As a player who started playing in 2021 with 3900 combined hours, I cannot recommend anyone to buy Dead by Daylight as of 5/4/26. 9/23/2026

9/23/2026 Small review update regarding the new MMR: The game is still ♥♥♥♥. The new MMR almost seems worse, with the exact same problems as the previous MMR system exacerbated. Still, the awful counter intuitive feedback loop for solo q players remains. Q into match -> get baby megs that just got the game and think its a survival horror SP game -> They all instantly go down somehow and trade all game -> you die because it is a TEAM game and you need a TEAM to win. -> Lose MMR because you cant get ♥♥♥♥ done and die -> back to step 1.. you cannot carry in this game if the killer has even a small brain because he will just leave you. You can only protect a teammate so much. you can give a sable endurance but you can't make their unknowable heathen minds understand that they need to take a hit for you y'know.
For SWF it's gonna be much better for you but you're just gonna encounter even more 4 slowdown blights/nurses/kanekis that play exactly the same and totally optimal every single game, so theres that I guess.
And for killer if you are high level, just expect the same 7 or 8 perks on every team without fail, And you will be fighting tooth and nail for even the prospect of a tie if you are playing a SWF. And you can just forget about it if you get some clock callout compy edator ace and lara squad it's wraps usually. Either that or the whole team falls apart and DCs/Gives up on their first down and call you slurs in end game chat.

GRIND
This game has ALOT of microtransactions - Most good perks are locked behind paywalls, and cosmetics are grossly overpriced if you are using the in-game currency. If you wanna be able to use a variety of perks you might as well fork up cash if you don't wanna spend a grillion years grinding (and losing because you don't have competitive perks).

The main issue with this game is the devs don't seem to care about balance or player complaints. Balance is an issue all around the board

Grievances
- The gap between strong killers and weak killers feels tremendous. Top killers remain on top and weak killers
remain weak. And to add insult to injury, almost all perks are better utilized by the better killers anyway.
- Collision sucks SO bad. You will feel it with alot of killer's powers. It is frustrating on both sides.
- Players who use comms in discord are the power role, not killers. And solo queue survivor is the most unfun and brutal experience ever. You can and will die often even if you play well, and bring 4 good perks. It is a team game and you heavily rely on your teammates. If they don't know what's going on, or are too scared to do anything, you basically just lose 85% of the time.
- The survivor perk meta is boring, predictable and largely has no counter play, if the survivors know what they are doing even remotely.
- On the other side of things, Killers are encouraged to play with multiple regression perks. And to slug, proxy camp, and use the 3 gen strat.. Very unfun, and boring for both sides.
(OLD MMR COMPLAINT BELOW)
- MMR sucks. I often find myself in low MMR purgatory, when i play survivor solo.
It's like: Get into match with newborn teammates --> Die, because teammates don't know how to play the game at all --> Lose MMR from that death --> Re-queue --> Get into match with newborn teammates. Repeat.
- Hex perks are just a huge gamble and are consistently not worth the valuable perk slot. Hexes need to be reworked entirely or buffed substantially.
- No new features, no innovation, The same events and game-modes with no meaningful changes from the last time we've seen them every time. Not to mention the queue times for killer can get up to like 25 minutes to find a game when 2v8 is out.

Also...

The community of this game is largely a blight on this earth. You cannot, and will not win with these people. It is extremely toxic and these rodents will ♥♥♥♥ talk you at length no matter what you do, or how you play. Survivors hate killers and killers hate survivors, and both sides are overpowered and favored by the devs according to the other.

+ new bugs are introduced with every single update without fail. They also consistently ignore the oldest, most well documented bugs and issues ever.

TLDR
The game sucks and nothing ever happens.

In conclusion
Boring and unchanging, strict meta. Toxic community. Awful killer balance. Awful map balance. Too much grind. Bugs O' plenty.
Just a crap-show of a modern live service game, truly. Yet I keep coming back. It is my most played game on Steam for a reason. It is because the core concept of the game is cool. The feeling of looping a killer for 5 gens is awesome. The feeling of getting a hard-fought 4k against all odds by outsmarting the survivors in a comeback is awesome. Greeding pallets is fun, Hiding your red-stain is a unique and fun mechanic. Mind-gaming and out-predicting your opponent is fun when you know how to. Perk build synergies can be fun. What i'm trying to say is, It is very possible to have a fun time on this game, as evident by mine and alot of other peoples playtime. The game is a diamond in the rough. A gem covered by a huge pile of elephant ♥♥♥♥. It's just about how much ♥♥♥♥ you are willing to dig through to have a good time at the end of the day.