Why is Dead by Daylight actually so successful? We at MeinMMO want to analyze this and show how it came to “this point”.
That games improve over the years, attract more players than at launch, continuously evolve, and gain success is actually a rare thing. A few titles immediately come to mind, such as Minecraft or Warframe.
But Dead by Daylight is also part of this. More than 6 years after its release, the horror game is doing as well as ever. But how can that be, especially since the community is constantly tearing itself apart and both Survivors and Killers are always complaining that something isn’t functioning or that the other side is too strong?
There are a number of reasons for this – and “a lot of luck” is just one of them.
But first, let’s address the question of how the success of Dead by Daylight can actually be measured.
How successful is Dead by Daylight actually?
To measure success, we will refer only to the Steam numbers of Dead by Daylight, as we are well informed about them. However, Dead by Daylight is also available on all major consoles and mobile, meaning the Steam numbers do not speak for the total player base. Nevertheless, they are a good indicator for measuring success.
To put it simply: Dead by Daylight is damn alive.
On Steam, Dead by Daylight is consistently among the top 25 most played titles and occasionally even scratches the top 10.
The average concurrent player count fluctuates between 30,000 and 60,000 – it’s usually higher when a licensed Killer has been released and slightly lower when the last patch has been out for a while.
Dead by Daylight had its peak concurrent player count on Steam in June 2021 – with 105,052 players. This was during the release of the first “Resident Evil” chapter, which brought Nemesis as a Killer. Since then, the high points have fluctuated significantly. In April 2022, Dead by Daylight reached its lowest point in the last 2 years, with an average of 29,948 players and a peak of 47,960 players. A “low point” that is still extremely alive.
Currently, Dead by Daylight is significantly above these values again. In August 2022, there was an average of 39,075 concurrent players, with just over 70,000 at peak.
Despite all the criticism, it must be said: Dead by Daylight is successful and has become one of the few true long-runners that have managed to maintain themselves over the years while continually bringing back their player base.
In May 2022, the developers announced that the total player count across all platforms had surpassed the magical mark of 50 million.
No matter how you look at it: Dead by Daylight is a huge success.
Each license just makes the game stronger
Dead by Daylight has achieved what is comparatively rare in the video game industry: It has connected numerous major franchises.
Shortly after launch, it had already secured “Halloween” and Michael Myers along with Laurie Strode, marking the beginning of its triumph. Strong licenses like “Nightmare on Elm Street” with Freddy Krueger, or Bubba from “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” followed.
The list continued to grow longer and longer. Additional licenses from strong franchises:
- Ghost Face (“Scream”)
- Amanda Young (“SAW”)
- Demogorgon (“Stranger Things”)
- Pyramid Head (“Silent Hill”)
- Nemesis (“Resident Evil”)
- Pinhead (“Hellraiser”)
- The Onryo (“The Ring”)
- Albert Wesker (“Resident Evil”)
As a result, Dead by Daylight has increasingly grown into the only entity among horror games, the only game that unites classic and modern horror creatures. Dead by Daylight has become somewhat like the “Super Smash Bros.” of horror icons.
Each new license puts Dead by Daylight in an even better negotiating position to secure the next license. Because while DbD may have been the somewhat clunky hide-and-seek game with questionable game mechanics 8 years ago, it is now a pioneer and genre leader that has combined all horror icons.
In the past, license holders were very reluctant to let their beloved and iconic characters flow into other works – now it’s almost an honor. What does it mean when your major horror hero is not in Dead by Daylight?
Each license makes Dead by Daylight stronger and ensures that negotiations for the next license will go even better.
And each time Dead by Daylight secures a major name, it opens up a new target audience that previously only knew the associated films and can now fulfill the macabre dream of being part of a murderous hunt – whether as a Killer or Survivor.
However, even here, Dead by Daylight has made quite a blunder. After acquiring the strong “Stranger Things” license, the deal was reportedly only for a relatively short duration. Just two years after the introduction of Nancy Wheeler, Steve Harrington, and the Demogorgon, the characters had to be removed from the sale, as the licensing agreement with Netflix was not renewed. Those who own the characters can still use them – however, they are no longer accessible to new players.
The second Resident Evil Killer was the latest addition:
Dead by Daylight: Simply without competition
Dead by Daylight has another advantage: alarmingly little competition. While there are other asymmetrical horror games such as VHS or White Noise, they either couldn’t sustain themselves for long or have yet to attract as many players.
The biggest competitor, “Friday the 13th, the Game” seemed promising at first, but has completely vanished into oblivion and is effectively shut down due to a licensing drama where the original author asserted his rights.
But Dead by Daylight also benefited from the ashes of another game: Evolve.
Evolve was a major AAA title that brought the asymmetrical genre to the forefront for many players and sparked a hunger for more. The game unfortunately died a rather ignoble death and left many players with a sense of emptiness – a feeling that Dead by Daylight was at least able to partially satisfy.
Looking into the game’s subreddit, discussions pop up every few days about how players found their way to Dead by Daylight through Evolve and stayed there due to a lack of better alternatives.
Dead by Daylight is not perfect and has even made some significant blunders – and yet it is good enough to hold its ground and continue growing. At least until someone finally brings a better alternative. But the chance of that happening decreases the more licenses Dead by Daylight adds to its roster.
The gameplay through the years
Although the basic game principle of “1 Killer against 4 Survivors” has not changed, Dead by Daylight has undergone numerous adjustments and changes to gameplay over the years. Many mechanics that are now considered absolutely essential for the game simply did not exist or were in altered form back then.
In the past, Killers could not kick generators. Therefore, the Killer had no way to damage a generator. This led to a playstyle known as “99ing Gens” – the Survivors simply repaired all generators to 99% and then completed the final percentage simultaneously. The game for the Killer went from “I have 5 generators worth of time” to “The exit gates are open” in a snap.
There was no endgame collapse. When the first exit gate in Dead by Daylight is opened, a timer of 2 minutes begins, which extends to a maximum of 4 minutes if a Survivor is incapacitated (on the hook or on the ground). After this time expires, all remaining Survivors are automatically killed. Hard to imagine, but this mechanic did not exist at that time. This means Survivors could open exit gates and then troll the Killer forever, hiding somewhere on the map without any end to the game.
Bloodlust was completely absent. When Killers pursue a target for a long time, they become increasingly faster. This is a reward for Survivors who cannot shake the Killer off and is supposed to lead to otherwise “infinite” loops being decided in favor of the Killer. This mechanic did not exist back then, leading to the legendary “Infinites,” where Killers simply could not catch Survivors.
Today, it’s hard to imagine, but sabotaged hooks didn’t appear in Dead by Daylight back then. It was common for Survivors to start a match with 4 toolboxes and then sabotage all hooks on the map. The Killer had no choice but to take Survivors to the basement. If that was too far away, the Killer had to “slug” all Survivors, knocking them to the ground and waiting for them to bleed out. Not very exciting gameplay.
Equally incredible: back then, Dead by Daylight was still “Peer-to-Peer.” Killer players were effectively the host of a match, there were no dedicated servers. This led to such “funny” scenarios where the Killer could unplug their LAN cable from their PC, then knock down a Survivor, and plug the cable back in. If this took less than 15 seconds, the game would continue normally afterward. Unthinkable that it was so easy to cheat back then.
Along with all these major gameplay changes, there have also been times and patches where the game was in a miserable state. There was a now “legendary” time when Survivors could blind the Killer even during an animation and needed less than 0.5 seconds to do so. The result was that the Killer would be blinded yet again at the end of the animation and also stunned, freeing pinned Survivors. The same applied to pallets, which could simply be thrown down during the pickup animation, leading to a stun afterward.
Today, you have to time that moment much better. Because the stun or blind can only occur at the moment when the Killer regains control of the input – otherwise, the attempt fails.
Dead by Daylight has maximum streamability
Another factor that tends to be underestimated is the fact that Dead by Daylight is simply the nearly perfect game for streamers. Because the fundamental principle of “4 Survivors trying to escape and 1 Killer trying to kill everyone” is intuitive and understood by everyone after just a few seconds.
Whether sharing the perspective of a hiding Survivor or that of the dastardly Killer, following a match is exciting. You’re on the edge of your seat, and as soon as the heartbeat indicates the proximity of the Killer, you’re right in the action.
Few games are likely to be as intuitive as “tag and hide,” allowing everyone to immediately engage with the gameplay shown while gradually diving into the technical details such as perks or Killer abilities.
Dead by Daylight is extremely easy to understand in its basic form and still offers much tactical depth through small adjustments to perks.
It’s actually surprising that Dead by Daylight has virtually no eSports aspirations and tournaments are mainly held by the community with clear restrictions and challenges.
Dead by Daylight will not disappear
Even though it has become good form in the forums and on the Dead by Daylight subreddit to label the developers as incompetent and to describe the game as “dying” every few weeks – none of this could be further from the truth.
Dead by Daylight is growing, and whether it has already reached its peak is questionable. Because at least in recent months, the developers have made several large changes, such as drastically reducing the grind – even if it first took a big blunder where they “accidentally” made the necessary grind significantly worse.
Dead by Daylight is a success story – one in which luck plays a significant role. But also competent streamers and a passionate fan community have allowed the game to grow much larger than ever planned.
And the developers share this passion – because what other developer would release a dating game parody of a horror title?
