Dead by Daylight has pulled one of its biggest Steam crowds of the month as Jason Voorhees officially enters The Fog. In Gamers Now's 17:50 UTC reading of Steam's public most-played chart on June 16, Behaviour Interactive's horror game ranked No. 18 with 124,781 players in-game.
That is a sharp lift from the same evening checkpoint across the previous several days. Dead by Daylight had 83,872 players at 17:50 UTC on Monday, 95,788 on Sunday, 73,339 on Saturday and 65,756 on Friday. The rank has held steady, but the audience behind it changed substantially as the long-requested Friday the 13th crossover moved from preview build to live release.
The live-game hook is clear. Behaviour's 10.0.0 patch notes on Steam list Jason as the new Killer, using the in-game title The Slasher, and add a batch of power, perk, accessibility and bug-fix changes alongside him.
Jason gives Dead by Daylight a major anniversary draw
Jason's arrival follows Dead by Daylight's 10th anniversary weekend, which already put the game back in front of horror fans with a broadcast, roadmap reveals and future crossover news. Gamers Now covered the earlier breakdown of Jason's Killer powers when Behaviour detailed how he would play ahead of release.
Now the chapter is live. The Slasher's main power, Omnipresent Evil, lets him become invisible and Undetectable, then track stationary Survivors through mist clouds and moving Survivors through footprints. The Jump Scare ability lets him quickly move to pallets, breakable walls or windows, ending invisibility with a break or vault action. Throwing Spikes gives him a ranged attack that can damage, impale or immobilize Survivors depending on the hit.
The patch also adds three Killer perks: Hex: Scared to Death, Silent Shadow and Rampage. Behaviour changed parts of Jason's kit from the public test build, including anti-camp tuning, projectile slowdown and several add-ons. On Nintendo Switch, the patch notes say Jason will temporarily be available only through the in-game store, with external store DLC access following on June 18.
The Steam move is bigger than the chart rank suggests
A No. 18 Steam rank is already high for a paid live-service horror game, but Dead by Daylight's rank alone understates the daily movement. The stronger signal is the current-player count nearly doubling from Friday evening's comparable reading and sitting well above Monday's pre-launch level.
The timing also separates this from a routine chart shuffle. Dead by Daylight turned 10 on June 14, then rolled straight into the Jason launch window two days later. Behaviour's official anniversary recap also laid out the next stretch of the game, including the June 25 Survivor Shane Wiigwaas, the Black Banquet anniversary event, curated modding plans and the Art the Clown chapter.
For Steam players, Jason is the immediate reason to log in. Dead by Daylight has added plenty of horror icons over the years, but Friday the 13th's masked killer remained one of the biggest missing names. His live debut has now arrived with enough momentum to push the game's Tuesday evening Steam crowd well beyond its recent run.