Minecraft is a game where you can create your own world. A blocky, but wonderful game with its own creatures and your ability to interact with the environment. During its ten years of existence, it has grown a community. Whether you are a veteran player or a rookie, you may have heard of this name: Herobrine. Once a popular name buzzing around the community, now rarely ever mentioned. Though, his story lives on through fan-made content. How did he get such infamy? To find out, we must go back to where it all began.
August 10, was the first reported sighting of Herobrine. The player posted the experience on 4Chan, it has been long deleted but you can find it anywhere on the internet. He said that it was a person with a similar default skin, but with pale, white eyes. It was said that he dug perfect 2×2 tunnels and removed all the leaves off the trees in the area. The original poster of the first spotting of Herobrine contacted Notch, the creator of Minecraft about this mystery player. Rumors at the time said it was the creator’s dead brother, but this is completely fake. Notch never has had a brother in the first place. Others said that this was the work of an ex-employee for Minecraft, but there is no evidence to support this claim.
There was a streamer who went by the name of Copeland, he wanted to influence the Herobrine story. He staged a situation to appear as if Herobrine was in his Minecraft world. In the beginning, it was very well received. Until one day he slipped up and word spread that the sightings he was recording were nothing but shams. Of course many people who were invested in the story were highly disappointed. During this time, Mojang Studios (the video game developers of Minecraft) were receiving tons of inquiries about Herobrine. Notch and other well known Mojang Studios workers responded to them through Twitter. Many, if not all, of their responses have been deleted. If you are interested, they have been archived in the Minecraft Wiki. In short, they all have denied his existence. Some state that they enjoy watching the Minecraft community coming up with all sorts of ideas about Herobrine. All of which will never be canon.
Ever since Herobrine’s boom, his recognition has been declining. Normal, for anything popular. He is now considered to be a “creepypasta ”, a character of internet horror. In the same category with Slenderman and Rainbow Factory. Believe it or not, there have been great stories surrounding Herobrine. Many of which include headcanons that, throughout time, have become a norm in the community: being the god/ruler of the Nether, controlling mobs, and griefing/disturbing the player. The last headcanon is based on how scandalous players back in the early days of Minecraft played. These are the most common ones, you can find more floating around on the internet. Mojang has descretedly added Herobrine, only in art. For example, the famous Mincraft version of the renowned painting, “Summer Picnic”. If you look closely to the background, you will see Herobrine sitting under a tree. They most likely do this to mess around with the fans.
Now to the part you came here for, is he real or fake? Based on research, everything I’ve found has pointed to a middle ground. Maybe. With most of them leaning towards a no. The workers in Mojang and Notch himself also state that Herobrine never existed in the first place. It is safe to say that Herobrine is simply a legend. The early days of the internet (including Minecraft) were quite questionable. Perhaps this was a real experience that got a little bit too much attention. On the other hand, it could have been a joke from the start and got out of hand. At the end of the day, it seems that he won’t be forgotten by the Minecraft community soon. There have been many videos made researching this exact topic. To this day there is a growing amount of admiration of what happened behind the scenes of Herobrine.
Aurora Barraza
Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart – DMSF Class of 2026
Image by Philippe Oliveira