Valve hides Dead by Daylight review bomb on Steam

Valve has removed the Dead by Daylight review bomb from the game's Steam score. Thousands of reviews posted between November 1 and 6 are now marked as off-topic, and the game's recent rating has climbed back from Mixed to Mostly Positive. The trigger was the TheBurntPeanut controversy.

As Dexerto reports, the score on the game's Steam page now carries an asterisk. The note explains that Valve detected an unusual amount of review activity during that period that was unrelated to the game itself.

What happened to Dead by Daylight's reviews?

Steam has used its off-topic review system since 2019. When Valve detects a spike in reviews driven by something other than the game, it flags that time window. The reviews are not deleted, but they are left out of the score by default, and players can choose to include them manually.

For Dead by Daylight, the flagged window runs from November 1 to 6. Dexerto notes that the negative reviews that week came from both sides of the controversy: some criticised Behaviour for working with TheBurntPeanut, while others came from the streamer's fans.

Info	Details
Off-topic window	November 1-6, 2026
Recent rating	Mixed back to Mostly Positive
Overall (SteamDB)	Around 78% positive
Total reviews	Almost 950,000
System	Steam off-topic review detection (since 2019)

How did the TheBurntPeanut controversy start?

It began on October 30, when Behaviour Interactive gifted TheBurntPeanut every Dead by Daylight DLC during a livestream, sparking backlash from parts of the community. Things escalated when the streamer offered to give the content back and the game's official account replied "WE CAN TAKE THE HEAT!"

On November 3, Behaviour removed the gifted DLC, admitting the decision skipped its usual internal checks and that it had "moved too fast". The studio said the incident "has broken trust with our community", that it is rewriting its creator guidelines and that it is "taking appropriate action internally" with the staff involved. We covered the full story in our Dead by Daylight DLC report.

• October 30: Behaviour gifts TheBurntPeanut every DLC on stream.
• Following days: The official account's "WE CAN TAKE THE HEAT!" reply fuels the backlash.
• November 3: Behaviour removes the DLC and apologises.
• November 1-6: The game is review bombed on Steam.
• November 6: Valve flags the window as off-topic and the score recovers.

Why does the Steam review score matter?

A game's review score is one of the first things players see when they browse the Steam store, and a drop to Mixed can put off new buyers. Valve's system is meant to stop controversies unrelated to the game from permanently dragging that number down. Because the reviews are kept rather than deleted, anyone can still read what happened during that week.

For Dead by Daylight, the correction helps restore its storefront standing after a rough week, though how Behaviour reshapes its relationship with creators remains to be seen. For other recent Steam stories, see our report on the NieR: Automata 366 GB bug and on EA's classic games arriving on Steam.

Frequently asked questions

Why was the Dead by Daylight Steam score corrected?

Valve detected an unusual amount of off-topic review activity between November 1 and 6 and flagged that window. Those reviews are excluded from the score by default.

What is Dead by Daylight's Steam rating now?

According to Dexerto, its recent rating is back to Mostly Positive after dropping to Mixed. SteamDB shows around 78% positive overall from almost 950,000 reviews.

Can I still see the off-topic reviews?

Yes. Steam's off-topic review system does not delete them. It leaves them out of the score by default, and players can choose to include them manually.

Sources

• Dexerto: Valve hides Dead by Daylight review bomb after TheBurntPeanut fallout
• Dead by Daylight on Steam