Dead by Daylight studio Behaviour confirms fresh layoffs amid declining demand

Dead by Daylight is still one of multiplayer horror’s biggest names, but Behaviour Interactive is cutting again behind the fog. On April 22, 2026, the studio confirmed fresh layoffs after demand fell for mobile and casual external development work, a reminder that the company’s most visible live-service game is being maintained inside a business that is still under pressure.

One of the clearest faces of the cuts came from Jonathan Veiga, a senior animator on Dead by Daylight, who said he had been “affected by the layoffs from Behaviour.” Veiga added that he “didn’t think it was going to happen to me” and said he would submit an updated demo reel while looking for animator leads. At least five other Behaviour employees also posted that they were open to work or had been affected, suggesting the changes reached beyond a single team or discipline.

Behaviour said its external development business has historically worked with major partners including Disney, Electronic Arts, Nintendo, Tencent, NetEase Games and others, but the market for mobile and casual external development has weakened in recent months. The company said it is finishing out remaining engagements and does not see comparable opportunities in the near term, so it chose to part ways with some colleagues. For Dead by Daylight players, that reads like more than a payroll story. It is the kind of shift that raises immediate questions about update cadence, event support, licensed content and how much headroom the studio has to keep a live-service horror machine moving at the same pace.

The new cuts also land against a recent history of contraction. On June 4, 2024, Behaviour said it would reduce its team by up to 95 employees, including 70 in Montreal, and described the move as part of strategic changes to its corporate structure. At the time, the company said Dead by Daylight had surpassed 60 million players since its 2016 launch. Behaviour’s current press materials say the studio has more than 1,300 employees worldwide, while its public game materials say Dead by Daylight has more than 48 million players globally across all platforms.

The timing makes the layoffs harder to ignore because Behaviour was still expanding elsewhere. On March 24, 2026, it announced the acquisition of The Fun Pimps, the Texas-based developer behind 7 Days to Die. That contrast leaves Behaviour in a familiar but uneasy position: one of its biggest games remains highly visible, even as the studio trims staff in the business that once helped define it.