Dead by Daylight devs issue apology amid community backlash to TheBurntPeanut

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The community was outraged by perceived preferential treatment given to TheBurntPeanut by an unauthorized party on DbD's comms.

TJ Denzer November 2, 2026 4:26 PM Behaviour Interactive 1

Dead by Daylight developer Behaviour Interactive has found itself in hot water following interactions with popular and allegedly controversial streamer TheBurntPeanut on a Halloween weekend stream from official Dead by Daylight channels. Following unauthorized interactions with the stream, the dev has apologized, claiming it was unauthorized. However, much of the community is not buying it, calling the apology “meaningless” and the actions “unprofessional.”

TheBurntPeanut hosted a Dead by Daylight stream on Halloween. In the midst of that stream, the official Dead by Daylight channel appeared in chat to support the stream. There was already concern, but when the DbD Twitch gifted all of the game’s content to Peanut, the concern turned to outrage. At a certain point, Peanut said “if you dont want people on twitter to be upset, ill take the heat and you can take away the DLCs.” However, the DbD Twitch responded with, “we can take the heat. They are yours to keep.”

This weekend, a Dead by Daylight team member awarded in-game content and currency to a creator streaming our game. Although it is not unusual to unlock content to give creators discovering DbD a chance to have a sneak peek at available content, this decision was made without receiving appropriate approvals. Furthermore, the team member's subsequent comments and conduct do not align with Dead by Daylight’s core values. When concerns about this decision became apparent during the stream, we should have responded by looking into these concerns, not dismissing them. Unfortunately, we’ve now seen the fallout of this decision unfolding in many conversations across the DbD community. We appreciate and stand with our community’s willingness to ensure our shared values are being upheld, at all times, regardless of popularity, and we’re heartbroken at the inflammatory language now being directed towards our community. At the same time, threatening employees will never be acceptable, and we’re asking everyone to stop engaging with these posts. We apologize to our community for letting you down. We have already begun reviewing our internal processes to prevent an incident like this from happening again.

— DbD Pulse (@DbDPulse) November 1, 2026

The backlash prompted by this engagement, which many described as preferential treatment of a controversial figure that doesn’t necessarily share the community’s values, prompted a response from the official Dead by Daylight social media. The statement can be read below:

As seen in the comments of that post and elsewhere in Dead by Daylight chatter, many were unsatisfied with the apology. TheBurntPeanut has garnered a reputation for content in his streams that some consider to be offensive, while others consider it to be edgy. Given that Dead by Daylight is a game in which many cultures and orientations have been represented and welcomed, many fans felt betrayed by a perceived abandoning of commitment to making DbD a fair and fun environment for all comers, especially when there have been seemingly zero consequences for whoever was behind the interactions with Peanut.

Behaviour Interactive has not signaled any further action beyond internal review, but many creators and fans are already boycotting the game, calling for deleting it until further action is taken to make things right. As we follow this story, stay tuned to the Dead by Daylight topic for updates.

Shacknews staff does not use generative artificial intelligence (AI) in their content. Shacknews strictly prohibits the use of its content for AI training or to generate text, including text in the style or format used for this publication. Shacknews reserves all rights to this work.

TJ Denzer Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at [email protected] and also find him on BlueSky @JohnnyChugs.

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