Dead by Daylight has pulled its biggest Steam crowd in Gamers Now's recent evening readings, climbing to 164,364 players as Behaviour Interactive's Black Banquet anniversary event went live alongside a new Survivor.
In Gamers Now's 17:50 UTC reading of Steam's public most-played chart on June 25, Dead by Daylight ranked No. 18 with 164,364 players in-game. That was well above the same evening checkpoint on June 24, when the horror game had 88,055 players, and it also topped the 124,781-player reading Gamers Now tracked when Jason Voorhees arrived earlier this month.
The new spike lands at the next big point in Dead by Daylight's 10th anniversary run. Behaviour said in the game's 10.0.1 Steam update that the Black Banquet event would start on Thursday, June 25 at 11 AM Eastern, with event matches split into a Main Course and Dessert phase.
Black Banquet changes the anniversary event format
Black Banquet replaces the older Twisted Masquerade anniversary setup with a food-themed event built around gathering Morsels, using Dining Carts and adding effects through Banquet Tables. Behaviour's update says each Trial selects a Menu of the Day with three persistent effects: a global effect during the Main Course, a personal effect for Survivors dining on Morsels and a payoff effect for Survivors who place enough food on Banquet Tables.
Killers also get Poison during the event. Behaviour says they can throw it at Survivors or secretly poison objects, with the effect limiting Survivor sprinting while active. The three menu themes are Stuffed Trotters for speed, Creamy Pasta for pallets and invincibility and Baked Camembert for portals and invisibility.
The same update adds Shane Wiigwaas, an original Survivor released on June 25. Behaviour described him in its 10th anniversary recap as an Anishinaabe defense attorney and Dead by Daylight's first Indigenous Survivor. His perks are Wide Open Throttle, Lend a Hand and Cross-Examination, giving the patch a character hook as well as an event hook.
Dead by Daylight's anniversary run keeps building
Dead by Daylight was already busy before Black Banquet opened. Jason Voorhees joined the game on June 16, a Steam free-play window ran through June 22 and Behaviour used the anniversary broadcast to lay out future plans, including Art the Clown, The Casting of Frank Stone as a full Chapter, a 2027 visual overhaul and curated modding. Gamers Now previously covered the game's free Steam week, which put that trial period in the wider anniversary context.
The June 25 player count makes this more than a normal update note. Dead by Daylight's Steam rank did not need to move much to show the difference, because the game was already high on the chart during the Jason launch window. The sharper signal is the size of the PC audience around the Black Banquet start, which came in far above the previous several 17:50 UTC readings.
Dead by Daylight launched in 2016 and remains a paid four-versus-one horror game on Steam, with one Killer hunting four Survivors across Trials. Its anniversary month has now moved from a licensed Killer spike to an event and Survivor spike, giving PC players another reason to return before the next roadmap beats arrive.