5 Best Video Games Like Dead By Daylight

Ever since 2016, horror game fans have flocked to the asymmetrical online multiplayer game “Dead by Daylight.” With a mix of original characters and licensed properties like “Resident Evil” and “Five Nights at Freddy’s” guest-starring, “Dead by Daylight” has provided plenty of cross-platform fun. The game has four players try to repair generators and escape a foreboding environment while being stalked and murdered by a player controlling a vicious killer. The game has experimented with new modes since its launch, though the broader mechanics remain largely the same.

For “Dead by Daylight” fans that are looking to find more terror-fueled gameplay, there are other online and asymmetrical horror games available to check out. Several of these titles are also based on hit horror properties. Please keep in mind, due to licensing issues (and like some of the guest characters in “Dead by Daylight”), some of these games are only available for physical purchase and offline play. Here are the five best video games like “Dead by Daylight” to keep the team-oriented horror thrills going.

One cinematic slasher conspicuously missing from “Dead by Daylight” is Jason Voorhees, who starred in his own asymmetrical online game. Released in 2017, “Friday the 13th: The Game” has players either control a group of up to seven camp counselors or randomly assigned to control Jason himself. While Jason stalks and kills the other players, the counselors try to complete objectives to escape from the map. Players can also work together to try to kill Jason themselves, though this requires considerable effort and specific requirements to be met.

“Friday the 13th: The Game” is a full-on love letter to the long-running slasher franchise, drawing from many of the movies and even an earlier 1989 video game. This includes the appearance of several cinematic characters beyond Jason and a mission mode reenacting classic moments from the films. Unfortunately, legal issues regarding the overall franchise rights impacted development of planned updates and its availability, with the game digitally delisted in 2023 and online servers shut down in 2024. That means the only way to enjoy “Friday the 13th: The Game” today is through physical copies, and only through offline gameplay.

Indie developer Kinetic Games released the popular cooperative multiplayer title “Phasmophobia” in 2020, mixing horror with investigative problem-solving. The game has teams of up to four players explore a haunted locale, identify the type of ghost prowling the area, and leave the site in one piece. There are dozens of ghosts to identify, based on evidence found around the environment and through equipment players can arm themselves with. Ghosts can turn lethally malevolent for timed periods throughout an investigation, forcing players to avoid them to survive.

As a testament to its immersive qualities, “Phasmophobia” had to be fixed because there were too many scares happening in early versions that had been modified by hackers. This hasn’t kept the game from remaining a terrifying experience, with the tension heightened when multiple players are working together. The game essentially tasks players to conduct a crime scene investigation while being ethereally stalked by a paranormal entity, evoking an ominous ambiance before delivering the frights. A horror game to play in every spooky season, “Phasmophobia” tests teamwork in the face of supernatural menace.

The wisecracking horror hero Ash Williams from the “Evil Dead” franchise has appeared in numerous games over the years, including as a guest character in “Dead by Daylight.” Bruce Campbell reprised this role for “Evil Dead: The Game,” another asymmetrical horror game that launched in 2022. 

Four players controlling various heroic characters from the franchise gather both pages of the Necronomicon and the Kandarian Dagger to perform a ritual defending the world from the unholy book (by defending the book before it gets spirited away). The opposing player tries to possess players and the environment, summoning Deadites to combat the players and stop the ritual.

Like “Friday the 13th: The Game,” “Evil Dead: The Game” draws from its franchise’s extensive history, including the 2013 cinematic reboot and television series, to craft a fun-filled horror experience. With its detailed art design and returning cast, the game feels like a bonus episode of “Ash vs. Evil Dead.” Unfortunately, post-launch development abruptly ceased 16 months after the game’s release and the game was delisted from digital storefronts in 2025. That means only those with physical copies can still play “Evil Dead: The Game,” though online servers are still operational at the time of this writing.

One last horror movie franchise that got the asymmetrical horror game treatment is “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” with its game debuting in 2023. The game pits four survivor characters against four members of the murderous Sawyer family for a lethal game of hide-and-seek. Matches start with the survivor characters breaking free from captivity in the Sawyers’ basement in a variety of maps. As the Sawyers hunt and kill the opposing players, the survivors must complete objectives and try to escape from the blood-soaked property.

“The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” offers another macabre dance, honoring its slasher source material in meticulously realized form. The movies’ grim and gritty atmosphere is retained, including particularly brutal kills rather than the stylized deaths from other titles on this list. In May 2025, publisher Gun Interactive announced new DLC updates would cease, though the game would remain digitally available and continue to receive technical support for its online gameplay. This means players can still fully enjoy the game, terrorizing hapless victims as the Sawyers or using their wits to evade and escape from the cannibalistic clan.

The “Outlast” games have built an entire franchise out of fast-paced horror, with players constantly running and hiding from deadly enemies. The series took a turn towards cooperative multiplayer with its 2024 title “The Outlast Trials,” a prequel to the two main games in the franchise. Supporting up to four players, the game has the players endure a series of chases in a remote Arizona test facility during the Cold War. While evading failed test subjects driven violently insane, players must disarm traps as they progress through a series of maps.

“The Outlast Trials” provides players with a selection of new gameplay mechanics (compared to the main entries in the series) to help them survive. Though the game does support a single-player mode, the highlight is sharing the experience through its online multiplayer, upping the stakes and the chaos. Playing both solo and as a team, the white-knuckle sensibilities from the franchise remain, even with the new tools players have at their disposal. Ultimately, “The Outlast Trials” is a spooky soiree best enjoyed with friends rather than playing alone, keeping everyone at the edge of their seats.