Is Dead by Daylight fun? It depends. Dead by Daylight scores 5/10 for fun. The chase is thrilling from your first match, but solo queue, toxic lobbies and a long unlock grind wear it down fast.
Where this score comes from: Steam player reviews, last checked against the 200 most recent English reviews in October 2026. Dead by Daylight on Steam
Four survivors repair generators and try to escape. One killer hunts them down. Matches run 10 to 20 minutes, and the idea clicks in seconds. The hard part is everything around the match.
Sometimes, and it depends on who you are. Players under 20 hours are mostly having a good time: fast matchmaking, short rounds, real panic when the killer finds you. Longer-term players paint a darker picture of tunneling, camping, balance swings every patch and a community that sends hate messages after a loss. A new player gets the fun early, then runs into all of that.
The chase. Running a killer around a pallet loop with your pulse up is a great feeling, and it needs no setup at all. Rounds are short enough that you can play one on a break. The roster mixes original monsters with licensed horror icons. And the pull to queue again is strong: plenty of reviewers say they hate the game, then admit they just started another match.
Other players. Toxicity is the top complaint by a wide margin. Survivors teabag at the exit gate, killers tunnel one person out of the match, and strangers message you about how bad you are. Matchmaking adds to it: people with a couple hundred hours describe facing squads with thousands.
The learning curve. Players who stuck with it say you will lose a lot at first and that watching experienced players on YouTube is the real tutorial. There are hundreds of perks, and the onboarding barely explains them.
Grind and paid content. Many of the best perks sit on DLC characters, and earning them with in-game currency takes weeks. Server drops also trigger leave penalties, so some new players get banned for a crash they didn’t cause.
Solo: Rough. Solo survivors depend on random teammates who may ignore generators or leave early, and long-time solo players call it miserable. Killer queues can pass ten minutes, and 2v8 often takes far longer.
With friends: Much better. A full group on voice chat turns the panic into comedy, and private matches with friends are where players report the most fun. The rotating 2v8 mode is a favorite with groups.
With a regular group and a thick skin, yes, it is worth a try. Alone, expect to spend more time angry than scared. It lands in the same spot as Marvel Rivals: a fun core that depends on who you queue with.
For comparison, we rated Team Fortress 2 9/10 and Destiny 2 4/10 on the same fun-only scale.
See where it lands in the most overrated games.
Dead by Daylight scores 5/10 on immediate fun. The chase is a blast from match one. Then toxic lobbies, solo queue and a slow perk grind wear it down.
Toxic solo queue. Perks behind grind.
One question: did it deliver immediate fun? Graphics, story depth, difficulty and critical acclaim are ignored. Pick-up-and-play accessibility is rewarded; anything that makes you wait for the fun to start is penalized.
How we score: We don't care about graphics, story depth, or critical acclaim. One question — did it deliver immediate fun? We reward pick-up-and-play accessibility and penalize anything that makes you wait for the fun to start.