Would you believe it if someone told you that the best-selling video game of all time isn’t Super Mario Bros. or one of the thousands of Call of Duty titles, but a game about blocks?
Well, it wouldn’t matter if you believed it, because it’s true. As of 2026, Minecraft has sold more than 425 million copies, nearly doubling the sales of runner-up Grand Theft Auto V.
What started as the passion project of a single game designer exploded into a cultural juggernaut, encompassing Lego sets, endless merchandise, and a blockbuster movie that grossed nearly a billion dollars.
But Minecraft didn’t find such smashing success on its own. It had some help from an unexpected place: YouTubers.
Gaming has always been a popular genre on YouTube, but in the early 2010s, Minecraft took it to a whole new level (pun intended). To this day, millions upon millions of viewers tune in to watch content creators build incredible structures, delve into the world’s secrets, play challenges with friends, or even animate themselves in the game’s iconic blocky style.
And if those viewers watch EYstreem, they can get all that and more on a single channel.
Jordan Barclay, known online by his channel name EYstreem, has been posting videos about video games since he was 13. Over time, though, he’s transitioned to focus solely on Minecraft. He pranks his friends, attempts survival challenges, searches for secrets other players claim to have found, and much more.
With nearly 14 million subscribers and over 6 billion total views, EYstreem is proof that Minecraft is as popular as ever. And for anyone wondering how much content you can squeeze from a 15-year-old game about blocks, the answer is right there on his channel: a lot.
Barclay is a Christian, a fact he makes clear to anyone visiting his channel. The first line of his YouTube channel description says “When waves rise, You still them,” a quote from Psalm 89:9.
In some of Barclay’s videos, he recreates stories from the Bible in Minecraft, playing as characters like Esther and Moses and turning their stories into in-game challenges. In one video, for example, he builds Noah’s ark according to the description in Genesis 6 and brings two of every animal in the game onto the boat. It’s certainly no substitute for Scripture, but it’s a creative way to introduce younger Christians to biblical stories.
Minecraft is a sandbox game, which means that, as long as they have the resources and the imagination, players can build virtually anything they want. They can also play co-op with friends, encouraging teamwork and creativity — two common themes on the EYstreem channel. Barclay clearly has a vivid imagination, which he expresses by constructing huge structures and complex challenges. He also plays with a recurring cast of friends. They sometimes butt heads and act as enemies in the game, but it never goes beyond friendly competition.
While some of Barclay’s Bible videos are fun and educational, others go a bit farther than some may find comfortable. In one video titled “24 Hours to Save Jesus,” Barclay and his friends must complete challenges to prevent Jesus’ death, including surviving an interrogation from Roman guards and carrying a cross up a hill. The video ends with the message that it was actually necessary for Jesus to die so he could rise from the dead and bring salvation, but still, turning the crucifixion of Christ into a relay race isn’t exactly reverent.
In some of Barclay’s most popular videos, he investigates creepy Minecraft stories that players spread online. Some of these delve into the demonic. In one video, he creates a world using the seed number 666 to test if it will be cursed (Minecraft fact: each world is procedurally generated, and each has a unique code known as a seed number). At one point, he finds an upside-down cross and tells viewers that it represents evil.
Violence is kept to a minimum, as it’s not explicit in Minecraft. (When a player is hurt in the game, their avatar briefly turns red to indicate damage, and when they die they disappear into a cloud of pixels before respawning.) However, it’s possible to customize the game by adding your own features, and Barclay investigates whether Minecraft allows for the creation of pixelated blood and other mild gore. Some of his thumbnails also include images of Minecraft enemies that are edited to look more frightening.
Now, for the elephant in the room: If you haven’t guessed it already, the majority of EYstreem videos are staged, and as such Barclay seems to encounter creepy content that regular gamers wouldn’t see. No, it doesn’t rain blood in Minecraft (unless you download a fan-made texture pack, as Barclay clearly did), and no, you can’t stumble upon a secret cave haunted by dead children. This may be obvious to any adult with critical thinking skills, but it’s probably not so evident to a young Minecraft fan enticed by a flashy thumbnail.
Of course, there are more dangerous things for a child to believe in than pixelated blood rain. But lying to young viewers, especially about things many of them might find scary, is a big problem, no matter how innocent the lie.
Speaking of those young viewers, it’s worth noting that Barclay uses an editing style that’s popular among videos made for kids—hyper-fast cuts, flashing visuals, constant sound effects, and colorful subtitles slammed on the screen. It’s a strategy meant to keep kids engaged, showing them something new every few seconds to prevent them from scrolling away. It’s also both a product of and a contributor to a culture of constant stimulation.
Of course, Jordan Barclay is not responsible for the mental development of every kid who likes Minecraft, and only parents can decide what’s safe and healthy for their children to watch. But it’s important to know that EYstreem will do whatever’s necessary to keep someone watching—even if that means overstimulating young viewers to hold their attention for every second possible.
Minecraft is a goldmine (pun intended again) for YouTubers, as they can use the game’s features to build anything they’d like. A staircase to the sky made out of TNT? Easy. A recreation of ancient Rome, complete with a colosseum? Done. A fully functioning McDonald’s franchise? Step up to the counter.
Jordan Barclay, aka EYstreem, has gotten more than his fair share of gold from that mine, for better and for worse. His Christian values are expressed in videos that translate biblical stories into fun challenges. However, he handles some topics less reverently than others, which could be offensive for some viewers. He also adds elements to the game that range from creepy to demonic, and he doesn’t disclose to his viewers (mostly young kids) that they’re fake.
There’s a lot to love about a Minecraft YouTuber who uses his platform to share the Gospel in an engaging, kid-friendly way. But there’s a lot not to love about showing kids frightening content that wasn’t even in the game to begin with.
For the Minecraft players in the room, here’s a translation: the highs of EYstreem are like discovering diamond ore. The lows are like running right into a creeper.
Lauren Cook is serving as a 2021 summer intern for the Parenting and Youth department at Focus on the Family. She is studying film and screenwriting at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. You can get her talking for hours about anything from Star Wars to her family to how Inception was the best movie of the 2010s. But more than anything, she’s passionate about showing how every form of art in some way reflects the Gospel. Coffee is a close second.
