The concept for Five Nights at Freddy's stemmed from the negative reception of Scott Cawthon's earlier game, Chipper & Sons Lumber Co., where players said that the main character resembled a "scary animatronic animal.

[1][6]: 82 The success of Five Nights at Freddy's led to multiple sequels released between 2014 and 2023,[7] and a spin-off game titled FNaF World, launched in January 2016.

[8] Cawthon used Clickteam Fusion 2.5 for game development and Autodesk 3ds Max for 3D graphics,[9] enhancing later titles with professional voice actors and original soundtracks.

[11][12] In 2015, Cawthon expanded the franchise into literature, announcing a multi-book deal with Scholastic in 2016,[13] which began with The Silver Eyes,[14] released on Amazon Kindle on December 17, 2015[15] and in paperback on September 27, 2016.

The player can use an audio-based function on the cameras, which triggers a childlike voice to lure Springtrap, the game's only physical animatronic possessed by William Afton's spirit, away from the office.

[24] In Five Nights at Freddy's 4, the gameplay occurs in a bedroom setting, and instead of being a nighttime security guard, the player takes the role of a small child who experiences nightmarish visions of the animatronics due to fearing their real-life counterparts.

[30] The gameplay of Pizzeria Simulator shares a number of elements with Five Nights at Freddy's 3, including the importance of ventilation and the ability to distract animatronics with sound.

[27] In the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth,[b] and ninth[c] games, the player gains access to a series of (predominantly eight-bit) minigames randomly after death, or after completing a specific task.

The Five Nights at Freddy's series mainly revolves around a chain of family restaurants under the ownership of Fazbear Entertainment, a company founded by Henry Emily and William Afton.

[44] After the closure of a Freddy Fazbear's Pizza location, William dismantles the remaining animatronics in a backroom, releasing the souls that inhabit them who proceed to torment him.

Shortly after, the suit's mechanisms fail and snap shut, crushing William to death as his soul inhabits the animatronic, becoming a bionic revenant called Springtrap.

With help from Michael, Henry sets fire to the restaurant and destroys every animatronic inside, freeing the souls of the children that inhabited them, including Elizabeth.

[44] Years later, Fazbear Entertainment is re-founded and releases an in-universe virtual reality experience based on the past of the restaurant, in an effort to convince the public the company's previous controversies were merely fiction.

[51][52] Various hints and clues imply that, contrary to Phone Guy's explanation, the mobility and hostility of the animatronics results from them being possessed by the vengeful souls of children who were killed at the restaurant.

It is also possible to access hidden Atari-styled minigames that provide further insight on the restaurant's troubled past, showing a purple figure killing multiple children.

[60] This was later revealed as a hoax; the "leaked" download linked to a humorous clone of a previous game of Cawthon's, There is No Pause Button!, in which the main character is depicted wearing the Freddy animatronic head.

[24][53] On April 27, 2015, Cawthon began posting images on his website teasing another game in the series, which was originally titled Five Nights at Freddy's 4: The Final Chapter.

[66][67] The game's story is told through minigames, in which an unnamed young boy is bullied by his older brother because of his irrational fear of a restaurant with a yellow animatronic bear and rabbit called Fredbear and Spring Bonnie, respectively.

[69] On April 23, 2016, Cawthon posted a teaser image on his website of a clown-like animatronic named Baby from an upcoming game titled Sister Location.

Ultimate Custom Night was originally intended to be a post-launch add-on to Pizzeria Simulator, but was eventually turned into a stand-alone game, releasing on June 27, 2018, as freeware.

[80][81] Although unconfirmed, it has been heavily speculated that the game takes place in some version of Hell or Purgatory, where William Afton, following his death in Pizzeria Simulator, is being continuously tortured by the vengeful spirit of one of his victims.

[citation needed] On August 18, 2018, Cawthon confirmed on his Steam thread that the next main installment in the Five Nights at Freddy's series would be available as a virtual reality game.

On December 20, 2023, an official Roblox adaptation by the name of Five Nights at Freddy's: Survival Crew was accidentally released in an unfinished state by its developers, Metaverse Team Frights.

[121] On August 21, 2020, Cawthon announced his plan to help fund and publish Five Nights at Freddy's games developed by fans, bundled with previous installments in their respective series.

[137][138] The novel, published on June 27, 2017, by Scholastic, involves Charlie, the main character from The Silver Eyes, who is "drawn back into the world of her father's frightening creations" while trying to move on.

[141] Directed by Emma Tammi, who co-wrote the screenplay with Cawthon and Seth Cuddeback, the film stars Josh Hutcherson with Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Matthew Lillard appearing in supporting roles.

[29] The Ball State Daily News also gave a positive review, giving the game a 7.6/10 and calling it "an interesting evolution of the Five Nights [at Freddy's] formula".

Rock Paper Shotgun deemed the game "an intriguing mess",[169] with PC Gamer calling it "a neat, customisable take on the classic survival horror formula".

[195] In September 2020, a video featuring Jack Black dancing to The Living Tombstone's first Five Nights at Freddy's fan song went viral on the social media platform TikTok.

in April 2020, wearing a mask headpiece modeled after Glitchtrap, antagonist of Help Wanted and its sequel, where he revealed that he is a fan of the Five Nights at Freddy's series.