Dead by Daylight has one of the most ridiculous horror rosters in gaming. Michael Myers, Ghost Face, Pyramid Head, Nemesis, Sadako, The Cenobite and an entire army of Resident Evil characters have all found their way into The Fog over the years.
This is one of the primary reasons DBD has managed to stay relevant for so long. At this point, Dead by Daylight is basically the Fortnite of horror games.
But there’s one problem with having a roster full to the brim with licensed characters: Behaviour doesn’t actually own most of them. That means some of DBD‘s biggest collaborations can disappear when a licensing deal expires or the rights situation changes.
The good news is that “disappear” doesn’t necessarily mean you can no longer play them. If you already owned most of these characters before their licences were withdrawn, you can still use them today. As of October 2026, three licensed DBD chapters have been removed from sale: Stranger Things, Hellraiser and Halloween.
Here’s what happened to each one.
Stranger Things
The first major licence to leave Dead by Daylight was Stranger Things.
The chapter originally arrived in September 2019, bringing The Demogorgon, Steve Harrington, Nancy Wheeler and the Hawkins National Laboratory map into The Fog.
Then, in August 2021, Behaviour announced that the Stranger Things content would no longer be available to purchase after November 17, 2021. Fortunately, anyone who already owned the characters could continue playing them. The Demogorgon, Steve and Nancy weren’t actually deleted from the game. The Hawkins map, however, was removed from the map pool.
Behaviour never publicly revealed exactly why the licence was being withdrawn. At the time, this led to plenty of speculation that Netflix was pulling back on third-party games as it expanded its own Netflix Games initiative.
That’s still speculation, though. There was never a confirmed explanation from Behaviour or Netflix detailing exactly what happened.
Then, on November 6, 2023, Behaviour announced that Stranger Things was coming back. The Demogorgon, Steve, Nancy, their cosmetics and the Hawkins Lab map all returned to the game.
A few years later, in January 2026, Behaviour even released Stranger Things Chapter 2, adding Vecna, alongside Dustin Henderson and Eleven. So Stranger Things went from being the first ever chapter to be removed from DBD to one of the only licenses in the game to get an entire second chapter.
Pinhead
The next big licence to disappear was Hellraiser.
The Cenobite, better known as Pinhead, was added to Dead by Daylight in September 2021. Unlike Stranger Things, Hellraiser only introduced a Killer, with no Survivor or new map. And yes, Pinhead was voiced by Doug Bradley, the original actor who played the character in the Hellraiser films.
Unfortunately, Hellraiser eventually ran into its own licensing problems. In March 2025, Behaviour announced that the Hellraiser Chapter would be leaving the game’s stores. The DLC was removed from most platform stores in March, while Pinhead remained available through the in-game store until April 4, 2025.
Anyone who already owned The Cenobite could continue playing him after the deadline. New players, however, could no longer purchase him.
As for exactly why the licence disappeared, Behaviour hasn’t publicly provided a detailed explanation. Its official statement simply referred to the changes that can happen with a live-service game. There is, however, a rather complicated history behind the Hellraiser licence.
Clive Barker, the original creator of Hellraiser, successfully regained copyright interests in the original Hellraiser screenplay and The Hellbound Heart from Park Avenue Entertainment, with the transfer taking effect in December 2021. That happened only a few months after Pinhead was added to DBD, making the timing particularly interesting.
The situation became even messier because the original licensing arrangement was connected to an NFT project. Behaviour worked with Boss Protocol to adapt its in-game Pinhead model for Hellraiser NFTs. Saying that this project caused a bit of a backlash from the DBD community would be the understatement of the century.
It’s difficult to say exactly how much any of this contributed to Hellraiser eventually leaving DBD. Behaviour has never publicly connected the NFT controversy, the change in rights or the eventual removal of the chapter.
What we do know is that, just a few months after Hellraiser left DBD, Saber Interactive and Boss Team Games announced Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival. The game is a single-player survival horror experience featuring Pinhead, with Doug Bradley returning to voice the character. It was announced in July 2025, roughly three months after The Cenobite became unavailable in DBD, and releases on October 8th, 2026.
The timing of Hellraiser: Revival’s announcement is certainly interesting, but there’s no evidence to suggest that Clive Barker or the Hellraiser rights holders deliberately pulled the character from DBD to make way for Hellraiser: Revival.
Regardless, I’m personally pretty happy that Pinhead isn’t in Dead by Daylight anymore. He was, by far, my least favourite killer to play against. Sorry, not sorry.
Halloween
Michael Myers, Laurie Strode and the Haddonfield map arrived in October 2016, making Halloween the first major horror movie licence to come to Dead by Daylight.
Behaviour itself describes the chapter as the first legendary horror film licence added to the game, and its arrival helped open the door for the ridiculous number of movie and video game collaborations that followed.
Ten years later, the Halloween Chapter was removed from sale on January 19, 2026. After that date, Michael Myers and Laurie Strode could no longer be purchased, while the Haddonfield map was removed from the map rotation.
Halloween was removed from Dead by Daylight in the same year that another asymmetrical horror game using the Halloween licence, Halloween: The Game, launched.
Naturally, that led many players to wonder whether the two things were connected. The timing is certainly interesting, but it’s also worth remembering that another licensed asymmetrical horror game existing alongside DBD doesn’t automatically mean Behaviour has to lose the licence.
Gun Media, one of the publishers behind Halloween: The Game, previously published The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, for example. Leatherface remains in Dead by Daylight despite that game also being a direct competitor in the asymmetrical horror space.
That’s it… for now
And that’s the entire list. Despite Dead by Daylight having accumulated a frankly ridiculous number of licensed characters over the years, only three licensed chapters have been removed from sale: Stranger Things, Hellraiser and Halloween. And even then, Stranger Things eventually came back.
Unfortunately for new players, or players who didn’t buy the Halloween or Hellraiser DLCs, there’s no way of being able to play as Pinhead, Myers or Laurie. Of course, there’s always the hope of the licences returning, but that might be a few years down the line at least.
