Dead by Daylight is an online asymmetric multiplayer survival horror video game developed and published by Canadian studio Behaviour Interactive. It is a one-versus-four game in which one player takes on the role of a Killer and the other four play as Survivors; the Killer's objective is to hunt and impale the Survivors on sacrificial hooks to appease a malevolent beast known as the Entity, which manifests both in physical form and spiritually, while the Survivors have to avoid being caught and power up the "exit gates" by working together to fix five separate generators. The game has featured crossovers with many different horror films, television series, and video games.
The game was originally released for Windows on Steam in 2016. It has since released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Google Stadia, Playstation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. An iOS and Android version of the game, developed by NetEase, was available from 2020 to 2025. Swedish studio Starbreeze Studios published the game on behalf of Behaviour Interactive from 2016 until 2018, when Behaviour bought the publishing rights. The game was initially released on Unreal Engine 4 until it upgraded to Unreal Engine 5 in 2024.
Dead by Daylight received mixed reviews upon release but was a commercial success; it has since attracted more than 70 million players and improved its ratings. Since its release, Dead by Daylight has received various spin-offs, including three video games, two comic book miniseries, a physical board game, and a film adaptation in development with Blumhouse Productions and Atomic Monster.
Gameplay
Dead by Daylight is an asymmetrical horror game where one player is the Killer and the other four are Survivors. Matches are referred to as trials. The Survivors' objective is to escape the trial by repairing five of seven generators scattered throughout the map, which will power up the two exit gates. The Killer must impale all Survivors on hooks before they escape, which will cause them to be sacrificed to a malevolent force known as the Entity. When only one Survivor remains, an escape hatch opens at a random location on the map; if the Killer closes the hatch or an exit gate is opened, the two-minute "Endgame Collapse" begins, with the timer being extended if there are any incapacitated or hooked Survivors. When the timer ends, any remaining Survivors are immediately sacrificed to the Entity.
When hunting Survivors, the Killer must capture them by either striking them with their weapon twice and picking them up off the ground while they are in the dying state (one strike injures Survivors and a second strike puts them into the dying state) or by grabbing them in one move by catching them unexpectedly while they interact with objects such as generators. Survivors can only be unhooked by other Survivors, unless they have a perk that allows them to unhook themselves. If they are hooked a second time, they enter a phase in which they must resist the Entity as it attempts to take them out of the game by performing skill checks until they are either sacrificed or rescued. If they are hooked a third time, they will be sacrificed to the Entity.
The Survivors' movement options consist of sprinting, walking, crouch-walking, or crawling if they are in the dying state. They must elude the Killer by breaking their line of sight in a chase, or by successfully hiding from them. Most Killers can move at a pace that is slightly faster than that of a sprinting Survivor, but are slower in other forms of movement, such as vaulting over obstacles and windows, which can buy Survivors time. Survivors can throw down wooden pallets placed at key locations on the map, and if the Killer is close enough to the pallet when the Survivor throws it down, they will be stunned for a brief moment. The Survivor can then vault over the downed pallet, but only some Killers can do so, with most of them being forced to either break the pallet or go around it to continue the pursuit. The Killer also has an aura-reading ability that constantly reveals the location of generators, hooks, and sometimes even Survivors. Every Killer has their own unique power that can be altered using add-ons obtained through gameplay. A significant amount of gameplay revolves around chases, with Survivors using their environment and wits to outmanoeuvre the Killer and escape them, whilst potentially buying time for their allies to complete objectives.
Survivors can unlock chests to find useful items or bring items at the start of the trial, such as maps that highlight the locations of objectives, keys that can be used for certain aura-reading abilities or to re-open a closed escape hatch, toolboxes for quicker generator repairs and sabotaging hooks, medical kits for quicker healing, and flashlights that can be used to blind the Killer temporarily; the latter, if the Killer is carrying a Survivor without certain perks equipped, will let the Survivor escape. All Killers have an innate "terror radius" that surrounds them, the size of which depends on the Killer, the state of their power, and what add-ons or perks they may have. Survivors inside the radius will hear or visually see a heartbeat, which increases in intensity with proximity to the Killer. They can also see a red light called the "red stain" emanating from the Killer onto the ground in front of them, which reveals the direction they are facing and helps the Survivors determine where the Killer is coming from or going. Some Killers and perks grant the ability to suppress their terror radius and red stain under certain conditions, enabling them to surprise unaware Survivors.
Objectives Survivor interactions with many objects in the game can trigger random skill checks. The player can either perform a good skill check which has no effect, a great skill check which speeds up the progression of the action the player is taking, or a failed skill check which may notify the Killer of the Survivor's location and cause a loss of progress. Great skill checks require more precision and may not always be possible depending on the type of interaction or the perks being used by either the Survivor or the Killer. Killers have the ability to damage a generator if there are no Survivors working on it, which will slightly regress its repair progress and cause it to continue regressing slowly until a Survivor resumes repairing it, and may trigger certain perks.
If the Killer catches a Survivor, the Killer can pick them up and carry them to one of many sacrificial hooks scattered throughout the map. While being carried, the Survivor can attempt to wiggle out of the Killer's grasp by successfully hitting consecutive skill checks before they reach the hook. When a Survivor is hooked, they gain a hook stage up to a maximum of three stages; when they are hooked for the first time, they can wait to be rescued or attempt to unhook themselves. If they are left too long or hooked again, they will progress to the second stage, during which they have to succeed at skill checks before another Survivor rescues them. If a Survivor is hooked a third time or left long enough to progress to the third stage, they are sacrificed and removed from the match.
Once five generators are repaired, the exit gates are powered, allowing Survivors to open the gates and escape from the match. The trial only ends when all Survivors have either escaped or died. Players who have escaped or died can spectate by cycling through the remaining Survivors' points of view or return to the main menu. If only one Survivor remains, repairing generators is typically time-consuming and not practical when compared to finding the escape hatch that will appear somewhere on the map. If the Survivor finds this hatch first, they may escape through it, but the Killer can close it if they find it first. If the Killer closes the hatch, the exit gates become powered as though the generators were completed, allowing the remaining Survivor a way to escape the trial.
Perks Survivors and Killers have the option to equip up to four perks each, which gives their characters special abilities; each specific character starts off with a set of three perks that are unique to them, and each perk has three tiers, with its power increasing up to the third tier. There are hundreds of perks and any combination of them can massively impact gameplay. Perks differ between Survivors and Killers; a Survivor perk may not be used by Killers and vice versa. Perks can grant Survivors powers such as the ability to take one extra hit without going down when injured, self-healing without a medkit at a reduced speed, briefly sabotaging sacrificial hooks without a toolbox, and more. On the other side, perks can prevent the Killer from being blinded, allow them to slow down a carried Survivor's efforts to escape their grasp, and block some generators for a short time.
There are a number of "general perks" that start unlocked for any character to learn. Perks, add-ons, and items can be unlocked through the Bloodweb, a skill tree where each character can spend in-game currency. Advancing to level 50 in a character's Bloodweb allows the player to "prestige" that particular character up to prestige 100. "Prestiging" resets the character back to level 1 of the next prestige level and unlocks the next tier of the character's unique perks for every other character the player owns. There are also special perks ("boons" for Survivors and "hexes" for Killers) which can alter gameplay when activated; hexes are either active from the start of the trial or activated by certain actions, and can be cleansed by Survivors, which deactivates them for the rest of the match. Boons do not activate until the Survivor blesses one of a handful of "totems" on the map, which a Killer can snuff out until a totem is blessed again.
Alternative game modes The game received its first alternative game modes in 2024. These modes retain the base gameplay, but make certain additions. They are added to the game on a rotating basis.
The first was "Lights Out" featuring darker map settings and removes the ability to equip perks or bring items. This mode was playable in February 2024, September 2024, and August 2026. The September 2024 iteration was Castlevania themed. The second mode, "My Little Oni", was added during April Fools' Day 2024 and featured normal gameplay with the killer being extremely large and survivors being minuscule. "Chaos Shuffle" is a mode which randomizes the perks equipped for all players. It was playable in May–June 2024, September–October 2024, January 2025, March 2025, April–May 2025, June 2025, January 2026, and July–August 2026. The January 2025 iteration was Dungeons & Dragons themed, while the June 2025 version was The Witcher themed.
The "2v8" game mode features larger maps, a new class system, and lobbies of 10 players total. The first iterations were playable from July to August 2024 and in November 2024. The game mode returned in February–March 2025 with a Resident Evil theme. The May 2025 iteration of 2v8 was GhostFace themed. The November 2025 version was themed around Silent Hill and Castlevania. The February-March 2026 iteration was themed around Chucky. The April–May 2026 iteration was Attack on Titan themed. Another iteration was playable in August 2026 and the September iteration was themed around Alien.
Setting Premise