What happened to Dream SMP? Reasons behind Minecraft server’s closure explored

The popular Minecraft survival server Dream SMP officially shut down today, bringing the three-year-old collaboration between the biggest content creators and streamers to an end. Here is Tubbo explaining how the server will be shutting down on today's stream:

"It's shutting down? Yeah, after, after this stream."

TommyInnit, Tubbo, Dream, and others streamed the game one last time today in the finale as they bid an emotional goodbye to arguably the most popular Minecraft web series of all time. But why did Dream SMP shut down? Here are the reasons explored.

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"I lost my vision": Dream explained how a loss of interest in Dream SMP was why a Season 2 was not probable

The Minecraft server was founded mainly by GeorgeNotFound and Dream back in May-April 2020. The server was in survival mode and had a star-studded roster of streamers and content creators who have collaborated over the years with their fictionalized avatars.

TommyInnit, Tubbo, Sapnap, Quackity, Technoblade, and Wilbur are just some of the big names associated with the series, which has a loosely overarching story with different groups of creators playing their parts. Friendships, betrayals, and all-out wars between factions have attracted hundreds of thousands of viewers to tune in to their favorite streamer's broadcasts through the years.

While Dream SMP burst into popularity during the pandemic, it had gradually gone cold with many big streamers going their separate ways over the last few months. Rumors about an impending shutdown gained prominence after the co-founder of the server, Dream, revealed that there probably won't be a Season 2 of the series on a Twitch stream from last month. He stated:

"I will be completely blunt, but I don't think there will be a Season 2."

The Twitch streamer mentioned how the original impetus to make a server was just so that he and his friends could goof around for the fans to see. However, gradually Dream SMP became so much more, with its iconic structures and story arcs that have become the stuff of Minecraft legend.

Dream also revealed that the plan for Season 2 was ready, but it didn't really materialize and he even ended up losing "vision":

"Everything was done, everything was ready, everything was coded. I have a whole document of all the new features, new plans. We came up with the initial story, etc, etc. And then, um, it just didn't happen. After some time passed, stuff was happening and there were the finales and stuff and it took longer than we expected and some stuff just didn't come through with the finale. Then I honestly, I lost my vision."

The untimely demise of Technoblade was also a factor:

"Our plan, unfortunately before Techno passed, was to do kind of a memory related thing in order to have new relationships and friends and stuff."

Erasing the "memory" of all the characters to facilitate a fresh start to Season 2 would have effectively erased Technoblade's legacy. He lamented:

"But then obviously that's something that Phil pointed out, after we had already thought about it was, 'Oh that kind of sucks because, you know, it'd be erasing stuff that Techno's done.'"

All in all, a combination of factors such as people going their separate ways, and the emergence of new servers such as Quackity's QSMP ultimately led to a decline in interest in Dream SMP. Furthermore, Dream losing the impetus meant it could not survive.

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For the last Dream SMP stream, members such as TommyInnit, GeorgeNotFound, Tubbo, and others gathered to kill the Ender Dragon for the 'Finale' before they bid farewell to the legendary server.