Dead by Daylight Fans React to 'Traumatizing' Cabin Stream That Finally Confirms Jason Voorhees as New Killer

Developer Behaviour Interactive has finally revealed the name Dead by Daylight players have been waiting 10 long years—and one 13-hour livestream—to hear: Jason Voorhees. The hockey mask-wearing slasher icon from Friday the 13th appeared after weeks of fan speculation with a brief teaser today. He's undeniably one of the most-requested Killers the long-running asymmetrical horror game has ever had, and while most are just happy to see the "Mount Rushmore of horror" finally completed, the road to Jason was anything but easy.

Dead by Daylight will celebrate its 10th anniversary this June, so expectations for its annual birthday festivities were sky-high. An unusual lack of leaks left fans swimming in a sea of rumors throughout the year, so despite Jason remaining at the top of the shortlist for potential Killers, fans were kept in the dark about Behaviour's plans.

A series of recent teasers filled with references to the number 13 should have been a dead giveaway that the Friday the 13th character was on the way, but the horror community had other ideas. Fan predictions in the weeks leading up to today's reveal started off earnestly, with many hoping to see last year's Five Nights at Freddy's anniversary collaboration followed up with infamous monsters like Pennywise from Stephen King's It or Art the Clown from the Terrifier series. Theories about Hello Neighbor and BioShock soon followed, but when names like Jaws—a half-joke character fans have talked about for years—entered the conversation, things truly spiraled out of control. As a mix of sincere Killer predictions, memes, and pure chaos filled social channels, Behaviour launched its anniversary livestream yesterday, May 22, at 9 p.m. ET. Where fans hoped to find immediate answers, they were instead met with a still image of a cabin in the woods.

Tens of thousands of viewers then stayed locked into the stream of that image for 13 hours. "It's 4 a.m. and I'm being ragebaited," one fan said. "BHVR is about to turn me into the 10th anniversary killer," another joked. "In a few years? It's traumatizing us right now!" someone else replied to the above Reddit post. About 90% of the Dead by Daylight cabin stream was… nothing. The other 10% helped break up the wait with eerie moments—such as bird calls, someone riding a bike, monsters crawling across the ground, camera glitches, and much more—but it didn't take long for anticipation to bubble into disappointment.

During the wait for the stream to show anything resembling a Dead by Daylight anniversary Killer reveal, many genuinely began to believe Slender Man would soon join the roster. Others spent their time making mock-ups for the infamous cabin to become the next playable character. Then, as the 13-hour mark passed, Jason was finally revealed.

Was it worth it? After 10 years of asking, it certainly seems like it, but not everyone in the Dead by Daylight community is thrilled with how the reveal came about. "NEVER STOPPED BELIEVING THAT IT'D HAPPEN ONE DAY," one Reddit user stated. "You're telling me Jason was standing still staring at that f****** cabin for 13 hours?" another said. "I'm both happy it's Jason finally being added, but underwhelmed by his reveal," someone else replied. "This entire setup really felt like it had nothing to do with anything related to him. The whole stream felt very analogue horror, and all of the teasers on Twitter echoed that."

There is some concern that the Friday the 13th Dead by Daylight crossover will be limited to Jason Voorhees as the Killer and won't include any Survivors or even maps, but most are still trying to process seeing the machete-wielding slasher included at all. Tangled rights revolving around Jason and Friday the 13th are rumored to have been the cause of his lack of presence in Dead by Daylight for years. It's even something Behaviour has commented on in the past, with game director Mathieu Cote calling the situation a "legal quagmire" and "tar pit" during a conversation with The King in 2023. Now, however, whatever issues kept the horror icon from joining the likes of Freddy Krueger, Chucky, Ghostface, Dracula, Michael Myers, and Leatherface have been put to rest.

Jason joins Dead by Daylight as its anniversary Killer on June 16. More details on how he'll finally enter the Fog will be revealed in the coming weeks, but until then, you can check out what Behaviour had to say about its live-service secrets and learn about the Soulslike spin-off the team has been dreaming about.