Surprise! Dying Light: The Beast releases early — here's exactly when you can play at its new launch time and parkour across Techland's latest zombie game

New high-quality zombie games tend to come few and far between these days, which is why their arrivals are looked forward to passionately by fans of the genre — especially if they're major AAA releases that bring hours and hours of gameplay content.

Such is why excitement is high for Dying Light: The Beast, the third entry in Techland's long-running, fan-favorite Dying Light franchise, a follow-up to 2022's Dying Light 2: Stay Human, and a direct sequel to the original 2015 title. It puts players back in the shoes of the first game's protagonist Kyle Crane 13 years later as he hungers for revenge against the Baron, a scientist that experimented on him for years with the Harran Virus.

The new game is now just a week away from its scheduled release, and unsurprisingly, the hype surrounding it has reached a fever pitch. And as a result of that, tons of fans are curious about when specifically they'll be able to jump into its ultra-violent zombie carnage on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PS5 (and on Xbox One and PS4, when the last-gen versions of the game come out later in 2025).

Luckily, the developers have announced Dying Light: The Beast's exact release dates and launch times well ahead of its arrival — and surprisingly, Techland is actually releasing it a day early to celebrate one million preorders. Officially, Dying Light: The Beast is scheduled to launch on September 18, 9:00 a.m. PT / 12:00 p.m. ET, instead of on September 19 as it was originally going to.

The graphic and table below both list all of the game's global release times across various time zones; if you don't see yours, you can use this converter to determine when it will unlock in your region. Note that Dying Light: The Beast's launch times are the same across all of its platforms, also.

While Dying Light: The Beast's encroaching launch has been somewhat overshadowed by juggernaut releases like Hollow Knight: Silksong and Borderlands 4, it nevertheless looks to be one of 2025's most exciting releases for anyone who's into zombie games, action titles, and open-world experiences.

Notably, compared to the previous two Dying Light games that were largely set within urban areas, The Beast is mixing things up with Castor Woods — a heavily forested region in which developed areas are broken up by swathes of woodland.

Given that fluid parkour movement is core to Dying Light's formula, it's making a return in the new title, though you'll also be able to travel on the ground quickly as well thanks to speedy vehicles. The franchise's central "explore and scavenge during the day, run and hide at night" gameplay loop is back, too.

As for Kyle Crane himself, the experiments performed on him have given him beastly powers reminiscent of fearsome Volatile zombies that will manifest as brutal abilities and attacks you can use in combat. Like the game's marketing highlights, he's "half survivor, half beast," with each half supporting a different playstyle.

Ultimately, what was originally just going to be a DLC for Dying Light 2 looks to be quite an impressive game in its own right, and definitely one to keep an eye on as reviews and its launch come next week (check out our hands-on preview). Personally, I've always preferred the more grounded feel of something like Dead Island 2 over Dying Light's parkour-driven gameplay, but I'll probably still check out The Beast eventually.

Note that if you're interested in preordering Dying Light: The Beast, you can pick up your copy now for $59.99 on the Xbox store, Windows PC (Steam and the Epic Games Store), and the PlayStation Store.