Is Herobrine Really in Minecraft?

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Plus, the history of the Herobrine myth

Co-authored by Zac Churchill and Amy Bobinger, BA

Last Updated: December 9, 2025 Fact Checked

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• Is Herobrine real?
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• Herobrine Origins
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• Spread of the Myth
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• Fact-Checking
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• Do people really believe in Herobrine?
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• Video

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Herobrine is one of the most enduring legends in the Minecraft community. This entity is said to look like the default player skin (known as Steve), but with glowing white eyes. He haunts single-player servers, chasing characters and causing strange in-game anomalies. We’re taking a deep dive to find out whether Herobrine is real and how the myth got started.

Is Herobrine real?

Herobrine is a fictional character created by Minecraft fans. Despite rumors, he is not written into the source code, nor is he developer Notch’s deceased brother. Early sightings may have been a graphical glitch, but the majority of pictures and videos are either edited or the result of modded versions of Minecraft.

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Section 1 of 5:

Is Herobrine from Minecraft real?

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1. 
   No, Herobrine is a myth created by the Minecraft community. Although there have been posts and videos claiming that Herobrine mysteriously appeared on players’ single-person servers, there’s no credible evidence that he actually exists. Videos that appear to show Herobrine are typically either photoshopped, made with a mod, or have another player wearing a Herobrine skin.

   • Herobrine originated from a creepypasta, or a fictional scary story, originally posted on the online website 4chan. Since then, posts about Herobrine have circulated on Minecraft forums and wikis, and videos have been widely shared on platforms like YouTube and TikTok.
   • Although they’ve denied his existence, Minecraft developers helped fuel the rumors about Herobrine by posting “Herobrine removed” in the update change logs.
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Section 2 of 5:

Herobrine’s First Sightings: The Legend’s Origins

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   Rumors started circulating in July 2010 about an entity with white eyes. On July 31, 2010, user @iamahedgehog posted a creepypasta titled “13.ogg a work of fiction” to the Minecraft Forum, where a player was stalked by an entity called “Him.” In the 5th chapter of the story, the author revealed “Him” to be Herobrine.

   • “13.ogg” is the name of an eerie sound file that plays when a user puts Disk 13 on a jukebox in Minecraft. Disk 13 and newly-added cave ambience sounds added an unsettling element to Minecraft, which may have contributed to a rise in creepypastas around this time.
   • On the same day that @iamahedgehog posted the first chapter of their story, user @Flaky posted a story in the comments that they copied from an anonymous user on the 4chan board /v/. In this story, the character witnesses a series of creepy events after listening to Disk 13, including having their torches disappear, hearing odd whispers, and seeing white eyes lurking in a dark cave.
   • The following day (August 1, 2010), Minecraft Forum user @Endorphine posted a thread titled “I cannot take it anymore,” saying they felt scared by the rumors and screenshots they’ve been seeing of the entity with white eyes. The post was accompanied by a video featuring the music from Disk 13—complete with two glowing eyes on the bottom left of the screen. In the comments on this thread, the entity was dubbed “White Eyes” and was referred to as a female, but stories like this would soon evolve into the Herobrine legend.
   • On August 24, 2010, user @Goatie posted a story called “Horror in minecraft” to the Minecraft Forum, where they described being attacked on a single-player server by an entity that looked like the “default player model” (Steve) with white eyes.
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   The first screenshot of Herobrine appeared in late August 2010. In a post that originally appeared on 4chan, a user claimed to have been chased by an entity that looked like Steve with white eyes. They included a screenshot with the post—a picture of a small hill with a chicken in the foreground and Herobrine standing in the distant fog.

   • The user also reported other strange occurrences that would become central to the Herobrine lore, like seeing pyramids made of sand, crosses, 2x2 tunnels, and trees with no leaves.
   • In this story, the user also claimed that Herobrine was the dead brother of Minecraft developer Notch. The user said that they had emailed Notch, who had confirmed that he had a brother who had died. This led to the persistent rumors that Herobrine was a ghost in the game.
   • The user also claimed that their original post was deleted each time they tried posting it, and that they were messaged from a user with the name “Herobrine” that said “Stop.” Other users claimed to have received similar messages.
   • The original 4chan post is no longer available, but the story and screenshot were added to the Minecraft Forum in the comments of the post about the Brostream livestream (discussed below) by user @TheCameraWorks.
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   On August 30, 2010, a streamer claimed to spot Herobrine on a livestream. While playing Minecraft on the Brocraft livestream, streamer Copeland supposedly came face-to-face with Herobrine. As he moved from one room to another, he saw Herobrine standing in front of him. Copeland backed away quickly and exited the stream, leaving viewers freaked out that they’d witnessed a real-world sighting of Herobrine.

   • Viewers in the Minecraft Forum quickly pointed out that Herobrine appeared to be a painting on the wall. It’s now widely accepted that Copeland used a retextured painting, and his Herobrine sighting was a hoax.
   • The original livestream was deleted, but it’s been re-uploaded to the Internet Archive.
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Section 3 of 5:

Spread of the Herobrine Myth

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   Forum posts and creepypastas helped spread rumors about Herobrine. By mid-August 2010, the “White Eyes” entity had been named Herobrine, and after the 4chan screenshot and Copeland’s livestream, the Herobrine myth exploded. The internet was flooded with user-created screenshots, videos, and drawings of Herobrine.

   • The idea that Herobrine was a ghost, rather than a hostile mob, made the legend especially persistent.
   • Rumors also spread that Herobrine was a fired Mojang employee who had hacked the game and was stalking players out of spite.
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   The release of a Herobrine mod led to an influx of new videos. On December 10, 2010, the first Herobrine mod was released. This mod allowed you to summon Herobrine by building a shrine out of gold blocks and netherrack. This version of Herobrine would follow players, attempting to trap them. This led to a ton of new videos where players claimed to encounter Herobrine.

   • In July 2011, Minecraft Forum user @burnner_ posted a new Herobrine mod that would become even more popular. This version of Herobrine was more powerful and aggressive, having the ability to possess animals and spawn undead mobs.
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   The devs played into the Herobrine story, helping fuel the myth. Even though the developers at Minecraft have always denied that Herobrine was real, they did feed the lore, likely enjoying the extra attention it brought to the game. For instance, the day after Copeland’s livestream, Notch was asked about Herobrine at MineCon. In this video from the event, he can be heard responding, “It’s just a hoax, unfortunately—or is it?”

   • The same day, in response to a tweet about Herobrine, Notch replied, “It’s not real. =) But it might be soon!” (Later, he seemed to retract this, tweeting on October 19, 2010, “i have no plans of adding herobrine.”
   • Notch has jokingly referred to Herobrine other times as well, including a Reddit comment in 2011 where he said Herobrine “means well” and is “looking out for you,” and another one where he said that Herobrine “gains spooky vengeance haunting power whenever you remind me of him.”
   • Every Minecraft update changelog from version Beta 1.6.6 through Java Edition 1.21.9 included the entry “Removed Herobrine” (as a joke).
   • Mojang has included Herobrine in official marketing materials, including Minecon trailers, the instructions for Minecraft LEGO sets, and on the cover photo of Minecraft’s official Facebook page in 2012.
   • Even the creators of the 2025 Minecraft Movie got in on the Herobrine fun, briefly showing the character Steve (played by Jack Black) with white, glowing eyes.
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Section 4 of 5:

Fact-Checking the Herobrine Myth

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   The developers have officially stated that Herobrine is not real. Herobrine does not exist in “vanilla Minecraft” (official versions of Minecraft that haven’t been altered with mods). And despite his jokes about it, Notch has been very clear that Herobrine isn’t real. For instance, on May 26, 2012, he tweeted, “I don’t have a dead brother, and he never was in the game. Not real. Never was.”

   • The developers have outright stated that the “Removed Herobrine” changelogs are just a joke, as well. For instance, in January 2016, developer Searge tweeted, “We didn’t really remove Herobrine, because Herobrine doesn’t exist.”
   • There are also no plans to add Herobrine in the future. In a tweet from August 22, 2012, another developer, @Dinnerbone, stated firmly: “We have no plans at all to add herobrine. I doubt this will ever change.”
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   There is no code for Herobrine in the game. Minecraft enthusiasts seeking to discover the truth about Herobrine have pored over Minecraft’s source code, and what they found confirmed what the developers have already stated—there’s no code for an entity like Herobrine anywhere in the game.

   • The first sightings of Herobrine could have been the result of a rendering glitch that made a character’s eyes appear to glow white. However, it’s just as likely that these stories were fiction and the images were faked, just like the Copeland stream.
   • Although there’s no code in vanilla Minecraft, you can put Herobrine into the game using mods.
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Section 5 of 5:

Do people really believe in Herobrine?

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1. 
   Some people might, but most people know it’s a hoax. People who are new to the story of Herobrine often find it believable. After all, there seems to be a lot of evidence out there showing the creepy Minecraft entity. But most people who’ve been playing Minecraft for a while know that the videos of Herobrine are probably faked using mods or Photoshop, and that the stories about him are just creepypastas.

   • That said, there are a handful of veteran Minecraft players who still claim to have seen things they can’t quite explain—so who’s to say?

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