2020 "to his understanding of the YouTube algorithm", noting that "[h]e puts his keywords in the right places, capitalizes on trends, and makes thumbnails that fans want to click on."[8]
Dream is a member of the "Dream Team", along with fellow YouTubers Sapnap and GeorgeNotFound. The group frequently collaborate to create new content.[14] Dream also had a friendly rivalry with fellow Minecraft YouTuber Technoblade before his death, as they each had a contested recognition for the title of "best Minecraft player."[15]
2019–present: Minecraft Manhunt, Dream SMP and collaborations
Dream's most popular YouTube series is "Minecraft Manhunt", a format where one player — usually Dream — attempts to complete a speedrun of Minecraft, while another player or team of players (the "hunters") attempts to kill the runner or thwart their progress.[16] The first video in the series, titled "Beating Minecraft But My Friend Tries to Stop Me", was published on December 26, 2019.[17] Further videos were published in the following years, featuring incrementally greater numbers of hunters. The final episode of the series was published on February 26, 2022.[18] Many of the Minecraft Manhunt videos have received tens of millions of views,[19] with one of them ranking sixth in YouTube's Top Trending Videos of 2020.[20] As of February 2022, the most-viewed in Dream's Minecraft Manhunt series has 108 million views.[18]
The series has received positive acclaim. Urian B. wrote in Tech Times that Minecraft Manhunt "requires not only mastery of the terrain but also the ability to think fast on your feet while different choices present themselves with only milliseconds of time for decision making. This is something that Dream is good at, split second decision making."[21] Nicolas Perez from Paste described Minecraft Manhunt as "an experience that leaves me slack-jawed every time", stating that the format of Minecraft Manhunt "seems to guarantee the hunters come out on top. But more often than not, Dream pulls just enough aces out of his sleeve to narrowly beat the hunters, and eventually the game."[16] Gonzalo Cardona, writing for Ginx TV, noted that Minecraft Manhunt had "inspired cult-like montages by fans."[9]Nathan Grayson, writing for Kotaku, said that Minecraft Manhunt had turned Dream "into a household name among Minecraft fans."[22]
Throughout 2020, Dream was a prominent participant in MC Championship, a monthly Minecraft competition organized by Noxcrew. He won first in both the 8th and 11th MC Championships.[27] In September 2020, during the 10th MC Championship, he played for charity and raised around $3,400.[28]
The Dream SMP has become very well-known.[29] The primary attraction for fans, according to their feedback, is the roleplay aspect. Major events are loosely scripted in advance, while most other elements consist of improvisation, performed live on YouTube and Twitch.[29]Cecilia D'Anastasio of Wired described the Dream SMP as a form of live theatre and as a "Machiavellian political drama."[30] During January 2021, over 1 million people tuned into Dream SMP livestreams.[30]
On April 26, 2021, as a collaboration with Dream, fellow YouTuber MrBeast's fast-food restaurant chain MrBeast Burger released the Dream Burger as a limited-time addition to its menu.[31][32]
On February 4, 2021, Dream released his first song, entitled "Roadtrip", in collaboration with PmBata, which garnered over 25 million views on YouTube.[33][34] On May 20, 2021, Dream released his second song, entitled "Mask", which garnered over 24.7 million views on YouTube.[35] An animated music video for "Mask" was released in June of the same year, though it was later deleted.[34][36] The song and accompanying music video faced criticism for the content of the lyrics and animation, including a negative portrayal of prescription drugs. He depicted his own negative experience taking prescribed ADHD pills,[37] referring to them in the work as "normal pills".[34] On August 19, 2021, Dream released his third song, entitled "Change My Clothes", in collaboration with American singer-songwriter Alec Benjamin, which garnered over 8.3 million views on YouTube.[38][citation needed]
Dream's fourth song, titled "Until I End Up Dead", was released through Mercury and Republic Records on June 23, 2023,[39][40] after he had signed to Republic Records in December 2022.[41]: 5:16 It was his first song to be released through a major label. On July 26, 2023, Dream announced that his debut EP To Whoever Wants to Hear would be released on September 1, 2023, and would have seven tracks.[42] The second single from that EP, "Everest" with Yung Gravy, was released on July 28, 2023,[43] followed by its music video on August 9, 2023.[44] A music video for "Kind of Love", the second track on To Whoever Wants to Hear, was released on August 31, 2023, the day before the EP's release.[45] The EP debuted at number 173 on the Billboard 200 chart.[46]
Public image and controversies
Dream is considered to have a polarizing personality on the YouTube platform.[47] A 2020 SurveyMonkey poll revealed that 59.7% of respondents held a favorable view of him, while 22.1% expressed an unfavorable view.[48] Dream and other members of the Dream SMP have given rise to a popular fandom.[49]
On January 1, 2021, Dream was doxxed.[8] On January 7, 2021, Dream addressed the doxxing and denied accusations made against him by his ex-girlfriend.[8]
In June 2021, Dream was criticized for announcing that all revenue generated by his streams in June would go to charity, with critics claiming he did not stream for more than a single day that month. Dream had streamed multiple times on different platforms during the month of June, including at least four streams on Discord, where he encouraged fans to subscribe and donate to his Twitch channel.[50][51] On June 30, 2021, Dream announced that he had donated US$140,000 (US$90,000 from fan contributions and US$50,000 from the Dream Team) to The Trevor Project, an LGBT youth charity.[52]
In response to fellow YouTuber Technoblade's cancer diagnosis, Dream donated US$21,409 to cancer research in late August 2021.[53] Dream has since participated in many other cancer charity initiatives, organized with Technoblade's father, who goes by his online pseudonym Mr. Technodad.[54]
In early October 2020, Dream livestreamed himself speedrunningMinecraft, and submitted one of his times to speedrun.com. He was awarded with 5th place at the time in the "1.16+random seedglitchless" category.[13] Accusations of Dream cheating in these speedruns first arose on October 16, when another Minecraft speedrunner, in now-deleted Twitter posts, reported seeing higher drop rates for key items in one of the speedrunning attempts that Dream submitted.[56] Dream responded on October 29 in now-deleted Twitter posts, arguing that he had no reason to cheat, that he did not possess the coding knowledge to raise drop rates, and that the data was cherry picked.[57]
On December 11, 2020, following a two-month investigation, speedrun.com's Minecraft verification team removed his submission from the leaderboards. The team published a report, along with a 14-minute video to YouTube, analyzing six archived livestreams of speedrunning sessions by Dream from around the time of the record. The team concluded that the game had been modified to make the chance of obtaining certain items needed to complete the game higher than normal; they argued the odds of "anyone in the Minecraft speedrunning community would ever get luck comparable to Dream's" was at most 1 in 7.5 trillion.[13][56][58] In response, Dream called the investigation clickbait and claimed that it was flawed enough that some members of speedrun.com's moderation team threatened to quit over it. Speedrun.com moderator Geosquare denied the accusation, saying: "All moderators voted unanimously in our decision and no one is threatening to leave in protest", and "From everything we know[,] that [claim] is unsubstantiated or complete hyperbole."[13]
In a YouTube video, Dream maintained that the accusations of his cheating were untrue. In response to the report by speedrun.com, Dream commissioned a report by an anonymous statistician, who Dream claimed was an astrophysicist. They argued that the odds of a Minecraft speedrunner seeing luck comparable to Dream's was 1 in 10 million, instead of the speedrun.com team's 1 in 7.5 trillion.[e][19][59]Dot Esports said that the report did not exonerate him, and "at most" it suggested it was not impossible that he was lucky. The moderation team stood by their ruling and issued a rebuttal to Dream's report. In a Twitter post, Dream indicated that he would accept their decision without admitting fault.[56][57][59] On February 4, 2021, Matt Parker, a YouTube personality and recreational mathematician, published a 40-minute video on the controversy supporting the conclusions of the moderators, estimating the actual odds of being 1 in 20 sextillion (2 × 1022).[60][59]
On May 30, 2021, in a written statement, Dream stated that he had in fact been using a "disallowed modification" that altered item drop probabilities, although he maintained that the addition of the modification was unintentional. According to him, this discrepancy was a result of a change to a client mod written for his YouTube channel. In his statement, he said that the item modifications were changed by the developer of the mod, and said that he was unaware of the addition until February 2021.[61] After becoming aware of the addition, he deleted his video response to the speedrun.com moderators. Dream explained that he did not mention his discovery of the addition publicly back then because he "felt like the community had been through enough drama and that it was pointless." He also "didn't want to be the center of controversy for the hundredth time" and that he figured "it would be a story I would tell in a few years when no one really cared."[59]
In a 2021 interview with YouTuber Anthony Padilla, Dream said that he regretted his initial reaction to the cheating scandal, saying that "I handled the situation horribly. When it originally came out, my response was, You guys are idiots, blah blah blah." When asked by Padilla how he thought he should have handled the scandal, Dream said that "I should have shut off all my devices for a couple days and been like, OK, let me not react with emotion."[49]
Personal life
Having not revealed his face until 2022, Dream's real-life identity and many aspects of his personal life are unknown.[8] He is an American,[62] was born with the first name "Clay"[63][64] on August 12, 1999,[65] and, as of 2022, resides in Orlando, Florida, with fellow internet personalities GeorgeNotFound and Sapnap.[66] Dream has spoken publicly about his diagnosis with ADHD.[67] His anonymous avatar was inspired by a picture his former girlfriend posted on Discord.[49] He has a pet cat named Patches.[68]
On September 19, 2022, Dream stated that the next YouTube video he would upload would be him revealing his face to the public for the first time.[69][70][71] He revealed his face in said YouTube video, titled "hi, I'm Dream.", thirteen days later, on October 2, 2022.[72][64][73] Dream decided to do a face reveal because he wanted to meet up with friends, explore making new types of content, and do more work outside of his home.[49][74] He also said that he would post "more IRL content" but does not "plan on adding a face cam" to his Minecraft videos.[74] Dream's face reveal prompted both positive and negative comments online.[72] His face reveal video garnered over 21.9 million views and 2.5 million likes in less than a day.[74] As of May 2024,[update] the video has over 62.9 million views and over 4.6 million likes, making it the 13th-most-viewed video on Dream's YouTube channel.[75] Due to backlash, Dream deleted the face reveal video in June 2023.[76] As of September 2023, the video has been restored.[improper synthesis?]
According to Time magazine, "Dream's anonymity has been one of the most alluring aspects of his persona online and that intrigue, paired with his vibrant personality, have helped him build a loyal following across social media platforms." In a 2021 interview with YouTuber Anthony Padilla, Dream explained that although he never intended to remain anonymous, this aspect of his identity had become too important to his online persona for him to abandon at that time.[72]
^ ab
Views, broken down by channel:
3.07 billion (Dream)
276.77 million (DreamXD)
35.00 million (Dream Team Gaming)
234.67 million (Dream Shorts)
93.42 million (Dream Music)
4.91 million (Minecraft Manhunt)
4.54 million (Dream Tech)
^ ab
Subscribers, broken down by channel:
31.8 million (Dream)
4.41 million (DreamXD)
2.4 million (Dream Team Gaming)
1.97 million (Dream Shorts)
1.7 million (Dream Music)
872 thousand (Minecraft Manhunt)
365 thousand (Dream Tech)
^Followers, broken down by channel: 6.07 million (main channel) 942.51 thousand (dreamwastaken)
^Views, broken down by channel: 17.29 million (main channel) 1.71 million (dreamwastaken)
^The "1 in 7.5 trillion" figure was reported as the odds of encountering the exact outcomes if one were to replicate the run, whereas the "1 in 10 million" figure refers to the odds that any of the large number of active speedrunners might experience a situation of comparably low likelihood within a certain timeframe.
^ abCardona, Gonzalo (January 14, 2021). "Who is Dream? The story of Minecraft's unseen YouTuber". Ginx TV. Archived from the original on December 7, 2021. Retrieved July 20, 2021. Born on 12th August 1999 and residing in Orlando, Florida, Dream had always attempted to "peak" in two things: Minecraft and YouTube.
