Steam marks Dead by Daylight review bomb off-topic after BurntPeanut backlash

Valve has marked Dead by Daylight's Steam reviews from November 1 to 6, 2026 as off-topic review activity, which takes them out of the game's default review score. The reviews followed Behaviour Interactive's decision to gift every paid DLC to streamer TheBurntPeanut during a Halloween stream, and they pushed the game's recent rating from Mostly Positive down to Mixed before Valve stepped in.

The reviews have not been deleted. Players can still choose to include the flagged period, and IGN reports the recent score then shows as Mixed.

What's confirmed

What Valve changed. IGN and Dexerto report that the game's Steam page now carries an asterisk on its score and a note saying the November 1-6 period contains "an abnormal set of reviews" that Valve believes are largely unrelated to whether you would enjoy the game. Those reviews are left out of the score by default. When we loaded the store page on November 14, its recent-reviews tooltip read 74% positive from 3,517 reviews in the last 30 days, with the off-topic note attached, and 79% positive from 269,050 English-language reviews overall.

What started it. Polygon and Kotaku report that TheBurntPeanut, one of Twitch's biggest streamers, played Dead by Daylight for the first time on a Halloween stream on October 30. The official Dead by Daylight Twitch account granted him all of the game's paid DLC. When he said the gift would cause controversy and offered to give it back, the account replied "We can take the heat!", according to Dexerto and Polygon. The streamer has faced repeated accusations of offensive behaviour, including the use of slurs, as Polygon reports.

Behaviour's response. Behaviour removed the gifted content from his account on November 3. In a first statement, it said a team member made the decision quickly without the usual group discussion or a check of the creator's past content. A second, longer statement on November 3, quoted by Kotaku, admitted the studio "did not have stringent enough processes and guardrails" to stop staff granting items without wider approval. Behaviour said it is rewriting its creator guidelines, changing how in-game content and currency are granted, and that its Creator Program will remove creators who break the rules. It called the action against the staff member a confidential internal matter.

Who left the reviews. Dexerto says the negative reviews came from both sides: players angry that Behaviour worked with the streamer at all, and his fans angry at how he was treated. When IGN asked about the off-topic flag, Behaviour said it "is not at liberty to discuss any platform partner (review) processes".

Background

Valve introduced its off-topic review system in 2019. As IGN summarises Valve's explanation from that year, an automated tool watches every game on Steam for unusual review activity and alerts a team at Valve, which decides whether the spike is about the game or about something else. If it is off-topic, Valve marks the date range and tells the developer. The tool does not try to work out why the reviews arrived.

Dead by Daylight, released in 2016, has spent ten years building a reputation as a welcoming online space, and Kotaku notes it is especially popular with LGBTQ players. That history is why an apparent endorsement of a streamer accused of using slurs landed so badly. Dexerto, citing SteamDB, puts the game at around 78% positive overall from almost 950,000 reviews across all languages.

My take: what it means for players

I think Valve made the right call on the score, even though some players are angry about it. A Steam review score is supposed to answer one question: will I enjoy playing this? A week of reviews about who a community manager gifted DLC to does not answer that. The 2019 system exists for exactly this, and it is transparent about it: anyone who cares can switch the flagged reviews back on.

That does not let Behaviour off the hook. The real lesson is the one Behaviour admitted itself: one person on a social account could hand out every paid DLC in a live chat with no sign-off. Competitive and community games have been here before. Plenty of studios have had a social media account go off script and then spent weeks apologising for it. The fix is boring process, not more statements.

What I would watch now is the Creator Program. If Behaviour publishes clear rules for who it partners with and sticks to them, this blows over. If the next big streamer collaboration goes the same way, no off-topic flag will protect the score.

What we don't know yet

• Valve's view. IGN asked Valve for comment; no reply has been published.
• The new guidelines. Behaviour has not published its rewritten creator rules or a date for them.
• Internal action. Behaviour says what happened to the staff member is confidential.
• Player numbers. There is no public data on whether players left the game over this.

Quick facts

FAQ

Why did Steam hide Dead by Daylight reviews?

Valve judged that reviews posted from November 1 to 6 were about the TheBurntPeanut controversy, not the game, so it excluded them from the default score.

Were the reviews deleted?

No. They are still on Steam, and players can choose to include the flagged period in the score.

What did Behaviour do about the DLC gift?

It removed the DLC from TheBurntPeanut's account on November 3, apologised and said it is rewriting its creator guidelines and approval processes.

Can I still see the full review score?

Yes. Change the review filter on the Steam page to include off-topic reviews; IGN reports the recent score then shows as Mixed.

More: Steam's Linux client goes 64-bit as Achievement Sets reach every player.

Sources: Steam (Dead by Daylight store page); IGN; Dexerto; Polygon; Kotaku. Image: IGN feed image.