Streamer Face Reveals That Majorly Backfired

There are many reasons why a streamer may want to hide their face from the public. Maybe they're self-conscious about their appearance, or maybe they enjoy the act of creating a fun persona that's outside of the norm. Whatever the reason, it all boils down to a desire for anonymity. While many content creators love to bask in the limelight and interact directly with fans, others enjoy keeping their private lives to themselves. In these cases, some streamers prefer to wear a mask or use an avatar in the place of hopping on camera for the world to see — but the mask doesn't always last forever.

In the world of faceless streaming, "face reveals" have become a major event for fans and detractors alike. When a performer has remained hidden for long enough, the public inevitably becomes extremely curious to learn what they really look like. Some streamers make a big show out of revealing their true face to the camera, while others accidentally let the facade slip in a moment of carelessness. While some of these dramatic reveals have been celebrated by the community, not all of them have gone well for the creators in the spotlight.

For Chinese streamer Your Highness Qiao Biluo, an accidental face reveal ended up causing her subscribers to leave in droves. According to a report from China's The Global Times (translation via BBC), the streamer was using a filter to cover her real face while streaming on Douyu. Qiao Biluo's fans begged her to drop the filter, to which she replied, "I can't show my face until I receive gifts worth 100,000 yuan ($11,950). After all, I'm a good-looking host." Over the course of this fateful stream, Your Highness Qiao Biluo — who boasted over 100,000 followers at this point — received several of the donations she asked for. Then everything went wrong.

It's still unclear exactly how this happened, but a glitch caused Qiao Biluo's filter to be removed from the screen, revealing she was much older and looked very little like her online persona. Unfortunately for Qiao Biluo, several fans immediately withdrew their donations and unsubscribed from her VIP channel, with some expressing that they felt tricked. The incident sparked debate among onlookers about beauty standards on the internet and whether or not Your Highness Qiao Biluo intended to con anyone out of their money. Her feelings about the incident are still unknown, as Qiao Biluo's channel was closed not long afterward.

Dizzy arrived on the scene as a prominent "Apex Legends" player who shot to fame almost overnight, becoming a sensation among fans of the then-new battle royale title. His skills in the game quickly led to him squadding up with big names like Shroud and Ninja, as well as joining esports org NRG as a star player in early 2019. He's also a prime example of how internet bullying can impact even the most promising pro gaming stars.

During his big face reveal stream, Dizzy appeared briefly with a mask on, joking that he'd tricked his viewers. He then dropped the mask to reveal his true face, and while many viewers filled the chat with kind remarks, there was also a flood of rude comments about his appearance. Some fans have speculated that this was the moment when Dizzy began to regret how big he'd become in the streaming arena. 

Whatever the case, Dizzy's streaming schedule severely decreased after this, cutting back from around 200 hours a month to closer to 50 hours. In late 2019, Dizzy retired from competitive "Apex Legends" and left NRG behind. He took an extended break from streaming in order to care for his mental health, which he's explained was strained further by the tragic death of Byron "Reckful" Bernstein in 2020. More recently, Dizzy has been more of a variety streamer, although his "Valorant" streams hold a special place in viewers' hearts. 

Dream's face reveal was such a long time coming that it became a recurring joke among his subscribers. The "Minecraft" streamer even leaned into the gag on multiple occasions, pretending to remove his iconic smiley face mask just to troll viewers. Despite the fun he had with these fake reveals, Dream continued to remain open to the idea of a legit reveal, telling Anthony Padilla in a lengthy interview that he hoped to eventually do meet-and-greets with his fans. Unfortunately, his real face reveal ended up being less of a triumphant moment than he'd hoped.

Dream first showed his face to some of his friends in the streaming community in late 2022, and their excited reactions only served to build hype for the main event. When he finally showed his face to the audience on camera, the backlash was immediate. Memes began circulating on social media, and the hurtful hashtag #HESUGLY quickly started trending. Dream did indeed enjoy a few in-person appearances with friends and dedicated fans, but it wasn't long before he masked up again. In a bizarre video parodying the public response to his unmasking, Dream revealed a new, more breathable mask that he intended to use for future appearances. He also planned to delete the original face reveal from his YouTube channel (not that there aren't hundreds of copies and reposts at this point), but does not seem to have done so as of this writing.