Behaviour Interactive

How many people play Dead by Daylight? — 2024 statistics

Surviving the night in Dead by Daylight's data-driven world.

Fact-checked
Release Date
June 14, 2016
Genre
Survival horror
Developer
Behaviour Interactive
Publisher
Behaviour Interactive

Whenever someone asks you for a video game recommendation, most people are going to expect answers like Call of Duty, League of Legends/Dota 2, or other games that fit into the mold of classic multiplayer experiences. While these choices are completely fine, sometimes you need a game that breaks away from the conventional mold of “multiplayer” and gives you something new to do. This is where Dead by Daylight comes in. The game was released in 2016, published by 505 and Deep Silver, and it is an isometric survival game where multiple players have to escape the map, all while they’re being hunted down by a killer, in a similar sense to old thriller/horror movies, Jason Vorhees and the like. The game is incredibly fun and we’re going to display some Dead by Daylight statistics and facts to see how the game has performed since it was released and just what makes it so popular in the gaming community. Games like this have a considerable impact on the growth of the video game industry.

Dead by Daylight key stats

Since Dead by Daylight is the only game in its universe, there is no need to divide the information we have on it into different sections, so everything is going to be in this “key” section so it’s all clear. The stats we have will be around the total number of players that the game has as well as revenue statistics and market performance. Aside from that, expect news posts about the game’s latest information, as well.

Dead by Daylight has over 50 million players.

(Source: VG Chartz, NoobFeed, Hardcore Gamer, VentureBeat, KitGuru)

  • The game has sold over 22 million units.
  • It had over 3 million units sold within its first year.
  • It reached 5 million units sold in 2018.
  • The 50 million mark was reached in 2022.

The best way to gauge how popular and successful a game is is to see how many copies it sold and what the sales trends look like at various points of its release. In the case of Dead by Daylight, the game does not have too many news postings about its total number of sales, which is why there is a discrepancy between the total number of players and sales. Nevertheless, 20+ million sales are excellent for any game, especially for a multiplayer game like Dead by Daylight.

Dead by Daylight has grossed over $239.7 million on Steam.

  • The game sold 18.5 million units on the platform.
  • The average playtime for players is 469.1 hours.
  • The median playtime is 221.1 hours.
  • 79.9% of the game’s reviews are positive.

It is mp exaggeration to say that Dead by Daylight has brought a ton of positive traffic to Steam as players love playing it and for it to be implemented in as smooth of a platform as Steam is is excellent.

Dead by Daylight’s peak player count on Steam was 105,052.

(Source: SteamCharts)

  • Since November 2022, the game has had an average of approximately 30,000 players per month.
  • The peaks for the same months have been between 40,000 and 60,000 players.
  • Its lowest player count was in March 2017 with 17,124 players.

Dead by Daylight was quite well-received on Steam and that is apparent when we look at the total number of players that are in the game at any given time. There have pretty much been no low points for Dead by Daylight when it comes to its average player count, which is constantly at a healthy 30K, and it increases as new content is added to the game.

2.6 million players explored The Archives of Dead by Daylight in 2019.

(Source: Dead by Daylight)

  • 433,266 rifts were completed.
  • 128.4 million tiers were unlocked.
  • 138.4 million challenges were completed.
  • 608.6 million auric cells were unlocked.
  • 923.6 million total rift fragments were earned.
  • 14 character stories were told.
  • Players spent 25,042 years completing challenges.
  • 50.6 million survivors were sacrificed.
  • 6.7 million survivors escaped.
  • 2.2 million generators were repaired.
  • 2.1 million totems were cleansed.
  • 312.9 million crows were spooked.

The next four lines of stats are concerned with some community milestones achieved by players in various years of the game’s lifetime. Years 5 and 6 have been the most successful by far, but The Archives have also seen a good deal of attention, with millions of players exploring them and finding out a myriad of secrets about the characters in the game.

Dead by Daylight players played 100 million+ matches in 2016.

(Source: Cision)

  • The game achieved over 3 million players in its first year.
  • 175 million survivors were sacrificed to the Entity.
  • 150 million survivors hid in closets.
  • 125 million survivors escaped.
  • 220 million survivors were saved from the hooks.
  • 420 million pallets were dropped.
  • Several billion crows were spooked.

2016 was a fantastic year for Dead by Daylight as it was its debut year and the popularity of the game was constantly ramping up as more and more players joined the game. The most notable statistic is the sheer number of pallets that were toppled in the wake of killers chasing survivors, aside from the tremendous number of crows that were spooked.

Dead by Daylight players spent 421.8 million hours playing the game in Year 5.

(Source: Comic Book)

  • 1.8 billion sacrifices were made.
  • 474.9 million kills were made by original killers.
  • 1.5 billion escapes were made.
  • 2.1 billion generators were repaired.
  • 611.4 million escapes were completed by original survivors.
  • Wraith, Huntress, and The Doctor were the most-played killers.
  • Claudette Morel, Meg Thomas, and Feng Min were the most-played survivors.
  • Barbecue & Chill, Hex: Ruin, and Hex: No One Escapes Death were the most popular killer perks.
  • Self-Care, Borrowed Time, and Dead Hand were the most popular survivor perks.

Compared to the game’s first year, Year 5 saw a considerable increase in the number of hours played as well as the total number of matches played, but especially in the number of generators repaired. People love light, who knew?

Dead by Daylight players spent 1 billion hours playing the game in Year 6.

(Source: Reddit)

  • 13 billion sacrifices were made.
  • 31.7 million end games collapsed.
  • 20.7 billion generators were repaired.
  • 1 billion Memento Moris were made.
  • 1.3 billion escapes were completed by original survivors.
  • Trapper, Wraith, and Huntress were the most-played killers.
  • Meg Thomas, Feng Min, and Claudette Morel were the most-played survivors.
  • Dead hand, Borrowed Time, and Self-Care were the most popular survivor perks.
  • Barbecue & Chill, Hex: Ruin, and Hex: No One Escapes Death were the most popular killer perks.

Year 6 was the most recent year in the perspective of the time of writing and has seen an absolutely massive number of hours played and a general increase in numbers across the board.

The Dead by Daylight esports scene has awarded $60,000 in tournament prize pools.

(Source: Esports Earnings)

  • The money was distributed across 9 tournaments.
  • All of the tournaments were held within the Twitch Rivals sphere.
  • The most successful Dead by Daylight player is Abby “Bittie”, who has won $2,525.
  • Six of the Twitch Rivals tournaments had prize pools of $7,500.

Believe it or not, Dead by Daylight also has an esports scene, although it’s nothing to write home about. Despite only generating $60,000, it has still been a great way for the Twitch community to get involved in the game, as watching your favorite Dead by Daylight play the game with real stakes is a much more thrilling experience than simply watching normal matches.

Dead by Daylight’s had 294.2 million hours watched on Twitch in 2021.

(Source: SullyGnome)

  • The game had 16.9 million broadcasting hours in the same year.
  • There were 33,590 viewers watching the game on average.
  • There were 1,936 channels streaming the game on average.
  • It had a viewer ratio of 17.4.
  • Its max viewer count was 257,714.
  • There were 568,420 broadcasters that streamed the game.

Now we come to Dead by Daylight and Twitch, where it established itself as one of the titans of the multiplayer genre, regularly maintaining a spot among the 20 most-watched titles across the entire platform. 7 years and over a billion hours watched later, the game has definitely left its print on the gaming industry.

Nicolas Cage is going to be added to Dead by Daylight.

(Source: Engadget)

  • The actor is appearing as a survivor.
  • No one was expecting this, but the community was delighted to hear it.
  • It might also mean that there could be a new killer added to the game with him, only time can tell.

This is perhaps the most unexpected and interesting bit of news surrounding the game that we could find, as no one was expecting the developers of Dead by Daylight to add Nicolas Cage, of all people, to the game. Nevertheless, there is no denying that Cage is a legendary actor and that whichever mode of content they choose to add with them, it is going to be for the best!

To sum up

This is the part where we find a rusty old utility closet to hide in while you absorb all of the information we’ve laid out! As we can see, Dead by Daylight has definitely established itself as one of the best multiplayer games of recent years and has taken Twitch by storm. The game is unique, fun, and exhilarating no matter who you choose to play it with, and we’re very glad to be able to present all of this information for you to enjoy! We sincerely hope that all of your questions have been answered and that you can go into your next game with more appreciation for the game.

Sources

  • “Dead by Daylight (All)”. VGChartz, 2019, https://www.vgchartz.com/game/228214/dead-by-daylight/
  • “Dead by Daylight surpasses 50 million players”. KitGuru, 2022, https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/mustafa-mahmoud/dead-by-daylight-surpasses-50-million-players/
  • “Dead by Daylight slashes its way to more than 3 million in sales”. GamesBeat, 2017, https://venturebeat.com/games/dead-by-daylight-slashes-its-way-to-more-than-3-million-in-sales/
  • “Dead by Daylight Surpasses Three Million in Sales, Special Edition Released in Asia”. Hardcore Gamer, 2017, https://hardcoregamer.com/news/dead-by-daylight-surpasses-three-million-in-sales-special-edition-released-in-asia/279671/
  • “Dead by Daylight Ninth Chapter Now Available, Reaches 5 Million Sales Worldwide”. NoobFeed, 2018, https://www.noobfeed.com/news/7287/dead-by-daylight-ninth-chapter-now-available-reaches-5-million-sales-worldwide
  • “Nicolas Cage is coming to ‘Dead by Daylight’”. Engadget, 2023, https://www.engadget.com/nicolas-cage-is-coming-to-dead-by-daylight-174623542.html
  • “Dead by Daylight”. SteamCharts, 2023, https://steamcharts.com/app/381210#All
  • “Dead by Daylight Reflects On One Year of The Archives”. Dead by Daylight, 2020, https://deadbydaylight.com/news/state-of-the-archives/
  • “DBD Infographic”. Cision, 2017, https://news.cision.com/starbreeze-ab/i/dbd-infographic,c2281153
  • “Dead by Daylight Stats Reveal Most Popular Killers, Survivors, and Perks”. ComicBook, 2021, https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/dead-by-daylight-stats-best-killers-survivors-perks/
  • “6 Years of DBD | Statistics”. Reddit, 2022, https://www.reddit.com/r/deadbydaylight/comments/vcc6si/6_years_of_dbd_statistics/
  • “Dead by Daylight”. Esports Earnings, 2020, https://www.esportsearnings.com/games/699-dead-by-daylight
  • “Abby “Bittie” – – Female Dead By Daylight Player”. EsportsEarnings, 2020, https://www.esportsearnings.com/players/85893-bittie-abby
  • “Dead by Daylight”. SullyGnome, 2021, https://sullygnome.com/game/Dead_by_Daylight/2021
  • “Dead by Daylight – Steam Stats”. VG Insights, 2023, https://vginsights.com/game/381210