How does crossplay work in Dead by Daylight? Crossplay and cross-progression guide

Behaviour Interactive’s incredibly popular asymmetrical horror title Dead by Daylight has amassed a huge fan base that grows with each new Chapter. The game spans multiple platforms, including mobile, and allows Killers to hunt Survivors outside of their own ecosystem. This guide explains how crossplay works in Dead by Daylight, so you know who can hunt you down when you’re trying to escape The Entity.

Related: How to play The Blight in Dead by Daylight – best perks, strategies, and more

How does Dead by Daylight crossplay work?

To play with your friends on other platforms, you need to first ensure that crossplay is enabled in the game settings. To do this, open the Settings menu and change the CROSS-PLAY setting to ON. Now, when you ready yourself to go into a Trial, the game will pair you with players from compatible platforms. This means that everyone can play together, because players of all platforms — Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC, and Stadia — can all load into a single Trial and enjoy the game together. Dead by Daylight Mobile players can’t join in with players on the aforementioned platforms because they’re playing a completely different version of the title.

You can add friends in Dead by Daylight through the same Settings menu and play with them regardless of platform. However, you’ll need to use Dead by Daylight usernames — not, for example, Steam usernames or other similarly associated account names. This is because the game operates within internal parameters and doesn’t use platform-specific data of functionality for multiplayer.

Is Dead by Daylight cross-platform?

At the time of writing, Dead by Daylight is cross-platform because Behaviour Interactive has enabled limited cross-platform progression. Progress on your account will carry across between Stadia and Steam on PC, but this progression can’t be accessed from any other platform. Nintendo Switch has no cross-platform functionality at all. Players on PS4 and PS5 can access the same account and progress between the two consoles. The same goes for Xbox players, but the progress will remain within these ecosystems and can’t be brought to any others. Once again, Dead by Daylight Mobile is technically a different game, so progression can’t be carried over to another platform.