Dead by Daylight Kicks Off Anti-Cheat Trials on Steam With Denuvo as First Provider

Dead by Daylight's "Anti-Cheat Trials" program is now live on Steam, with Denuvo Anti-Cheat the first provider on the bench. Behaviour Interactive confirmed in a Steam news post and on the official Dead by Daylight Instagram channel that the first trial kicks off on September 2, 2026, exclusively on the PC version of the game distributed through Valve's storefront. Theatre of operations is unchanged for everyone else: console players and other PC platforms are not part of this round, and cross-play stays intact.

The studio went out of its way to separate Denuvo Anti-Cheat from Denuvo Anti-Piracy in its messaging. Only the anti-cheat product is being tested — there is no DRM or anti-tamper layer being added to Dead by Daylight, and Steam Deck plus Proton have both been validated for compatibility. During the trial, the first time a Steam player launches the game they will be prompted to install Denuvo Anti-Cheat; the install is mandatory for the duration of the trial, with no opt-in switch. When the trial ends, the anti-cheat automatically deactivates and stops running on the player's machine, and Behaviour says a step-by-step cleanup guide for residual files will be published on its support portal.

The Trials programme was prompted by a community survey in which players said the studio could be doing more to fight cheating. Behaviour's plan is to test several providers back-to-back over the coming months, comparing hard data on cheater detection against player-reported performance and friction before settling on a final solution. Denuvo is first; additional providers will follow. A dedicated Discord channel for trial feedback goes live alongside the rollout.

The official announcement is live on the Dead by Daylight Steam news page, and the studio has reiterated the rollout details on the Dead by Daylight Instagram channel.