Is Dead by Daylight Cross-Platform Between Systems?

Which platforms can play Dead by Daylight together?

Dead by Daylight cross-play includes PC through Steam, Microsoft Store, and Epic Games Store; PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5; Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S; and Nintendo Switch as of 14 October 2026. Players on these systems can share matchmaking rather than being limited to opponents and teammates using the same hardware.

Cross-play expands the pool for both Killer and Survivor matchmaking, but it does not remove the game’s asymmetrical format: one player still hunts a team of four. New collaborations and roster additions, such as those covered in the Dead by Daylight and The Walking Dead announcement, do not change which supported systems can enter that pool.

How do cross-platform friends join the same lobby?

Dead by Daylight uses its cross-friends feature to connect players who have different platform friend lists. Add the other player through the in-game friends interface, then send an invitation to the Survivor lobby before entering matchmaking.

A cross-platform party still follows the normal match structure, so friends team up as Survivors rather than forming a mixed party of Survivors and the Killer. Platform-level party chat is separate from Dead by Daylight’s matchmaking, which means a group may need a communication method available to everyone in the party.

Can you turn cross-play off?

Dead by Daylight allows cross-play to be deactivated through its settings as of 14 October 2026. When disabled, matchmaking is restricted to players on the same platform who have also turned cross-play off, reducing the available pool and potentially increasing queue time.

Turning cross-play off changes matchmaking only; it does not redesign the Killer-versus-Survivor rules or create a private hardware advantage setting. Re-enabling the option returns the account to the wider supported-platform pool.

Does Dead by Daylight support cross-progression?

Yes, Dead by Daylight supports cross-progression through a Behaviour Account. As of 14 October 2026, participating platforms are Steam, Epic Games Store, Windows Store, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2.

Cross-progression synchronizes supported inventory and progress elements after the platform account is linked and synced with the Behaviour Account. Linking establishes the connection, while syncing unifies the participating Dead by Daylight accounts; after synchronization, the linked provider account cannot be replaced by a different account from that provider.

Cross-progression does not mean every item moves without restriction. Availability depends on the connected platform, so players moving between systems should review the official platform exceptions before relying on a particular entitlement or inventory item. The Dead by Daylight Year 11 roadmap coverage is separate from these account-sharing rules.

Why Nintendo Switch cross-play can be temporarily unavailable

Nintendo Switch must run the same Dead by Daylight game version as the other systems to join their matchmaking pool. Under the release schedule described by Dead by Daylight Support, a Switch release update may arrive approximately two days after other platforms, with some bug-fix content arriving later.

During that version gap, Switch players cannot play with friends or other players on different platforms. Cross-progression remains available during the mismatch, so the temporary restriction affects cross-play rather than the Behaviour Account’s progression synchronization.

Cross-play and cross-progression are different

Cross-play determines whom Dead by Daylight can place in a match: it connects supported PC and console players for the one-Killer-versus-four-Survivors format. Cross-progression determines which supported progress and inventory elements follow a player between synchronized platform accounts.

A player can therefore use cross-play without moving progress to another system. Conversely, linking platforms for cross-progression does not guarantee that every entitlement transfers, because platform-specific restrictions still apply as of 14 October 2026.