Ten years in and Dead by Daylight shows absolutely no signs of slowing down. At GDC 2026, Behaviour Interactive’s senior creative director Dave Richard and head of partnerships Mathieu Cote sat down with PC Gamer to reflect on a decade of the asymmetrical horror multiplayer game and, more importantly, what comes next. When asked if they had planned another ten years, both responded in unison: “At least!” followed by laughter. Here is everything they revealed and what it means for the future of the game.
Dead by Daylight’s 10th Anniversary: What Is Confirmed
Dead by Daylight launches its 10th anniversary in June 2026, marking a remarkable milestone for a game that was never originally designed to be a live service title. Behaviour Interactive has confirmed a physical celebration event in Montreal to mark the occasion, where the studio plans to drop a range of surprises for the community.
However, the developers are keeping specific anniversary content under wraps for now. Richard joked during the interview: “Oh, there’s this one killer that does the thing. It’s really cool, that’s a great headline. The guy with the thing is coming to DBD, breaking news!” No further specifics on anniversary content have been confirmed yet, and the full reveal is expected at the physical event itself.
Why Dead by Daylight Was Never Meant to Be a Live Service Game
One of the most revealing parts of the GDC interview was how openly both developers discussed the accidental nature of Dead by Daylight’s success. Cote explained that the game was never built with live service intentions from the start:
“We just made a game ready to walk away. But it worked, and people wanted more, and so we gave them more, and we kept at it, and we kept at it, and we built on it.”
The original plan after launch was to release the game and return to Behaviour’s everyday business of making games for other studios. That plan changed within the first few days of release. As Cote put it:
“Literally within the first few days we realized no, no, we have to stick at this. We can’t dismantle the team and move on.”
Notably, the in-game store did not arrive until year three of the game’s life, and the battle pass did not launch until year four, giving the game an unusual amount of time to grow organically before monetisation systems were introduced.
How Dead by Daylight Survived a Decade
Both developers credited a combination of timing, format, and community for the game’s longevity. Richard described it directly:
“We managed to get into that niche and we were the first one there successful enough. Now we’ve built kind of a legacy. So yeah, absolutely there to stay forever.”
Cote added an interesting statistic to support the broader point about long-running games:
“One of the stats I was reading lately is that probably something like 40 to 50% of the hours spent gaming are spent on games that are four plus years old. If people play the games that they like that they’ve been sharing with their friends for years, that’s what they do. We’re lucky that we’re one of those.”
At the time of the interview, approximately 50,000 players were active on Steam alone, and the game remains available across PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch.
Will There Be a Dead by Daylight 2?
The developers have confirmed that Dead by Daylight 2 is not happening. The reasoning is clear: a sequel would require renegotiating every licensed IP currently in the game, a process that would inevitably result in losing some of the most popular collaborations. All of a player’s existing cosmetics, DLC, and progression would not carry over either, which the team considers unacceptable for the existing community.
The studio’s position is that continuing to improve and expand the existing game is the right approach, rather than starting from scratch with a new title.
Dead by Daylight Today: Key Stats and Platform Availability
| Detail | Info |
| Original Release Date | June 2016 |
| 10th Anniversary | June 2026 |
| Current Active Players (Steam) | Approximately 50,000 at time of writing |
| Platforms | PC (Steam), PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch |
| In-Game Store Launch | Year 3 (2019) |
| Battle Pass Launch | Year 4 (2020) |
| Developer | Behaviour Interactive |
| Future Plans | At least 10 more years confirmed; anniversary event in Montreal |
What the Next 10 Years Could Look Like
Cote and Richard confirmed that the anniversary presentation in Montreal will include details on what the next decade holds for Dead by Daylight, but neither gave specifics during the GDC interview. What is clear from the conversation is that the team views the game as a permanent fixture rather than a project with an end date.
Richard summed up the studio’s mentality plainly: “We arrived with the right format at the right moment, with the right people, with the right collaborator, and then with the right players and community. And then a whole heaping pile of luck on top of that.”
For long-time players and fans of the horror genre, the message from Behaviour Interactive at GDC 2026 is straightforward: Dead by Daylight is not going anywhere, and the next chapter is just getting started.
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