Considered by critics as a mascot for the Minecraft intellectual property, his likeness has appeared in advertising and merchandise, including apparel and collectible items.

[5][6] He emphasized that Minecraft was designed to be an inclusive game where "gender doesn't exist" and that the character model was supposed to be a genderless human being.

[3] In October of the same year, seven default skins were added to Minecraft using the existing Steve and Alex character models to increase diversity within the game's community.

On the original console editions of the game, up to eight male variants of Steve were also offered, none of them female, in addition to a greater variety of characters that could be purchased from bundles.

[5][a] Like Steve, Alex initially could not be selected in these console versions, and the skin chosen is randomly assigned whenever players start a new game.

[21] Steve will appear in the film adaptation of the game, A Minecraft Movie (2025), wherein he will be portrayed in live-action by American actor Jack Black.

[23] Outside of the Minecraft series, Steve appears as a playable character in the PC version of Super Meat Boy, in which he is referred to as "Mr.

[26] Critics believe Steve has achieved a level of cultural impact and viral recognition outside of the character's origin as a baseline for new players of Minecraft.

[16][17] This is in spite of the fact that his existence is not asserted by way of an official backstory or in-game dialogue unlike most other video game characters.

[30] One theory alleged that Steve is based on Tommy Vercetti, the protagonist of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, due to the physical resemblance between the characters.

It relied on a 2009 Tumblr post by Persson about Minecraft's development progress, where he confirmed that he used designs inspired by the Grand Theft Auto games.

[31] In 2010, Herobrine, a creepypasta that is a derivative design of Steve with white, solid eyes, was created on 4chan, gaining prominence amongst the Minecraft community and becoming an internet meme, being featured in some official artwork for the game as well.

[34][35][36] Some commentators suggested that much of the excitement was due to the character's unprecedented inclusion into Ultimate; after the reveal, social media website Twitter struggled with posts generated in response.

[43] Ari Notis took a less favorable view and called him the strangest character he had ever played, describing the visual and gameplay dissonances he observed from the implementation of Steve in Ultimate.

[46][47] Players began advocating for Steve to be banned from tournaments, fearing the character's dominance could negatively affect viewership similarly to the influence Bayonetta had on Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

[2] Nevertheless, Bailey observed that Minecraft's player communities have embraced the game's openness due to their enthusiasm in customizing their avatars' appearances.