A popular YouTuber has revealed for the first time what he looks like after eight years of creating videos while wearing a smiley face mask.
The American creator dubbed himself “Dream” and amassed more than 30.5 million subscribers by sharing clips of him playing Minecraft.
But in a video on Monday, “Dream” revealed his real name is Clay and took off his mask to reveal his face for the first time.
The 23-year-old said the move was to help him “go out into the world” and meet people face-to-face after years of anonymity online.
A popular Minecraft YouTuber has revealed what he looks like for the first time after spending eight years creating content online
Online gamer Clay, 23, who is known to his fans as Dream, wowed audiences when he posted a “face reveal” on his channel on Monday
He took to Twitter last night to share the exciting news, writing: “Will premiere my face reveal video on YouTube in about 2 hours.
“My next tweet will be a picture of me and my best friends finally getting together.”
The announcement garnered more than 572,700 likes and around 53,400 shares.
The simple reveal video titled “Hi, I’m Dream”. and only a little over five minutes – began with Dream sitting on a chair with his back to the camera.
The creator later took to social media to post snaps with George and fellow mincecrafter Nick, 21, known online as Sapnap
“The Dream Team collection is complete,” he wrote in a post on Instagram, where the online creator has 3.2 million followers
“That’s strange. Hello…” he began. “I don’t know how to do this. I feel like I’ve been waiting to figure out how to do it and I was like, “I’m just going to do it” and then I’m just sitting here like, “okay, well, what do I do”…
“Would I just like to rip off the plaster…”
The creator paused for a while, revealing he was “so nervous,” before shielding his face with his iconic mask and then finally getting it out of the way.
He admitted to feeling “uncomfortable” and then continued with an introduction.
He took to Twitter last night to share the exciting news, writing: “Will premiere my face reveal video on YouTube in about 2 hours
‘Hello, my name is Clay, also known as Dream online…’
Revealing his reasons for revealing his face, Dream said his best friend (and Minecraft YouTuber) George Davidson, 25 – who’s from the UK but is moving to the US – was a big motivator.
He admitted George was on his way when the video was filmed and the two would be meeting for the first time, although they have known each other and been friends since he was 11.
“My goal was just to do things,” he said. “Get out…meet creators, say hello to my friends, finally…just get out in the world, be a real creator, be a person.”
Dream had never shown his face before and clearly became synonymous with a giant face mask decorated with a smiley face (pictured last year).
Admitting that he’d felt “locked up” and had to deal with odd cases when it came to being digitally faceless, he was now looking forward to creating new content with friends and continuing to be a Minecraft creator .
Sharing his love for his fans, Dream concluded, “This channel is living proof that anyone can do anything… anyone can be under the mask. I don’t want my face reveal to distract from that fact.
“Dream could have been anyone from anywhere.”
Social media went wild when #dreamfacereveral was trending on Twitter and TikTok, and the creators then took to social media to react to the news.
Dream (pictured left and right with friends George and Nick) created his YouTube channel in 2014 and since then has been praised for its rapid growth, with almost every video being clicked by millions
Dream also FaceTimed influencers – including Addison Rae – who captured their reaction on camera, with many noting how beautiful they thought he was.
The creator later took to social media to post snaps with George and fellow mincecrafter Nick, 21, known online as Sapnap.
“The Dream Team collection is complete,” he wrote in a post on Instagram, where the online creator has 3.2 million followers.
Dream created his YouTube channel in 2014 and since then has been acclaimed for its rapid growth, getting millions of clicks on almost every video.
His face reveal currently has more than 14 million views with around 1.7 million likes.