Dead by Daylight Killer Surges to No. 1 Spot After Update

Dead by Daylight has 35 Killers right now with each of them fluctuating in their standing in terms of effectiveness and play rates as new updates and changes release, but even with all those characters available, the most popular Killer over the past couple of months has been a character available since the very start of Dead by Daylight. That Killer is The Hillbilly, the chainsaw-wielding character who was one of the first three Killers added to the game years ago and saw a huge bump in playtime throughout the first few months of the year thanks to a bit update he got.

Behaviour Interactive published some Dead by Daylight stats this week to show where the Killer meta stood from the end of January to mid-March. As usual, The Huntress is right near the top with the hatchet-throwing Killer currently holding the No. 2 spot with a 7% pick rate from January 31st to March 11th. Right ahead of her, however, is The Hillbilly who sported an 8% pick rate during that timeframe.

For context and to show just how much of a jump this was for The Hillbilly, the previous No. 1 Killer the last time stats were shared in February was Chucky. The Child's Play Killer came out in November 2023, so it makes sense that from the previously cited timeframe of December 30th to January 29th, he'd be on top in terms of pick rate. The Hillbilly, however, was nowhere to be found in that list of the top 10 most-picked Killers prior to this one shared on Friday with his previously reported pick rate sitting at just 2% prior to all the changes he got.

So, what was it that made The Hillbilly rocket to the top of the most-picked Killers during that timeframe? The biggest change to note was the rework for his chainsaw power which allowed the Killer to go into Overdrive. While his add-ons were changed, too, the Overdrive effect outlined below was the biggest boon for The Hillbilly when the 7.5.0 update was released at the end of January:

The Hillbilly Gets a Big Buff

Base changes

• Increased Chainsaw Sprint movement speed to 10.12 m/s (was 9.2 m/s).
• Decreased the Chainsaw hit cooldown to 2.7 seconds (was 3 seconds).
• Decreased the Chainsaw miss cooldown to 2.5 seconds (was 3 seconds).
• Increased movement speed during the Chainsaw miss cooldown to 2.3 m/s (was 1.38 m/s).
• Decreased the size of the Chainsaw's collision to improve navigation during a Chainsaw Sprint.
• Disconnected the Chainsaw's sensitivity from controller sensitivity.
• Baseline sensitivity was set to 100% of the controller sensitivity.

Special State: Overdrive

• While in Overdrive, the Chainsaw is enhanced. Chainsaw Charge and Sprint speeds are increased, and Chainsaw Sprint cooldowns are reduced. Overdrive lasts for 20 seconds.

Base Overdrive stats

• Chainsaw charge speed increased by 5%.
• Chainsaw Sprint movement speed increased to 13 m/s.
• Chainsaw cooldowns reduced by 10%.

"Kicking things off, we wanted to take a look back at The Hillbilly's recent update and see how it has affected his strength and popularity," Behaviour said. "We've seen a substantial increase in both his use rate and kill rate across all MMRs."

While his pick rate increased, so did his kill rate. He went from a 54% kill rate to 63%, and while that stat wasn't reported for every other Killer, it made for a noticeable change for The Hillbilly.