ScottGames

How many copies did Five Nights at Freddy’s sell? — 2023 statistics

Surviving the numbers game after dark.

Fact-checked
First Released
August 8, 2014
Genre
Survival horror
Developer
ScottGames
Publisher
ScottGames

The 2014 era of gaming was a fantastic time for horror games from a variety of settings, from Sci-Fi survival in Alien Isolation to dream state wandering in The Evil Within. Horror games were doing quite well, but one release topped all of those as it was the point when an entirely new, extensive franchise was formed. Of course, we’re talking about Five Nights at Freddy’s. The first game was released in August 2014 and set on the night shift of a pizza place that had “haunted” animatronics roaming the halls. All of the gameplay was focused on checking cameras and closing the doors to your office when something was fishy, but that simplicity is precisely what made the game so scary. Since then, there have been 9 mainline FNAF games, each one connected through the fictional pizza place from the first game. Since this series has become globally popular since its very first release, we are going to be listing some Five Nights at Freddy’s statistics just to see how the series has been performing. We love talking about a wide variety of games here, and they are all connected through the gaming industry. Should you have any more questions, we can tell you how big the video game industry is!

Five Nights at Freddy’s key stats

Take this as a sort of anchor point for all of the statistics since there is a wide variety of them. This entire section will take a look at the Five Nights at Freddy’s series and see how it has performed in both sales and revenue, as well as anything else we might find about the success of the games on the market. For some variety, we’ll also include any relevant news postings for new games or updates to the franchise.

The first six Five Nights at Freddy’s games have sold over 4.74 million units on Steam.

(Source: VG Insights)

  • Five Nights at Freddy’s has sold 2.1 million units.
  • Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 has sold 937,000 units.
  • Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 has sold 386,000 units.
  • Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 has sold 626,000 units.
  • Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location has sold 363,000 units.
  • Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted has sold 336,000 units.

Although the information regarding the total sales of the entire series might be a bit scarce, the available information is more than enough to create a healthy perspective of the overall success of the series. It is apparent that the first game in the series has sold the most copies, and that makes sense as it is the game that jumpstarted the series to grow to the popularity it has today.

The first six Five Nights at Freddy’s games have made over $33.5 million on Steam.

(Source: VG Insights)

  • Five Nights at Freddy’s has made $7.5 million.
  • Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 has made $5.5 million.
  • Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 has made $2.4 million.
  • Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 has made $3.8 million.
  • Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location has made $2.1 million.
  • Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted has made $7.1 million.

The profit that only a few games in the series have generated is enough to secure the creator of the series for life, but it also paints a picture of what a single indie developer can achieve through effort and creativity. It’s comparable to the success of Stardew Valley, with the most notable difference being that FNAF spawned a massive franchise while Stardew Valley emphasized community dedication for the impressive success of a single game.

Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach has sold 1.3 million units.

(Source: VG Insights)

  • The game has grossed 42.4 million units on Steam.
  • Its average playtime is 22 hours.
  • The median playtime is 15.7 hours.
  • 84.7% of the game’s Steam reviews are positive.

Security Breach is the newest installment in the series as of the time of writing, and it has proven to be a massive success, although it has not surpassed the first game in the series in both sales and popularity. It’s a good game, and it is paving the way for the Five Nights at Freddy’s series to move from indie mini-game territory to modern games with AAA potential.

GDQ banned the entire Five Nights at Freddy’s series from their events.

(Source: Dot Esports)

  • GDQ (Games Done Quick) is an organization that holds speedrunning tournaments for charity.
  • Hogwarts Legacy, all Harry Potter games, and the entire Five Nights at Freddy’s series were banned in 2023.
  • The reason for the Five Nights at Freddy’s ban was donations made by the creator of the games to Republican organizations.
  • Other than that, GDQ only bans games that have unsuitable narratives, origins, and controversy surrounding them.

This is where the controversy surrounding the series starts. Scott Cawthorn, while brilliant at designing games, has made some questionable choices regarding his political affiliations and donation circles, which prompted some backlash from the community. A notable example of the consequences of his choices is getting all of his games banned from GDQ, the leading speedrunning event organizer. However, this doesn’t spell the series’ doom as GDQ is going to investigate the games and maybe allow them to be held at the events.

A Five Nights at Freddy’s movie is in development.

(Sources: The Digital Fix, The Gamer, ScreenRant)

  • The movie should be released in late 2023 or early 2024.
  • The movie reportedly cast Elizabeth Lail as one of the lead actors.
  • Markiplier, the Youtuber who made Five Nights at Freddy’s popular, has stated that he could not talk about being in the movie, suggesting that it is possible.
  • The movie might have issues with facing the game’s extensive lore, creating a make-or-break situation.
  • Scott Cawthorn frequently caused delays in the movie’s development due to his creative liberties.

This is beginning to be a big thing in the gaming industry as more and more games are being adapted into movies and TV shows. This is not always a good thing, as producers sometimes overlook the need to stay faithful to the source material in favor of putting trendy spins on their productions which leaves fans disappointed. The FNAF movie is also going to run into tremendous problems when it comes to connecting the games’ lore to present it properly and set everything up for future movies.

The Five Nights at Freddy’s series also has 20 books.

(Sources: Toppsta, WeGotThisCovered, Reddit, DualShockers)

  • The extensive lore of the game allowed for 20 books to be written.
  • There are also 5 graphic novels.
  • There are 4 guides for understanding the series.
  • There is even an official cookbook with over 40 recipes.
  • An artist that worked on many of the book covers was banned from the Five Nights at Freddy’s subreddit for harassment and transphobic comments.

We’ve mentioned the extensive lore that the mainline games of the series present so well, but the setting of the games and the stories that they tell have also allowed writers to craft books filled with additional information and lore surrounding the series as a whole. This is a massive development when you consider the humble beginnings of the first game released back in 2014.

Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach had 6.3 million hours watched on Twitch in 2022.

(Source: SullyGnome)

  • The game had 288,574 broadcasting hours.
  • It had 722 viewers on average.
  • 32 channels were streaming the game, on average.
  • Its max viewer count was 127,392.
  • 80,046 broadcasters streamed the game.
  • The average number of hours watched for the first 5 games in their best years is 1.15 million.

The final line of stats we have for you is concerned with the Twitch success of the latest installment of the series at the time of writing. The game has been fairly popular since it was released in 2021, and it’s apparent when you look at its Twitch accolades. Aside from that, we’ve also checked out some of the best years for the first 5 games in the series, and have found that they have over a million hours watched on average, which bodes well for the longevity of the series.

To sum up

Something that you might notice about the information presented here is that there are not that many concrete numbers regarding the series’ sales and revenue, and that is because all of the games were created by an indie developer and they do not get the same press coverage as AAA titles and more well-known games. The Five Nights at Freddy’s series is more centered around the community than anything else because it was the community and the right user engagement that put the series on the map in the gaming industry. Since 2014, there have been so many Five Nights at Freddy’s games that it is hard to keep count, and the lore around the series has flourished into something of exceptional quality.

Sources

  • “Five Nights at Freddy’s – Steam Stats”. VG Insights, 2023, https://vginsights.com/game/319510
  • “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 – Steam Stats”. VG Insights, 2023, https://vginsights.com/game/332800
  • “Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 – Steam Stats”. VG Insights, 2023, https://vginsights.com/game/354140
  • “Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 – Steam Stats”. VG Insights, 2023, https://vginsights.com/game/388090
  • Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location – Steam Stats”. VG Insights, 2023, https://vginsights.com/game/506610
  • “FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S: HELP WANTED”. VG Insights, 2023, https://vginsights.com/game/732690
  • “Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach – Steam Stats”. VG Insights, 2023, https://vginsights.com/game/747660
  • “GDQ bans Hogwarts Legacy and all Harry Potter games”. VG Insights, 2023, https://dotesports.com/hp/news/gdq-bans-hogwarts-legacy-and-all-harry-potter-games
  • “Markiplier “Can’t Say Anything” About Appearing In The Five Nights At Freddy’s Movie”. TheGamer, 2023, https://www.thegamer.com/markiplier-cant-say-anything-about-appearing-in-five-nights-at-freddys-movie/
  • “The Five Nights At Freddy’s Movie Already Has A Huge Lore Problem”. ScreenRant, 2023, https://screenrant.com/five-nights-at-freddys-movie-lore-problem-fix/
  • “FNAF Movie Doesn’t “Have The Right To Do Anything” Creator Scott Cawthon Doesn’t Like, Causing Delays”. TheGamer, 2021, https://www.thegamer.com/fnaf-movie-delay-director/
  • “Five Nights at Freddy’s Movie Reportedly Casts Netflix You Actress”. Comic Book, 2023, https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/five-nights-at-freddys-fnaf-movie-cast-netflix-you-elizabeth-lail/
  • “Five Nights at Freddy’s movie release date speculation, cast, and more”. The Digital Fix, 2023, https://www.thedigitalfix.com/five-nights-at-freddys/movie-release-date
  • “Regarding the Situation with LadyFiszi”. Reddit, 2023, https://www.reddit.com/r/fivenightsatfreddys/comments/11doiuv/regarding_the_situation_with_ladyfiszi/
  • “An official ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ artist is banned from the series subreddit following controversy”. We Got This Covered, 2023, https://wegotthiscovered.com/gaming/an-official-five-nights-at-freddys-artist-is-banned-from-the-series-subreddit-following-controversy/
  • “Five Nights at Freddy’s Series”. Toppsta, 2023, https://toppsta.com/books/series/22268/five-nights-at-freddys
  • “Five Nights at Freddy’s”. SullyGnome, 2021, https://sullygnome.com/game/Five_Nights_at_Freddys/2021
  • “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2”. SullyGnome, 2020, https://sullygnome.com/game/Five_Nights_at_Freddys_2/2020
  • “Five Nights at Freddy’s 3”. SullyGnome, 2020, https://sullygnome.com/game/Five_Nights_at_Freddys_3/2020
  • “Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location”. SullyGnome, 2021, https://sullygnome.com/game/Five_Nights_at_Freddys_Sister_Location/2021
  • “Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach”. SullyGnome, 2022, https://sullygnome.com/game/Five_Nights_at_Freddys_Security_Breach/2022
  • “Five Nights At Freddy’s Official Cookbook Will Let You Try Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza”. DualShockers, 2023, https://www.dualshockers.com/five-nights-at-freddys-official-cookbook-will-let-you-try-freddy-fazbears-pizza/
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