Five Nights at Freddy's has easily become one of the most popular horror game series of all time, with nine games released under the popular title. However, the timeline for these games is notoriously complex, as each one takes place in a different year.
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More Five Nights at Freddy's lore is pieced together with each game released, and with it, players have attempted to list the games in chronological order. If you're looking to play the series in the correct story order, take a look at the list below.
Five Nights At Freddy's Games Chronological Order List
There is plenty of speculation as to where each game falls in the universe's timeline based on lore and hints given to us in the games. We've done our best to lay them out in the order in which we believe they take place in the story, which does not necessarily coincide with their actual release dates.
1. Five Nights at Freddy's 4 - 1983
Five Nights at Freddy's 4 was announced back in 2015 as the fourth game in the series; however, it is believed to be the first chronological game of the series based on the age of the character you play and hints shown during gameplay. You play as a young child who is terrorized by his fear of the animatronics he conjures up in his dark bedroom. The date is believed to be 1983, as revealed by the television show Fredbear and Friends during the game, putting it well ahead of later entries in the series.
2. Five Nights at Freddy's 2 - 1987
Five Nights at Freddy's 2 places the player as the new security guard in Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, where they will encounter unexplainable horrors with the animatronics and learn a lot about the history of the pizzeria from Phone Guy. As Phone Guy dies in Five Nights at Freddy's 1, the game is confirmed to be a prequel. We can place it as the second game in chronological order with the paycheck received after Night 5, dated 1987, just four years after Five Night at Freddy's 4.
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3. Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location - 1987
Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location features a much different setting and style of play, taking place in Circus Baby’s Entertainment. This sister location is first revealed to players in Five Nights at Freddy's 2 by the Phone Guy, which leads us to believe they must be open at the same time or around the same time and allows us to place it as number three on our chronological list.
4. Five Nights at Freddy's - 1993
This is the very first game that was released in the series, where players take on the role of a nighttime security guard who must protect themselves from the malfunctioning animatronics. Despite having the same premise as Five Nights at Freddy's 2, this game is believed to be set in the 1990s based on the decor and environments of the game, as well as the aforementioned death of Phone Guy.
5. Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator - Late 1990s - 2020s
This is a very different type of Five Nights at Freddy's experience, playing as a hybrid simulator and arcade experience where you create pizzas and run your own pizzeria. Along the way, you'll collect various animatronics who will perform in the pizzeria and hunt you at night. While it's hard to place it accurately on the timeline, based on the plot, it is believed to take place after Freddy Fazbear's Pizza closure in an attempt to lure in and ultimately destroy the animatronics once and for all.
5. Five Nights at Freddy's 3 - 2023
Five Nights at Freddy's 3 is much easier to place on the list because the description of the game tells us the events are set 30 years after "Freddy Fazbear's Pizza closed its doors," which we know happened after the events of Five Nights at Freddy's 1. That puts Five Nights at Freddy's 3 somewhere around 2023, where the player guards a new location, Fazbear Frights: The Horror Attraction. The relics and items displayed in the attraction could very well be the remnants of the items from Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, which managed to survive the fire depicted in Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator.
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6. Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted - 2020s
Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted is a collection of minigames set in the Five Nights at Freddy's universe, where you'll interact with many familiar animatronics and locations. At the start of the game, HandUnit tells us that Fazbear Entertainment has developed a negative reputation over the last few decades, which suggests this game must take place after the events of the Five Nights at Freddy's 4, 2, and 1.
8. Five Nights at Freddy's: Special Delivery - 2020s
Five Nights at Feddy's: Special Delivery is another unique game in the Five Nights at Freddy's universe because it was the first mobile game to join the series. In this game, players are haunted by the animatronics visualized in their very own rooms. However, we also see some via emails that are sent between Luis and Ness. Ness is later revealed to be Vanny, or Vanessa, from Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted. This tells us this game takes place pretty close to or a tiny bit after Help Wanted, probably in the late 2020s.
9. Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach - 2024-2029
Although the time period is not fully clear for Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach, there are several reasons why fans speculate that Security Breach is the last on the timeline. The first clue is the fact that the facility is completely abandoned, clearly not being used in the last several years. Another clue is shown in one of the game's potential endings, where you come to the burnt pizzeria area from Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator, suggesting this game happens after those events. With that said, we can safely place it somewhere between 2024-2029.
While none of the dates are set in stone, this is the best guess on where each one of them seems to end up. However, with each game released in the series, the lore continues to grow and change the more players uncover in the games. You can play the games in any order you like and still enjoy them all the same.
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