Dead By Daylight Killer Tier List

Behavior Interactive's Dead by Daylight has gained quite a popular following due to its unique and interesting asymmetrical gameplay. Since the killer role has to take on four survivors, it's pivotal to play a killer that can make the most of its situation against the survivor team.
This tier list covers each of the killers in Dead by Daylight, and highlights where they are strongest and weakest and how their perks play into the ranking. The killers are ranked according to their base strength without add-ons or offerings, but perks are factored in as part of the overall rank

S Tier

The Nightmare - The Nightmare, or more commonly known as Freddy Krueger, ranks at the top of the list for a number of reasons, almost hilariously so considering how low he sat on the tier lists for so such a long time. For many survivors, Freddy has earned the "Nightmare" name due to the difficulty of playing against him. While survivors are awake, they will be unable to see Freddy if he is further than 32 meters away. From 16 to 32 meters away, they will intermittently see him, and if he is 16 meters or closer then survivors will see him and hear his terror radius.
Freddy passively puts survivors to sleep over 60 seconds, but hits will put them to sleep faster. Once asleep, they will be susceptible to Freddy's Dream Snares and Dream Pallets. Overall, Freddy is incredibly powerful and severely slows the game down to a point where coordinated teams may struggle against let alone solo queue players.

A Tier

Hillbilly - If players want to quickly zip around the map and apply pressure to survivors constantly, Billy is the perfect choice. Thanks to his chainsaw, Billy can dash from one end of the map to the other (and down any survivor who happens to cross his path). With proper skill and practice, players can easily dance through trees and obstacles to hunt down survivors with ease. Billy's perks are not especially powerful, though Enduring can be handy for resisting stuns, but Billy's true power really comes from his map pressure. It's easy to see why Billy is often ranked as one of the best killers in the Dead by Daylight.
Nurse - The Nurse has always been a strong force in Dead by Daylight thanks to her Blink ability. Much like Billy, the Nurse has excellent map pressure and she features some of the best killer perks in Dead by Daylight as well. With her Blink, Nurse can teleport short distances through walls, pallets, and other obstacles allowing her to cut off loops that other killers would struggle with.
The Nurse gets a lunge when attacking out of Blink which can be great for hitting unsuspecting survivors or those on the run. The Nurse's perks are some of the strongest in the game. While Stridor only makes survivor's groans louder, Nurse's Calling and Thanatophobia are both powerful - one for tracking survivors and one for slowdown. Her Blink stun is a bit hard to get used to, but once a player masters it the power can be quite deadly.
Huntress - The Huntress is one of the killers that plays much smoother on PC than console. The Huntress has no fancy Entity-gifted power, but instead she excels at throwing hatchets. This means that if players are great at arcing throws and calculating distance, they can be quite lethal with the Huntress. She is one of the few killers that really is skill-based, so if players want to play the Huntress well they will need to practice.
The Huntress lacks any really powerful perks, though Hex: Huntress Lullaby does have its uses if the Huntress can hook survivors multiple times. Regardless, in the right hands the Huntress will be extremely powerful and survivors won't know until it's too late.
Spirit - Despite some nerfs and reworks, the Spirit remains near the top in terms of strength. What the Spirit lacks in raw power she makes up for in mindgame potential. With Yamaoka's Haunting, the Spirit leaves behind a husk and travels quickly and invisibly around the map so players may not recognize if the Spirit is just standing still or if the Spirit is actually elsewhere.
While the Spirit cannot see survivors while using her ability, she still can hear them and can see scratch marks while the survivor runs so she isn't completely blind. The Spirit's powers have some use as well. Spirit's Fury isn't incredibly powerful but it will definitely catch some survivors by surprise while Hex: Haunted Grounds is great for if playing with another Hex perk as it punishes survivors for working on totems.

B Tier

Shape - Michael Myers was Dead by Daylight's first licensed killer and Behavior Interactive did the iconic horror character justice. While not insanely powerful like Freddy, Myers has a unique ability called Evil Within which levels up when Myers stalks his prey. Tier 1 Evil Within has an incredibly small terror radius making it easy to sneak up on survivors (typically a big part of playing the build called 'jump scare Myers' in the community).
If Myers gets to Tier 3, he will temporarily be able to instantly down any survivor for a short time. The drawback with Myers comes in the form of his ability to close distances easily. While his higher tier Evil Withins have increased lunge distance, Myers can still struggle at loops and since Evil Within 3 is on a timer it can be burnt through if Myers is looped too long. It makes fans hope that Behavior will add more horror franchise killers in the future.
Doctor - Recently on the receiving end of a pretty sizeable rework, the Doctor is still a force to be reckoned with due to his powerful area effects. The Doctor revolves around generating Madness in the survivors, which can impose changes to skill checks, reveal their location randomly, and more with his add-ons.
The Doctor can use Shock Therapy to increase the Madness of nearby survivors, or use a concentrated shock blast to greatly increase the Madness. The Doctor also has one of the best (and most annoying for survivors) slowdown perk in the game: Overcharge. This perk will cause the generator to have an extremely difficult skill check after the Doctor damages it, and it will set the generator back a considerable amount.
Ghost Face - Ghost Face, the iconic killer from the Scream franchise, is one of Dead by Daylight's stealthy killers, which makes him powerful in his own right. Ghost Face has a similar mechanic to Myers, where he gets bonuses for stalking his prey instead of chasing outright. When Ghost Face stalks his prey enough, he can instantly down that target. What makes him different from Meyers is that his stealth doesn't go away for good. However, his main drawback is that if survivors are looking at him his stealth breaks and temporarily renders it useless.
Oni - the Oni is one of the newest killers to the game. Introduced in the Cursed Legacy chapter DLC, the Oni shares a similar playstyle to Billy with one key difference: he can only sprint across the map after absorbing enough blood orbs. Orbs are dropped from injured survivors who do specific actions. For Oni to become truly powerful, he has to injure at least one survivor. But when Oni gets going he can sprint and instant-down any survivor in his path until his Blood Fury runs out.

C Tier

Hag - When Behavior added the Hag to the game, Hex perks and Totems were introduced. While the idea of totems is great, they are found and cleansed too easily, and since they were introduced alongside the Hag all of her perks revolve around Hexes. Perks notwithstanding, the Hag has the ability to set traps around the map that, when a survivor gets too close and sets it off, she can teleport to so long as she is within its range.
The skill itself is pretty handy for either finding survivors or chasing if the Hag is good enough to lure survivors to specific areas. However, her ability is a bit too situational for it to be relied on heavily. The Flesh and Mud DLC is a bit lower on the list of the best DLCs for Dead by Daylight because of it.
Cannibal - The Cannibal, or Bubba from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, is the poor man's Billy. The Cannibal wields a chainsaw which he can swing around wildly and it will instantly down any survivor who is hit by it. However, if Bubba hits an object he will throw a tantrum and be locked in place for a few seconds while he wildly swings his chainsaw. The tantrum is near-impossible to control but if a survivor happens to be in range when it happens they will be downed just as if he were hitting them with it with the sweep.
Bubba's only saving grace is his teachable perk Barbecue & Chili which is great for tracking down survivors (and the bonus bloodpoints doesn't hurt either). Franklin's Demise is also somewhat useful since it forces survivors to drop whatever item they are carrying.
Pig - The Pig, known as Amanda Young from the Saw franchise, is another stealth killer but plays completely differently than any other killer. When Amanda downs a survivor she has the option to place the iconic Saw reverse bear trap on the survivor and the survivor has to get the trap off before it activates and kills them. While it's a cool mechanic and can instill panic among survivors, the bear traps are perhaps a bit too easy to remove without specific add-ons and when Amanda is out of traps she is pretty unremarkable.
Clown - Capitalizing on the common fear of clowns, Dead by Daylight's Clown specializes in tossing bottles filled with noxious gas that slows survivors tremendously. While this is great in theory for cutting off loops, the Clown can only carry so many and he does have to "reload" his bottles. If players are not good at tossing the bottles then the Clown is pretty miserable to play as. However, the Clown does have a redeemable feature in the form of his perk Pop Goes the Weasel, which is great for setting back generators after hooking a survivor.
Plague - Plague is one of the more interesting killers in the game. Added with the Demise of the Faithful DLC, her ability allows her to corrupt objects around the map. When she uses her Vile Purge, it corrupts the object (or survivor) and any time a survivor comes into contact with something or someone that is corrupted, they too get corrupted. While corrupted, a time will count down and when completed the survivor will be put into the injured state and cannot heal without cleansing the corruption at a pool.
When a survivor cleanses in a pool, the Plague can use that pool to get Corrupt Purge which will damage survivors when the Plague throws up on them. The Plague is certainly interesting to play as but if players are just putting up with the corruption instead of cleansing it then the Plague is severely limited in terms of options. However, a recent buff makes it so she can always get at least one pool of Corrupt Purge in a match so at least she isn't completely powerless when no survivor's cleanse.
Demogorgon - From the popular Netflix series Stranger Things, the Demogorgon came to Dead by Daylight alongside survivors Steve and Nancy in the Stranger Things crossover DLC. While the Demogorgon certainly looks terrifying, it is certainly not the most threatening among the Dead by Daylight roster. Its special ability allows the Demogorgon to place portals along the ground that allow it to traverse the Upside Down to quickly move across the map. These portals can be broken by survivors after use so it does have a drawback.
The Demogorgon can also activate Of the Abyss which allows it to lunge if attacking as well as revealing survivors who are near activated portals. Surge is the only Demogorgon perk that is really worthwhile as it really helps slow survivors down by regressing generators. Cruel Limits is incredibly situational as it's only useful if chasing a survivor who just finished a generator, and even then it only lasts for 30 seconds at max level.
The Deathslinger - The Deathslinger is the newest killer being added to Dead by Daylight in the upcoming 'Chains of Hate' Chapter DLC. As always, Behavior released The Deathslinger early on the Player Test Build for players to try before releasing the character officially with the DLC, and first impressions matter.
His power, The Redeemer, is a rifle that fires a chain that tethers a survivor and drags them to The Deathslinger. The survivor can struggle and break the chain or use the environment to help break the connection. The power itself is pretty helpful when struggling against looping survivors, but high-skill players will find ways to easily break the connection.
His perks are unique, but none that feel particularly powerful in the long run. Gearhead is great for revealing generators and finding survivors, but if a survivor does not get skill checks due to RNG it is useless. Dead Man's Switch punishes survivors who get off of generators to help a teammate off a hook, but at max level the 45 second timer may not be enough - especially with a coordinated team. Hex: Retribution is also a great perk for finding survivors but Hex totems in general need a rework for them to be viable. If a power can be cleansed in the first 30 seconds of the game it's essentially useless.

D Tier

Trapper - One of the original killers in Dead by Daylight, the Trapper specializes in placing bear traps around the map that will trap survivors. The ability is simple but unfortunately survivors can manually trip the traps as to not step in them and it's frustrating to constantly keep re-arming the traps. Overall, the Trapper needs a hard buff to keep him in line with the other top-tier killers.
Wraith - The second original killer in the bottom rung of the leader boards, the Wraith specializes in turning invisible and sneaking up on survivors. However, the invisibility isn't perfect and survivors can actually knock the Wraith out of invisibility using flashlights which are all-too common for survivors to bring into a match. While there are some pretty good builds for Wraith, they are more fun than practical for high rank play.
Legion - Last on the list is Legion, one of the more recent killers added to the game. The constant reworks and nerfs to Legion have made them virtually unusable and more tedious to play than fun. The concept of a killer being able to vault and slide across pallets like a survivor is interesting, but since Legion specializes in the delayed downing of survivors it's more annoying to play them than its worth. Behavior has made this promising killer into a joke among the Dead by Daylight community.

Dead by Daylight has made a name for itself as one of the best asymmetrical games out there, and due to the competitive nature of the game, playing the best killer is a key part of it. While there are some killers that are more fun to play than practical, some need some real adjustments. Behavior really needs to rework several of the current killers (and the one that's about to be added to the game) to make the game's meta a lot more interesting for both killers and survivors.