Earlier this week he showed his millions of fans what his face looks like for the first time after years of being anonymous online.
And now popular American Minecraft YouTube Dream, who has amassed more than 30.9 million subscribers by sharing clips of him playing the game, has met his fans face-to-face for the first time.
Adoring supporters screamed in excitement as they saw the influencer, whose real name is Clay, in person at platform Twitch’s annual convention on Friday, Bloomberg reports; with many turned away due to capacity.
The 23-year-old expressed love for his fans at the San Diego event, and addressed the reaction to his viral face reveal after some trolls took to calling the creator ugly, after other influencers had described him as beautiful and handsome.
Online gamer Clay, 23, known to his fans as Dream, delighted audiences when he took to his channel to post a ‘face reveal’ on Monday
‘I got texted by so many friends of mine being like, “Are you OK?”,’ he said, according to the outlet.
‘I was like, well, yeah, when you have 30 million eyeballs on you, a million, two million people are going to be making jokes or mean or are not great people. When you take that big of a pool, there’s going to be a portion.’
At his panel – dubbed Dream & Friends: The Ultimate SMP Reunion – Dream also admitted he cried from overwhelming emotion after the reveal, and had his mother calm him down.
He said: ‘I went to my room and started bawling…I’d never felt this feeling before. Happiness but with overwhelming “Wow, this is real, this is my life”.’
Dream had never shown his face before, becoming distinctly synonymous with a huge face mask decorated with a smiley face (pictured last year)
The YouTuber revealed he had even hired a make-up artist for the momentous video.
Dream – who said he gave up a job at Apple Inc, and with $200,000 in savings – began to spend his days at the computer all day in an effort to build up his hugely successful channel, Bloomberg reports.
He also uncovered the lengths he went to keep his identity secret. Despite living in Orlando, Florida, the creator would go all the way to Georgia for a dentist appointment.
Dream’s face reveal has been seen by more than 37 million people, and currently has 3.6 million likes. In a video on Monday, Dream revealed his real name is Clay and took off his mask to show his face for the first time.
The 23-year-old said the move was designed to help him ‘get out in the world’ and start meeting people face-to-face after years of being anonymous online.
The popular Minecraft YouTuber has revealed what he looks like for the first time after eight years of creating content online
He had taken to Twitter to share the exciting news, writing: ‘Will be premiering my face reveal video on YouTube in around 2 hours.
‘My next tweet will be a picture of me and my best friends finally being together.’
The announcement amassed more than 644,900 likes and some 85,800 shares.
The simple reveal video – titled ‘hi, I’m Dream.’ and just a little longer than five minutes – started with Dream in a chair, with his back to the camera.
‘This is weird. Hello…,’ he began. ‘I don’t know how to do this. I feel like I was waiting to figure out how to do it and I was like, “I’ll just wing it” and then now I’m sitting here like “alright, well, what do I”…
‘Do I just like rip the Band-Aid off…’
The creator stalled for a little while, revealing that he was ‘so nervous’ before shielding his face with his iconic mask, and then finally moving it out the way.
He admitted to feeling ‘awkward’, and then continued with an introduction.
The creator later took to social media to post snaps with George and fellow Mincecraft creator Nick, 21, known online as Sapnap
‘The dream team collection is complete,’ he captioned in a post on Instagram, where the online creator has 3.2 million followers
‘Hi, my name is Clay, otherwise known as Dream online…’
Unveiling his reasons for the face reveal, Dream said that his best friend (and fellow Minecraft YouTuber) George Davidson, 25 – who is from the UK but is moving to the US – was a huge motivator.
He admitted that George was on his way over as the video was being filmed, and the pair were going to meet for the first time despite knowing each other and being friends since he was 11 years old.
‘My goal was just to start doing things,’ he said. ‘Get out… meet creators, say hi to my friends, finally… just get out in the world, be an actual creator, be a person.’
He earlier took to Twitter to share the exciting news, writing: ‘Will be premiering my face reveal video on YouTube in around 2 hours
Admitting he’d felt ‘bunkered up’ and had to deal with odd instances when it came to being digitally faceless, he was now looking forward to making new content with friends as well as 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 take away from that fact.
‘Dream could have been anyone from anywhere.’
Social media went wild with #dreamfacereveral trending on Twitter and TikTok, with creators then taking to social media to react to the news.
Dream (pictured left and right, with his friends George and Nick) created his YouTube channel in 2014, and has since been lauded for his quick growth, raking up millions of views on nearly every video
Dream also FaceTimed influencers – including Addison Rae – who captured their reaction on camera, with many remarking how beautiful they found him.
The creator later took to social media to post snaps with George and fellow Mincecraft creator Nick, 21, known online as Sapnap.
‘The dream team collection is complete,’ he captioned in a post on Instagram, where the online creator has 3.2 million followers.
Dream created his YouTube channel in 2014, and has since been lauded for his quick growth, raking up millions of views on nearly every video.
His face reveal currently has more than 14 million views, with some 1.7 million likes.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk