“Five Nights at Freddy’s” (FNAF) is an indie horror game that was released in 2014 by creator Scott Cawthon. It quickly rose to popularity in the gaming community for its unique and scary game design. Cawthon created a simple point and click survival game, where the player mainly uses a mouse to play the game. We play as a security guard trying to defend himself from haunted animatronics.

Scott continued to release FNAF games and it became a franchise. But with every new game in the franchise comes more backstory to the world of FNAF. Fan theorists pieced together the lore of the game to build a cohesive timeline, because Scott leaves the game’s lore vague and up to interpretation. Many fans have their own versions of the story and FNAF but if you want to uncover the story yourself, it’s best not to play the games based on release date.

OVERVIEW: In 1983 2 genius robotics engineers, William Afton and Henry Emily decided to open a chain of restaurants under the name Fazbear Entertainment where the main attraction was the animatronic suits that they created. The restaurants were a success but co-founder William Afton is secretly a serial killer who uses his creations to trap and kill children. We follow the story of the Afton family as we uncover the horrible things William has done to his wife and kids.

With the release of the newest game Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach, here’s a recap of the FNAF games in chronological order, not by release date.

FNAF 4 (1983)
“Five Nights at Freddy’s 4” takes place in 1983, chronologically being the first game. We play as a crying child defending himself from nightmarish animatronics in his room until sunrise. The crying child, Evan Afton, suffers from nightmares of the animatronics from Fredbear’s Family Dinner. His father William Afton creates these nightmares for him to try and scare him away from the animatronics because William uses the animatronic suits to trap and kill children. But towards the end of the game, Evan’s brother Michael brings him to the diner and his head gets bit off by the animatronic Fredbear because of a malfunction.
FNAF 2 (1987)
Fredbear’s Family Diner is a successful business co-owned by William Afton and Henry Emily. But Henry decided to open a second location, Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria, but this time without William, because he is the prime suspect for the disappearances of five children at the diner. We play as security guard Jeremy Fitzgerald. The animatronics at the location have a facial recognition system meant to keep William away from the place,but there was a malfunction in their system and now the security guard has to wear a Freddy mask to make sure the animatronics don’t attack him.
FNAF Sister Location (Late 80s to early 90s)
After Fredbear’s Family Diner shut down, William opened his own location where he made rental animatronics that can be shipped to birthday parties, when in reality they were just devices to kidnap children. His rental business eventually shut down after his daughter Emily Afton accidentally got trapped by one of the animatronics, Circus Baby. After the place shuts down the souls trapped in the animatronics create a plan to escape. They faked malfunctioning so the player can come and fix them. The player gets lured into the “scooping room” where his insides get scooped out and the animatronics use his leftover skin to escape without suspicion.
FNAF (1993)
The original game takes place in 1993. Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzaria, the location in FNAF 2, just closed down because there was another missing children’s incident caused by William. Henry tries once again to open another restaurant, not knowing that the animatronics he used became possessed by the souls of the missing children. The player plays as another security guard who tries to defend himself from the possessed animatronics trying to get revenge on William. This would be the last time that Henry would ever open a restaurant chain.
FNAF 3 (2023)
30 years after the events of the original FNAF game around 2023, a horror attraction called Fazbear’s Fright is opened to honor the stories that came out of the Fazbear Entertainment’s chain of restaurants. The creators of Fazbear’s Fright look round in the old locations for some memorabilia to add to the attraction. They soon find a broken animatronic suit named “Springtrap” not knowing that William Afton’s corpse is in it. 30 years ago, William breaks into Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria and destroys the animatronics unintentionally releasing the souls of the missing children. William tries to hide in the Springtrap suit only for it to malfunction and crush his body from the inside. The player is yet another security guard but this time we are defending ourselves from William Afton.
Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria Simulator (2023)
Michael Afton burns down Fazbear’s Fright in hopes of burning his Father William Afton to finally kill him. But they both survive the fire. Henry, knowing that there were still haunted animatronics left that weren’t already destroyed 30 years ago, decides to create a fake Pizzeria to lure in the remaining animatronics. The animatronics from FNAF Sister Location, Michael, and William all come to the Pizzaria. We play as Michael trying to decorate the restaurant using salvage animatronics. Once everyone has arrived at the restaurant, Henry then sets a fire and makes sures that all the exits are blocked. Henry and the rest of the cast burn within the walls so their souls can finally rest.
FNAF: Help Wanted (late 2020s early 2030s)
Some time after the events of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria Simulator, a game developer decided to create a VR experience based on the events of the Fazbear Entertainment franchise. One day a box filled with old animatronic parts was delivered to the developers. The developers uploaded the files from the animatronics into the game for a more believable experience. They unknowingly upload William’s AI into the game. We play as a game tester trying out the demo of the game. But the more we play the more we uncover that “glitch trap” code, the AI from springtrap’s suit.

The newest game, Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach, released on Dec. 16, 2021 but the theories are still coming. Student Clay Hernandez says “I don’t know the plot of Security Breach yet, but it’s a fun game and I’ve been watching theory videos about it.” “Five Nights at Freddy’s” is one of the most influential horror games of this generation, the franchise has been a popular game for streamers to play since 2014. Some playthroughs like Markiplier’s first FNAF stream have more than 100 million views as of today. The game has been popular for almost 8 years now and with the release of the newest game, Security Breach, the franchise is making a comeback in popularity.