The Magic of Minecraft Manhunt

by Finn, Grade 7

Minecraft Manhunt. If you’ve ever watched Minecraft or even been on YouTube recently, one of these figures probably popped up in your Recommended or Trending. And it’s all by a familiar green MS paint profile picture YouTuber, Dream. So, why do these appear so often? And why are they so enjoyable? So that’s what I’ll be going over today: the magic of Minecraft Manhunt.

First off, you may be wondering: “What is Minecraft Manhunt?” Well, it’s a game mode where there’s a speedrunner (or speedrunners) who are trying to beat Minecraft as fast as possible, which means defeating the Ender Dragon, but they don’t know the world they’re playing on. Meanwhile, there’s a hunter (more oftenly hunters) trying to stop them from defeating the Ender Dragon by killing them, so the speedrunner(s) have to manage working their way to the End while also keeping some distance from the hunter(s). And that’s really about it. A simple concept.

Second, you may be wondering: “Why do I see them so often, and why do they have so many views?”. Well, Dream is a large channel, with over 10 million subscribers. His hunters are often his friends being GeorgeNotFound, Sapnap, BadBoyHalo, and Antfrost, who mostly have over a million subscribers on their own channels. And since they’re popular, and Dream is too, that leads to a lot of views instantly. Another factor is the execution. Both Dream and the hunters are considered to be very good at Minecraft, so you often watch to see who will outsmart each other in PVP knowledge, traps, or just knowing about the game. The third and final reason is the simplicity and accessibility. Manhunt is a very easy game to set up. You just need your friends, a server, some command blocks to make some compasses, and that’s about it. You can just play it like how Dream and his friends would. This also leads for other YouTubers than Dream recreating Manhunt, often with a twist like “Minecraft Manhunt but the Hunters have Bounties,” with more speedrunners, with more hunters, or just a recreation with their friends just having fun. Since it’s easy to recreate, watch, and understand, it’s a huge factor in the views.

Finally, you may be wondering: “What does this mean for the “magic”?” Well, the magic is in the simplicity. Manhunt is a concept anyone can understand within a few minutes, making it a sharable experience, which leads to its own fun and encouraging you to do something with the concept. It creates this loop-like effect where Dream uploads a Manhunt, you watch the Manhunt, you watch more Manhunts, you recreate it, you upload it to YouTube, someone watches your video and then looks for the original creator, and the cycle repeats itself.

And that’s about it. That’s Minecraft Manhunt. It proves that you don’t need an elaborate game for it to be enjoyable. You just need a simple concept and some friends, and you’ll have a blast.