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Dead by Daylight began with a recurring idea at Behaviour Interactive: let players be the horror villain. After exploring that premise in several prototypes, the studio found its defining hook in an uneven game of hide-and-seek—one powerful Killer pursuing a group of vulnerable Survivors. The game launched for PC on June 14, 2016, after years of concept work and technical iteration.
How did Dead by Daylight come about?
In a 2017 retrospective, Mathieu Cote, then Game Director at Behaviour Digital, recalled that the studio kept returning to the prospect of playing the antagonist: “Through all of our games, we kept coming back to the idea of playing as the bad guy.” The team considered different forms of horror, including a slasher and a haunting presence that could drive people insane. Cote said Behaviour made many prototypes, from board games to playable experiments.
At the time, Cote recalled, publishers doubted that horror games could find an audience. Behaviour tried a humorous take on the idea, which became Naughty Bear, but the studio continued pursuing its more unsettling concept. The 2017 account is a retrospective by one of the people involved, not a complete production history. Cote’s account of the game’s origins for Xbox Wire describes the creative thread that persisted across those experiments.
Why did hide-and-seek become the core mechanic?
The concept sharpened when Behaviour tested a simple asymmetry: one player as a threat, another as someone trying to escape. Cote recalled that the team put a piece of cardboard in front of a monitor so two players could not see each other’s screen while testing hide-and-seek. The crude setup helped expose the tension at the heart of the idea: one person searches, while the other tries to stay out of sight.
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- EXPAND YOUR GAMEPLAY – Take your Dead by Daylight board game further with 5 new Survivors and 5 terrifying Killers, each with unique abilities for fresh strategies and tension. Requires the base set to play.
- HORROR-THEMED STRATEGY – Escape or become the ultimate ghost killer game villain with new Perks and Powers that heighten suspense and excitement. Will you survive the night or fall to the darkness?
- DETAILED MINIATURES – Includes 10 hauntingly sculpted miniatures, bringing characters to life with eerie precision. A must-have for fans of horror board games, collectible art, and immersive tabletop play.
- MULTIPLE WAYS TO PLAY – Customize matches with new setup options, creating fresh scenarios for replayability. Whether you love betrayal, hidden movement, or outsmarting foes, this expansion enhances your Dead by Daylight experience.
- PERFECT FOR HORROR FANS – Great for teens, adults, and couples who love strategy, tabletop, or party games. A top pick for game nights, mystery lovers, and fans of monsters and survival horror.
That uneven contest became the game’s foundation. As Cote put it in 2017, “From that moment, we never let go of this core idea: a weak and vulnerable character running away from an unstoppable murder beast.” “Murder beast” is Cote’s colorful phrase; the game’s player roles became the Killer and the Survivors. The studio’s design did not depend on making the sides equal in power. It depended on making their goals and experiences different.
What changed as the team prototyped the game?
In an October 2016 interview, Technical Director Fadi Beyrouti and Creative Director Dave Richard said Behaviour had toyed with asymmetrical horror for a long time. Technology, risk, and other constraints had made earlier attempts impractical, so the idea was set aside and reshaped until the studio could pursue it with fewer compromises. Their account offers a window into selected design and technical decisions, rather than a dated chronology of every prototype. The Unreal Engine interview with Beyrouti and Richard discusses those choices.
Choosing Unreal Engine 4
The original prototype used another engine. Behaviour later chose Unreal Engine 4 for its multiplayer and networking support, animation system, modifiable source code, and regular updates. The developers said Blueprints helped speed development, while C++ provided a controlled framework that Blueprints could extend. These are the team’s stated reasons for the engine choice; they do not establish a complete account of the game’s software production.
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Lighting and environmental effects served both mood and tactics. The developers described balancing light in a procedurally generated game, where it could not simply be baked into fixed layouts. Vegetation and mist could make a location feel ominous while also giving Survivors places to hide or creating confusion for the Killer. They said balance work involved basic rules, metrics, testing, and analytics, with adjustments as players developed new tactics.
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- Play as 5 new resourceful Survivors with their own unique Perks!
- Play as 5 new Killers with horrifying Powers that defy logic to hunt your prey!
- Customize your experience with all-new Perks and set-up options!
- Bring the game to life with 10 hauntingly detailed miniature figurines!
When did Dead by Daylight launch, and what happened next?
Dead by Daylight launched on PC through Steam on June 14, 2016. In a June 21 announcement, publishing partner Starbreeze AB reported that the game had sold more than 270,000 units in its first week and held the top position on Steam’s sales charts. Those are Starbreeze’s contemporaneous figures, not independently audited sales data. Its announcement described the game as one Killer hunting four Survivors and identified Behaviour Digital as the developer. Starbreeze’s launch-week announcement also records the companies’ first publishing partnership.
Starbreeze CEO Bo Andersson Klint called the game spectator-friendly. Behaviour Interactive CEO Rémi Racine said Starbreeze believed in the studio’s vision and provided creative freedom and support. Both comments came from the companies involved in the partnership. Racine also said the team had been developing concepts around the theme for years, reinforcing the distinction between the game’s long gestation and its 2016 release.
How large has the game become?
Behaviour Interactive’s June 2026 tenth-anniversary announcement reports more than 70 million players since launch and more than six million new players in 2025. It also reports revenue growth of more than 50% over the prior twelve months. These are company-reported figures, not independent market measurements. “Players” should not be confused with copies sold.
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Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstallIn the same anniversary announcement, Racine recalled that the original sales forecast was around 300,000 copies. He said 30 people launched the game in 2016 and the project team had grown to nearly 500 by 2026. These retrospective figures and the first-week unit report measure different things: the 300,000 figure is a remembered forecast, while Starbreeze’s 270,000-plus figure was its report of first-week units sold. Behaviour Interactive’s 2026 anniversary announcement provides the company’s account of the game’s scale and growth.
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