Game: Dying Light: The Beast
Developer: Techland
Milestone: First anniversary
Report: UNFOLDED — Chapter 1: One Year in Castor Woods
Physical Edition: PS5 Definitive Edition
Pre-orders: September 18 – October 16
🧟 Dying Light: The Beast is one year old, and Techland has marked it with UNFOLDED — a look back at how players spent their first year in Castor Woods. Alongside it, a physical PS5 Definitive Edition is open for pre-order until October 16.
⚖️ More Than a Third of All Playtime Was Co-op
The headline figure is 8.6 billion enemies eliminated, and it’s a good one. But the most revealing number in Techland’s anniversary report isn’t one they called out — it comes from putting two of them side by side.
Players have spent the equivalent of 11,000 years in Castor Woods. Of that, more than 4,000 years was co-op playtime. That means well over a third of everything anyone did in Dying Light: The Beast, they did with friends.
And the 1.7 million players who jumped into co-op spent a lot of time there — roughly 20 hours each, on average, by our rough math. For a game marketed around a lone, half-zombie Kyle Crane hunting down his captor, that’s a striking reminder of what’s kept this series alive for over a decade: surviving the night is more fun with someone watching your back.
10% master plan. 90% chaotic improvisation.
To mark the first anniversary of Dying Light: The Beast, Techland has released UNFOLDED, a snapshot of how the community explored, fought and survived its first year in Castor Woods. Labelled “Chapter 1: One Year in Castor Woods,” it’s packed with numbers — some huge, some hilarious.
Year One, by the Numbers
8.6BEnemies eliminated
1BQuest completions
52MSessions
11,000Years of playtime
345MBeast Mode activations
39MPlayer deaths
1.7MPlayers in co-op
4,000+Years of co-op playtime
The Fun Stuff
Techland sums up the community’s survival strategy as “10% master plan and 90% chaotic improvisation” — and the smaller stats back that up beautifully.
🔱 Pitchfork Justice
Over 6,500 Volatiles — the game’s most feared night-time predators — were killed with pitchforks.
💀 Public Enemy No. 1
The Volatile was the most common cause of death across all 39 million of them.
🔧 Most-Crafted Item
The humble repair kit. Everyone’s weapons were taking a beating.
🥤 Most-Consumed Food
A beverage — water or soda. Staying hydrated in the apocalypse.
🔦 Flashlight Recharges
Over 6 million. Castor Woods is very, very dark at night.
What the Numbers Add Up To
🧮 Our Rough Math
Techland’s figures are rounded, so treat these as ballpark — but dividing them against each other paints a fun picture of the average night in Castor Woods:
• About 96 million hours played in total
• Roughly 1 hour 50 minutes per session on average
• Around 165 enemies eliminated per session
• About 220 kills for every player death
• Three deaths for every four sessions, give or take
• Six or seven Beast Mode activations per session
• More than a third of all playtime spent in co-op
Calculated by TheBigBois.com from Techland’s published totals. Not official figures.
A Physical Definitive Edition for PS5
The anniversary celebrations aren’t over. Techland is also bringing Dying Light: The Beast — Definitive Edition to shelves on PlayStation 5, with pre-orders open from September 18 to October 16.
📦 Three Versions
The physical release comes in three forms, with Super Rare Games branding on the limited editions:
• Anniversary Edition — a boxed collector’s version. Limited quantity, to be announced.
• SRG Standard Edition — the Super Rare Games standard release. Limited quantity, to be announced.
• Retail Version — the standard boxed copy
Pricing and exact quantities haven’t been confirmed yet, and Techland notes the artwork is subject to change. If you want one of the limited versions, the pre-order window closes October 16.
About Dying Light: The Beast
You play Kyle Crane, the original Dying Light’s protagonist, who escapes after years of painful experiments at the hands of the Baron. Left with both human and zombie DNA, he has to control his inner beast long enough to take revenge on the man responsible.
It’s set in Castor Woods, a beautiful valley now overrun with zombies instead of tourists, blending open-world action with survival horror. As ever in Dying Light, the real horrors come out at night — which, judging by the Volatile’s body count, the community has learned the hard way.
The game has also had a strong year with critics: it’s nominated for Best Game and Technology at this year’s Central & Eastern European Game Awards, with winners announced in Poznań on October 23.
📅 Physical Pre-Orders: September 18 – October 16
The Dying Light: The Beast Definitive Edition physical release for PS5 is available to pre-order until October 16, in Anniversary, SRG Standard and Retail versions. Limited quantities for the collector’s versions are still to be announced.
Techland is one of Poland’s biggest studios, with 35 years of experience, studios in Wrocław and Warsaw, and more than 500 staff. The Dying Light series has reached over 50 million players.
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