Both Friday the 13th and Dead By Daylight fill the same horror multiplayer niche in the same way that Call of Duty and Battlefield do for military shooters. Just like the latter two, there's always a fair bit of debate over which is better. In most cases, it's always going to come down to preferences as both games are going to have some unique quirks that players would gravitate to.
In the case of these two horror games, though, it all depends on what you're looking for. One game is better to just mess around with friends in, while the other is a superior survival horror game that has lots of variety to it. The question is, which one is better?
10 DEAD BY DAYLIGHT: The Graphics Are Next Gen
Dead by Daylight wins this by a landslide, and not even the biggest fanboy of Friday the 13th could argue against it. For all it does well, Friday the 13th looks like a prior-gen game, a better fit for the mid-2000s gaming scene rather than a title that's only a few years old.
It all pales to the far cleaner details in Dead by Daylight. This goes beyond how the characters look, too, as the environments in Dead by Daylight can capture a far darker and unnerving tone than Friday the 13th does.
9 FRIDAY THE 13th: You Get To Play With Friends
While Dead by Daylight looks far better, Friday the 13th always had a better grasp on people wanting to play with their friends. You could have up to nine people (compared to five in Daylight) in a private party on Friday the 13th, maximizing the number of shenanigans you could get into with buddies.
On the other hand, Dead By Daylight took forever to implement a proper partying system and even longer to streamline it. It's caught on by now, but the edge still has to go to Friday the 13th.
8 DEAD BY DAYLIGHT: There's A Variety Of Killers
This is yet another landslide victory for Dead by Daylight. While on Friday the 13th you can take different versions of Jason with skins taken from his various incarnations in the movies, you are still always playing as the same hockey-masked killer of Camp Crystal Lake.
In Dead by Daylight, you have a who's who list of killers to pick from, be it franchise bad guys like Michael Myers (Halloween) or the Demogorgon (Stranger Things) to original characters like The Clown or The Doctor, who were made specifically for the game.
7 FRIDAY THE 13th: There's More Variety As A Survivor Or Counselor
If Dead by Daylight has one drawback, it's that the objective of the game is always going to be the same no matter what your playing as or against. You're always going to be fixing generators or looking for the hatch should your team die while escaping a killer whose only notable change is in appearance. The variety in the gameplay simply isn't there.
Thankfully in Friday the 13th, there are at least multiple ways you can try to escape or win, giving players separate goals and adding a little more spice to the experience. Either players can choose to make an escape or they can pull off a last stand against Jason.
6 DEAD BY DAYLIGHT: The Leveling System
Leveling in Friday the 13th is pretty straightforward: you grind your way up to 150, and then you're done. Once you're maxed, there's nothing else to do other than to just enjoy the game which, to be fair, isn't an inherently bad thing.
In Dead By Daylight, you not only have layers to what they can do at max level through the Prestige System, but there's also a greater amount of perks and skills to add on. You have more reason to keep playing Dead by Daylight as opposed to Friday the 13th, even if you've already hit Prestige a few times.
5 DEAD BY DAYLIGHT: It Requires Serious Skills
The difference between a good player in Dead by Daylight and someone who just plays the game casually is pretty wide, and that's due to the amount of skill it requires. When you are first starting out, it's unlikely you'll be able to get away from a killer that often. As you get better, it's possible to lead killers on a merry chase for what can feel like an eternity as you loop around pallets. The same goes for the killer's side of things as well.
In contrast, Friday the 13th is far more casual-friendly and is easier in comparison. While this is not meant as a negative, it just goes to show how different the gameplay and target audiences are for these two horror games. Players looking for a challenge are better steering skipping Camp Crystal Lake for now.
4 FRIDAY THE 13th: Players Can Actually Fight Jason
One of the things that Friday the 13th has going for it is the ability for the survivors to interact with Jason Voorhess. Players can square up to Jason if armed, trying to slow him down so their teammates can finish repairing something or score a clean getaway.
It lets you feel far less passive as a player than you do in a game like Dead By Daylight, where your only option is to hightail it away from whatever monster (licensed or otherwise) is chasing you down. You can even manage to kill Jason after some conditions are met.
3 DEAD BY DAYLIGHT: It's Continually Updated
Due to legal issues, Friday's updates were few and far between, which is a shame given how many bugs the game had when it was first released. Dead by Daylight, meanwhile, is constantly coming out with updates, a new killer, and survivor being put out what seems like every two to three months. In short, this is a great turnaround for DLC.
The fact that it's a mix of newly created characters plus licensed ones (like the Silent Hill package that offers Pyramid Head and Heather Mason) only helps to build a level of hype around the game.
2 FRIDAY THE 13th: You Get To Play As Jason Voorhees
For all of the cool killers that are in Dead by Daylight, Jason Voorhees will never be one of them. Along with Halloween's Michael Myers and Freddy Kruger from A Nightmare on Elm Street (two slashers who are available in Dead by Daylight), Jason is easily one of cinema's most recognizable slasher villains. He's had the second longest-running slasher series, dwarfed only by Halloween, and he continues to be a pop culture icon.
Getting to put on the hockey mask and kill teens is just fun, especially with how many interesting abilities he has in the game. The only issue may be that it's far more fun to play as him than the counselors, which leads to a lot of players quitting lobbies just because they didn't get to play Jason.
1 DEAD BY DAYLIGHT: It's More Polished
At the end of the day, Dead By Daylight is a more polished game than Friday The 13th is. It's continually updated and supported by its developers, always offering something new for its players. The occasional DLC always helps shake up the core game by offering new maps for players to run around in and new killers to flee from.
Friday, while fun with friends, is too unrefined a game to recommend to casual gamers and veterans alike, especially when a better product that offers a similar but more refined experience is just waiting to be played.