Dying Light players can get its battle royale spin-off for free

(Image credit: Techland)

Dying Light, Techland's up close and personal zombie-killer, is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year. Since launch it has had five years of great support from Techland. Continuing that tradition, all players have been given a freebie.

If you own Dying Light on PC or console, you can grab a free copy of Dying Light: Bad Blood. I'll be honest, I thought it was dead. The battle royale spin-off launched in Early Access back in 2018, and it was pretty good, too. Instead of 100 players, there are just 12, but they're joined by countless zombies and hives that you need to destroy so you can level up. The small scale, focus on melee and the return of Dying Light's excellent parkour made it stand out from the other battle royales. Unfortunately, it never caught on.

After a small spike at launch, daily player numbers quickly dipped to below 100, and for the last year you'd be lucky to find enough people just for one 12-person game. Techland has been quiet on the subject of Bad Blood for almost a year now and hasn't updated it since March. It's a shame, as it had some promise.

Hopefully the free offer will inject some life into it. Already, it's had an effect. According to Steam Charts, it's almost back to its peak player count at launch, with 347 people playing together as of an hour ago. It's not a dizzying number, but more than enough to get a bunch of games going. I might have to pop back in for old times' sake.

To get your free copy, all you need to do is visit Techland's site, log in or register, and then link whatever account you bought Dying Light on. Once you're done, you'll get a Steam code for Bad Blood.

Techland's still working on Dying Light 2, as well, but recently delayed the sequel and didn't indicate when it would appear.

Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he's been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he's not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog.