Dead by Daylight’s 10th anniversary is bringing the missing piece the horror audience has asked for for years: Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th is set to join as a playable killer. Behaviour Interactive says licensing and legal issues kept him out until now
The first thing you feel, watching Dead by Daylight’s latest tease, isn’t celebration. It’s recognition. Horror fans have been staring at the game’s roster for years, waiting for the one name that never quite made it in.
Now it is.
Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th series is set to arrive in Dead by Daylight as a playable killer. timed to the game’s 10th anniversary celebrations. Behaviour Interactive says Jason is coming to take down survivors as part of the anniversary run—years after he became the most conspicuous absence in an otherwise crowded hall of horror icons.
Over the last decade, Behaviour has expanded Dead by Daylight with high-profile characters from other frightening worlds, including Vecna and the Demogorgon from Stranger Things, Chucky, Pyramid Head from Silent Hill, Ghostface, Freddy Krueger, and Leatherface. Jason, however, stayed missing.
Behaviour has previously spoken openly about why. Complex legal and licensing issues prevented Jason from joining. That same kind of trouble also affected Friday the 13th: The Game, where a lawsuit over the rights to the franchise’s characters hampered the title.
The change seems to have come from movement around the property itself. In 2024. an initiative called Jason Universe emerged with the goal of expanding the franchise across “entertainment. games. immersive experiences. merchandise and more.” Around the same period. it became clear Jason was also getting pulled into other platforms—appearing on the roster of the platform fighting game MultiVersus (RIP). Call of Duty and Fortnite later brought him into their worlds too. reinforcing the sense that the door had finally opened for Dead by Daylight.
Behaviour will share more details about what’s next for Dead by Daylight during a 10th anniversary stream on June 14. The Jason DLC will be available two days after that.
For fans who have treated Jason’s absence as a long-running mystery, the timeline is the punchline: after years of legal friction and painful near-misses, the hunt is finally scheduled to begin.
Dead by Daylight Jason Voorhees Friday the 13th Behaviour Interactive horror games 10th anniversary DLC licensing Jason Universe