Dead by Daylight's Licensed Killers Ranked

Behaviour Interactive recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of their hit asymmetrical multiplayer survival horror game Dead by Daylight with a plethora of new announcements, such as behind the scenes updates to the DBD movie, the reveal of the game's first indigenous Survivor with Shane Wiigwaas, a glimpse at a new map, and so much more.

Following the long-awaited debut of Friday the 13th's Jason Voorhees as The Slasher Killer in mid-June, Behavior Interactive further announced new cosmetic collections with Diablo, Scooby-Doo, and revealed that Terrifier's Art the Clown will soon be coming to DBD as the game's next licensed Killer.

While fans wait for Art's exciting DBD debut, here's a list of all 19 of Dead by Daylight's licensed Killers based on their design, abilities, connections to their home franchises, faithfulness to the characters' original appearances, chapter debut, and overall fun-factor.

19 The Onryo

The Ring's Misused Killer

There are many horror books, comics, shows, and films that feature great, terrifying stories with iconic monsters and violent leads, but those characters don't always make for good fits in a game like Dead by Daylight and, sadly, that's exactly the case for The Onryo, otherwise known as Sadako Yamamura from The Ring.

Sadako Yamamura and her other Korean and American incarnations are certainly frightening in a more supernatural sense similar to The Conjuring and Sinister films, but she's not explicitly violent like other horror movie slashers or monsters, making her appearance in DBD a bit peculiar and out of place.

The Onryo's power to become intermittently invisible and able to teleport between TVs are fun and faithful to Sadako's abilities in The Ring films, but they're not really that unique to DBD as they're fairly similar to The Hag and The Wraith's powers.

18 The Lich

The Original Vecna

Dungeons & Dragons is getting more and more popular these days, with thousands of people playing the tabletop game weekly these days, but the inclusion of The Lich, otherwise known as Vecna, just seemed a bit odd to me as there were other D&D villains that could have been better fits for DBD like Zariel or Marut.

Visually, The Lich is faithful to Vecna's modern D&D appearance and his power to use four spells from The Book of Vile Darkness is fun, albeit a bit confusing to understand at first, but he gets to be kind of boring to play as after a while.

However, The Lich's chapter debut overall was pretty great, as it saw the release of arguably one of DBD's most unique maps, The Forgotten Ruins, and a two-for-one Survivor special with Aestri Yazar/Baermar Uraz.

17 Dracula

Castlevania's Underwhelming Killer

For many gamers, Dead By Daylight is seen as a celebration of all things horror-related, with many of its Killers, Survivors, and maps being inspired by or being directly adapted from classic horror properties, but oddly enough, it doesn't feature many classic Universal Monsters as Killers save for Dracula.

DBD's Dracula is actually the Dracula from the long-running Castlevania series, complete with his iconic fancy attire from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and power to transform between his Vampire, Wolf, and Bat forms, making him one of the fastest, albeit a bit of a clunky Killer to play as.

Despite being from Castlevania, it was pretty disappointing to not see Dracula's Castle be made into a map for the Castlevania chapter that saw Dracula's debut, though it was a nice choice to have the castle appear in the background of maps when playing as the vampire.

16 The Cannibal

Dead by Daylight's First Duplicate Killer

In 2016, Dead by Daylight started out with a small but iconic cast of original Killers, but in 2017, the game arguably lost some creativity when it debuted its first duplicate Killer in the form of its second licensed character, The Cannibal, otherwise known as Leatherface, from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise.

The Cannibal is practically a one-to-one recreation of Leatherface from the original 1974 Texas Chainsaw Massacre film, with even his chainsaw power recreating Leatherface's motions from the end of the original film.

Leatherface's biggest fault is that he plays too much like DBD's own original chainsaw-wielding Killer The Hillbilly, with even both characters using common hammers when their chainsaw power is not active, making the purchase of The Cannibal rather pointless unless players are major TCM fans.

15 The Mastermind

Albert Wesker Reborn

Capcom's Resident Evil franchise is home to countless grotesque zombies and mutants alongside several terrifying villains that never cease to hunt protagonists until death, with the franchise's most famous overarching villain undoubtedly being Albert Wesker or, as he's known in DBD, as The Mastermind.

The Mastermind's appearance in DBD is largely based on his appearance in Resident Evil 5, which notably saw Wesker mutated with a powerful prototype version of the t-Virus and the PG67A/W serum, with DBD recreating his mutated abilities through his Virulent Bound power, such as being able to dash at high speeds and infecting people with Uroboros.

While The Mastermind is a perfect recreation of Albert Wesker in his most powerful form, he's not all that fun to play for extended periods of time, as his main abilities are essentially just a dash that can be quickly avoided, especially in crowded maps, and briefly slowing down survivors.

14 The First

Stranger Things' Big Bad

With DBD being 10 years old, it was bound to get some duplicate Killers and Survivors over years, such as The Hillbilly and The Cannibal being essentially the same character, and this can be seen again with the game's second Vecna, The First, otherwise known as Henry Creel from Stranger Things.

The First is a near perfect recreation of Vecna's final appearance from Stranger Things season 5, with his body more enveloped with tendrils than his earlier appearances and him even getting an alternate skin called the Scion of the Upside Down depicting Creel's transition from a relatively normal human into the monstrous Vecna.

Creel does have some fun abilities, such as his Test Subject #001 power allowing him to summon power and vines from the Upside Down to attack survivors, but those powers don't really help him stand out among other Killers in DBD, and he was even a bit overshadowed in his chapter debut due to the release of Eleven and Dustin Henderson as Survivors.

13 The Ghoul

Ken Kaneki's Monstrous Fate

The Ghoul, otherwise known as Ken Kaneki from the hit manga and anime Tokyo Ghoul, was a notable first for Dead by Daylight as his 2025 chapter was the first DBD to be directly based on a manga and anime rather than a live-action property, making The Ghoul one of the most tricky Killers to implement into the game.

Kaneki is the "heroic" protagonist of Tokyo Ghoul but his appearance in DBD was created to be a Kaneki from an alternate world where he fully embraced his ghoul half after being tortured, becoming a merciless, man-eating ghoul who uses his Kagune tentacles to traverse areas and attack prey.

While The Ghoul may not be a perfect one-to-one recreation of Kaneki from the manga or anime, his appearance in DBD is still a very interesting version of his character, and he is fairly fun to play, even though his perks are rather unremarkable compared to other licensed Killers.

12 The Cenobite

A Waste of Good Suffering

Dead by Daylight has been home to many licensed and original Killers over the years, but only three Killers have been removed from the game due to licensing issues, with the second being The Cenobite, otherwise known as Elliot Spencer or Pinhead from the Hellraiser franchise.

Pinhead's appearance in DBD is a perfect recreation of his debut depiction in the 1987 film Hellraiser, with even his original actor, Doug Bradley, returning to voice The Cenobite and DBD featuring an alternate skin of the Killer as The Chatterer Cenobite from the same original film.

With DBD's primary gameplay loop being focused on hanging survivors from bloody hooks, having Pinhead become a Killer was a match made in heaven, though it would have been better if they released a map based on The Labyrinth seen in Hellbound: Hellraiser II and sadly, The Cenobite is no longer available for purchase.

11 The Good Guy

Dead by Daylight's Most Ambitious Killer

Dead by Daylight is full of Killers of all kinds, from traditional slashers to vengeful spirits, but undoubtedly, its most ambitious Killer in terms of gameplay is The Good Guy, otherwise known as Charles "Chucky" Lee Ray from the Child's Play franchise.

Being a living Good Guy doll that's less than three feet tall, many fans thought it would have been impossible to properly implement Chucky into DBD, but Behaviour Interactive managed to pull it off by making The Good Guy the first Killer to be played in third-person and having Chucky jump around to damage generators and Survivors.

Chucky's appearance in DBD is full of fan service for Child's Play fans, with The Good Guy being visually based on his appearance in Child's Play 2, being voiced by Chucky's original actor, Brad Dourif, and having skins based on his appearances in Bride of Chucky and Chucky season 1 and another being based on Tiffany Valentine with Jennifer Tilly reprising her role.

10 The Nightmare

The Wrong Freddy Krueger

One of the most iconic horror movie villains of all time is, without a doubt, Freddy Krueger from the highly popular A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, so it was inevitable for Krueger to join DBD's Killer roster as The Nightmare, but it's unfortunately not Robert England's Freddy in the game.

Instead, The Nightmare is based on Jackie Earle Haley's Freddy from the much-maligned A Nightmare on Elm Street remake from 2010 due to New Line Cinema only permitting Behaviour Interactive to use elements from the remake, which can additionally be seen with the Springwood-Badham Preschool map and Survivor Quentin Smith.

Despite this chapter only using elements from the remake, The Nightmare is still a fairly unique and fun Killer to play as thanks to his Dream Demon power requiring him to put Survivors to sleep and journey to the Dream World in order to attack them, with fellow Survivors having to wake players up to escape from Freddy.