Five Nights at Freddy's is an indie point-and-click survival horror video game created by Scott Cawthon. It was first released for Windows in August 2014, and quickly became a viral sensation due to its unique gameplay mechanics and deeply unsettling atmosphere. The player assumes the role of a night security guard at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, a dilapidated family restaurant reminiscent of Chuck E. Cheese's. Armed only with a limited power supply and a network of security cameras, the player must survive five nights (and later, additional custom nights) while avoiding homicidal animatronic characters that roam the building after hours.
The game's horror relies not on action or combat, but on resource management, jump scares, and a pervasive sense of dread. The animatronics—Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie the Bunny, Chica the Chicken, and Foxy the Pirate Fox—become more active and unpredictable as the nights progress. Cawthon's minimalist storytelling, conveyed through phone messages from a previous guard and environmental clues, hints at a much darker backstory involving the disappearance of children and the possible supernatural possession of the mascots.
Five Nights at Freddy's spawned a massive multimedia franchise, including numerous sequels, spin-off games, novels, and a feature film. It is widely credited with revitalizing the indie horror genre in the mid-2010s and inspiring a wave of similar games. The series is known for its intricate, fan-driven lore, which has been pieced together over years through hidden minigames, cryptic newspaper clippings, and Cawthon's own cryptic hints.