Dream (YouTuber)

Clay (born August 12, 1999), known by his online alias Dream, is an American YouTuber, Twitch streamer and singer who is known primarily for creating Minecraft content.

He won first in both the 8th and 11th MC Championships.

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 Minecraft speedruns, 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, has also attracted considerable attention, acclaim and a popular fandom.

, his seven YouTube channels have collectively reached over million subscribers and over billion views, and his two Twitch channels have collectively gained million followers and million views.

Dream created his YouTube account on February 8, 2014, under the username DreamTraps and started to upload content regularly in July 2019.

The oldest accessible video on Dream's account involves him playing the game Minecraft poorly on purpose in order to "trigger" viewers.

As of December 2022, the video has amassed 18 million views.

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.

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.

The first video in the series, titled "Beating Minecraft But My Friend Tries to Stop Me", was published on December 26, 2019.

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.

YouTube awarded Dream the Streamy Award for Gaming in 2020, 2021, and 2023.

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.

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".

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.

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."

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."

Dream is a member of the "Dream Team", along with fellow YouTubers Sapnap and GeorgeNotFound.

The group frequently collaborate to create new content.

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."

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.

Many of the Minecraft Manhunt videos have received tens of millions of views, with one of them ranking sixth in YouTube's Top Trending Videos of 2020.

As of February 2022, the most-viewed in Dream's Minecraft Manhunt series has 108 million views.

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."

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."

Gonzalo Cardona, writing for Ginx TV, noted that Minecraft Manhunt had "inspired cult-like montages by fans."

Nathan Grayson, writing for Kotaku, said that Minecraft Manhunt had turned Dream "into a household name among Minecraft fans."

In April 2020, shortly after the release of Minecraft snapshot 20w17a, Dream and GeorgeNotFound created the Dream SMP, a private Survival Multiplayer (SMP) Minecraft server.

Over time, other prominent Minecraft content creators outside of the "Dream Team" have been invited to the server, including TommyInnit, Technoblade, and Wilbur Soot.

Throughout 2020, Dream was a prominent participant in MC Championship, a monthly Minecraft competition organized by Noxcrew.

In September 2020, during the 10th MC Championship, he played for charity and raised around $3,400.

The Dream SMP has become very well-known.

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.