Valve excludes a week of Dead by Daylight reviews from its Steam score following a major community backlash over a streamer controversy.
Valve has officially excluded a full week of user reviews from the Dead by Daylight Steam score after the asymmetric horror game was targeted by a massive review bomb. The controversy erupted in early November 2024 following a high profile fallout involving content creator TheBurntPeanut and developer Behaviour Interactive.
The review manipulation pushed the game rating down from Mostly Positive to Mixed before Valve intervened. According to the official Steam page, thousands of negative and positive opinions posted between November 1 and November 6 are now marked as off-topic by the platform algorithm, according to information published by dexerto.
By filtering out the review bomb data, Valve successfully restored the game score back to its usual status. The system prevents external drama from permanently damaging a title review standing when the feedback has very little to do with actual gameplay, according to information published by dexerto.
Steam off-topic review system mechanics
Valve has utilized its automated off-topic review system since 2019 to protect developers from coordinated attacks. When the platform detects an unusual spike in user submissions that remain entirely unrelated to the game itself, it flags that specific window and leaves those reviews out of the overall score by default.
Players who still wish to view the filtered feedback can manually choose to include them at any time. Despite the temporary drop during the controversy, Dead by Daylight currently sits at around 78% positive overall from a massive pool of nearly 950,000 user reviews tracked by SteamDB.
Behaviour Interactive gifted DLC controversy
The review bomb originally began after Behaviour Interactive gifted TheBurntPeanut every single Dead by Daylight DLC during a live broadcast on October 30. This decision quickly sparked intense backlash from frustrated parts of the online community who questioned the special treatment.
The situation escalated significantly after the official game account replied with the phrase WE CAN TAKE THE HEAT when the streamer offered to return the content. The exchange added fuel to the fire, leading to thousands of negative review submissions from both fans and critics alike.
Developer response and community trust breakdown
On November 3, Behaviour Interactive officially removed the gifted DLC from the creator account. The studio admitted publicly that the initial decision had completely skipped its usual internal checks and that the team had simply moved too fast during the promotion.
In an official statement regarding the incident, the developer acknowledged that the controversy had broken trust with the community. Behaviour Interactive confirmed it is currently rewriting its creator guidelines and taking appropriate internal action with the staff members involved.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did Dead by Daylight get review bombed on Steam?
Dead by Daylight faced a review bomb after developer Behaviour Interactive gifted content creator TheBurntPeanut all game DLC during a livestream, sparking community backlash.
How did Valve handle the Dead by Daylight review bomb?
Valve used its off-topic review system to exclude reviews posted between November 1 and November 6, successfully restoring the Steam rating back to Mostly Positive.
What did Behaviour Interactive do in response to the backlash?
Behaviour Interactive removed the gifted DLC from the creator account, admitted it skipped internal checks, and announced a complete rewrite of its creator guidelines.
What is the current Steam rating for Dead by Daylight?
Dead by Daylight sits at around 78% positive overall from nearly 950,000 reviews on Steam, according to statistics tracked by SteamDB.
