FNAF Games in Order: The Story’s Earliest Chapter Is a 2025 Game, and 6 Games You Can Skip

There are two correct ways to play the Five Nights at Freddy’s games in order, and they disagree about which game comes first. Release order starts with the original Five Nights at Freddy’s (August 8, 2014) and ends with Secret of the Mimic (June 13, 2025). Story order runs almost the other way: the earliest dated event in the series is Secret of the Mimic, set on September 7, 1979, followed by the 1983 minigames of FNAF 4 and the 1987 events of FNAF 2. The 2014 original lands fourth among the core games.

Wikipedia counts Secret of the Mimic as the eleventh main installment, which is where “eleven mainline games since 2014” comes from. Add three spin-offs and you have 14 games. This guide gives you both orders, the six games you can skip without losing the plot, and the thing older order lists can’t tell you: the oldest chapter in the story is also the easiest place for a newcomer to start.

Quick Start: Which FNAF Order Should You Play?

Play Secret of the Mimic first if you want one self-contained scare tonight, and play the eight core games in release order if you want to unravel the saga the way fans did. Everything else is optional. Here is the 60-second version:

1. Want a single game, no homework? Start with Secret of the Mimic. KeenGamer’s review calls it “a good entry point for new fans, which is a rarity in this franchise.”
2. Want the saga? Play FNAF 1, 2, 3, 4, Sister Location, Pizzeria Simulator, Security Breach (with its free RUIN DLC) and Secret of the Mimic. That is the eight-game spine.
3. Want the clean timeline? Use the story-order table below. Treat every date after 1987 as fan inference.
4. Skip six: Ultimate Custom Night, Help Wanted, Help Wanted 2, FNaF World, Into the Pit and Special Delivery. The skip table shows what each one costs you.
5. Don’t hunt for Special Delivery. Its servers were shut down on March 14, 2024.

All FNAF Games in Release Order (2014–2025)

Eleven mainline games and three spin-offs have shipped since August 2014. Scott Cawthon made the first seven alone; Steel Wool Studios took over from Help Wanted in 2019, according to Wikipedia’s franchise list.

The takeaway from the dates: the first four games shipped in under twelve months (August 2014 to July 2015, with FNAF 4 released early after being scheduled for October 31), and the series then took a decade to circle back to its own origin. Where sources disagree on a date I’ve used the safer form: Ultimate Custom Night is June 2018 because Steam says June 27 and Wikipedia says June 29.

Critic scores are a poor guide to what matters in the story. On Metacritic (via Wikipedia), FNAF 1 sits at 78, FNAF 3 at 68, FNAF 2 and Sister Location at 62, and Security Breach at 64 on PC. Sister Location is among the weakest-reviewed of those and still the game where, per the wiki’s timeline, Michael Afton works as a technician at Circus Baby’s, while the spin-off Into the Pit scored 87 and is skippable. Quality and story weight are different axes.

All FNAF Games in Story Order (Chronological)

Story order starts with Secret of the Mimic (1979), then FNAF 4 (1983), FNAF 2 (1987) and FNAF 1 (early 1990s), and ends with Security Breach, Help Wanted 2 and RUIN in the 2030s. There is no official master timeline. As GameSkinny puts it, “nobody outside the creators knows with certainty which order the games go in,” so the table below follows the community wiki’s core timeline and labels how solid each date is.

The pattern in the table is simple: the further you get from 1987, the more the order is fan reasoning rather than anything the games state. Among the older games, the Bite of ’83 and the Bite of ’87 are the events the games name, which is why FNAF 4 and FNAF 2 are the safest anchors.

Where Sister Location goes is the one open call

Three of the order lists we checked put Sister Location before FNAF 1: esports.net ranks it third, and The Popverse and GameSkinny both slot it between FNAF 2 and FNAF 1. The community wiki puts it after FNAF 1 because HandUnit says Circus Baby’s Entertainment and Rental launched after Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza closed, and the wiki itself notes it’s unclear which closure that means. We follow the wiki and flag the question mark. The two games happen in different buildings, so swapping them is cheap.

FNAF 4 has two dates

FNAF 4’s minigames are dated to 1983, which is why it sits second. The main bedroom gameplay is “commonly speculated to take place during or after the events of the original Five Nights at Freddy’s,” per the same wiki. If you play for atmosphere rather than lore, that distinction changes nothing; if you’re arguing about the timeline online, it’s the whole fight.

Where Secret of the Mimic Fits (and Why It’s the Easiest Starting Point)

Secret of the Mimic is the earliest dated story in the series and the only game that works as a cold start. KeenGamer reviews it as the prequel to RUIN and the wider series, set in 1979, and its story doesn’t depend on having played the earlier games. You play a Fazbear Entertainment technician named Arnold sent to Murray’s Costume Manor to retrieve schematics while an endoskeleton wearing the mascot costumes stalks the complex (Wikipedia’s summary). In the wiki’s timeline, that same Mimic is later freed in RUIN, so the game doubles as the villain’s origin.

Practical details as of October 2026:

• Platforms: PS5 and PC launched June 13, 2025; the Xbox release came December 16, 2025, and Switch followed. Sources give two different Switch dates, so check your eShop.
• Reception: about 86% positive on Steam (roughly 7,000 reviews when we checked), 7.5/10 from KeenGamer, which also complains of “a collection of good set pieces with padding in between.”
• Length: the developers told an interviewer the main game takes 8–10 hours and full completion 18–20, according to GamerBlurb. Some players report finishing far faster, so treat those hours as a ceiling.

One name trap: Roblox has an unrelated horror game called The Mimic, covered in our Roblox best horror games ranking. If you want FNAF’s survive-the-night structure without FNAF, that same list notes Residence Massacre borrows it.

The 6 FNAF Games You Can Skip (and What Skipping Costs)

Skip Ultimate Custom Night, Help Wanted, Help Wanted 2, FNaF World, Into the Pit and Special Delivery and you still get the whole story, because the other eight games are the spine. “Skip” here means “you won’t be lost without it,” not “it’s bad.” This is our editorial call; GameSkinny’s list of optional games overlaps ours but also drops Pizzeria Simulator, which we keep.

The cheapest skips are the free ones: Ultimate Custom Night and FNaF World cost nothing, so skipping them is a time decision rather than a money one. Help Wanted is the one I’d reconsider if you own a headset: its PS4 version scored 80 on Metacritic, while the Switch flat port scored 53 and critics said it “lacked the immersion of VR.” Don’t play it on Switch.

Why we keep Pizzeria Simulator: it’s free on Steam (93% positive across about 21,000 reviews), and in the wiki’s timeline it’s where Henry burns down the restaurant and Fazbear Entertainment is decommissioned, which reads as the closing chapter of the original saga.

Pick Your Path: Decision Tree and Player Types

Your best order depends on what you want from the series, and the choices differ more than the lists suggest. Follow the branches:

• Do you want one game and no research? Yes: Secret of the Mimic. No: keep going.
• Do you want mystery or clarity? Mystery: play the eight core games in release order. Clarity: use story order, so the Bite of ’83 and the Bite of ’87 land in sequence.
• Do you own a VR headset? Yes: promote Help Wanted from “skip” to “play.” No: leave it.
• Want to be scared with friends? FNAF is built around being alone in a room (the Mimic’s Steam page lists single-player), so see our co-op horror ranking instead.

Security Breach deserves a caveat: it launched rough (Metacritic 64 on PC), and a February 28, 2022 update fixed many technical issues and lowered the difficulty. Play the patched version, and treat its free RUIN expansion as the payoff. For how horror games like these split between jump scares and slow dread, our 15 best horror games ranked by scare type gives the comparison across the genre.

Release Order vs Story Order: What Actually Changes?

Release order keeps the mysteries intact; story order keeps the cause and effect straight. esports.net warns that release order “can accidentally spoil prequel twists (bite of ’83 vs. ’87),” while GameSkinny recommends doing both, release order first and chronological second, because the first pass feels like unraveling lore and the second like assembling it. Our version of that advice is narrower: if you only play once, choose release order for the core eight, because the early games were built as puzzles you piece together, and save Secret of the Mimic for whenever you want, since it stands alone.

The jumpers are Secret of the Mimic, which moves from last to first, and FNAF 4, which moves from fourth to second. Sister Location is the dashed one: its slot depends on the open question above.

Frequently Asked Questions

What order should I play the FNAF games in for the first time?

Play the eight core games in release order, or start with Secret of the Mimic if you want a standalone scare. Release order preserves the lore puzzles; Mimic needs no background.

Is Secret of the Mimic a prequel I should play first?

It is the earliest dated story (1979), but you don’t have to play it first or last. KeenGamer says newcomers can start there, and it works as a late payoff for RUIN fans too, so pick by mood rather than by timeline.

Do I need Help Wanted before Security Breach?

No. Help Wanted sets up Glitchtrap in the wiki’s timeline, but Security Breach is a separate 3D game, and sources such as GameSkinny list both Help Wanted games as optional for story.

Is the FNAF timeline official?

Only partly. The Bite of ’83, the Bite of ’87 and the Mimic’s 1979 setting are anchored in the games; most later dates are fan inference, and no master timeline exists.

Which FNAF games are free?

Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria Simulator and Ultimate Custom Night are free on Steam, FNaF World is free on Game Jolt, and RUIN is a free Security Breach expansion. Special Delivery was free too, but its servers are gone.

Verified on October 2, 2026 against store pages, Wikipedia and the community timeline wiki. Dates after 1987 are fan inference and may change if Steel Wool ever dates them.

Sources

1. Wikipedia. Five Nights at Freddy’s (franchise) — mainline games, spin-offs and RUIN release dates. Wikimedia Foundation
2. Wikipedia. Five Nights at Freddy’s: Secret of the Mimic — plot summary and “eleventh main installment” (linked in the introduction). Wikimedia Foundation
3. Five Nights at Freddy’s Wiki. Timeline (Core Series) — in-universe dates and notes (linked above). Fandom
4. GameSkinny. Best Order for Playing All Five Nights at Freddy’s Games, March 14, 2024 (linked above)
5. KeenGamer. Five Nights at Freddy’s: Secret of the Mimic review — Secret Origins (PS5) (linked above)
6. GamePressure. When does FNAF Secret of the Mimic take place? All we know about the timeline
7. esports.net. All FNAF Games in Order: Which Five Nights at Freddy’s to Play First (linked above)
8. The Popverse. How to play the FNAF games in release and chronological order (linked above)
9. Steam. Five Nights at Freddy’s: Secret of the Mimic — store page and user reviews. Valve
10. Steam. Ultimate Custom Night — store page. Valve
11. Steam. Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria Simulator — store page. Valve
12. Wikipedia. Five Nights at Freddy’s (video game) — release date and reception. Wikimedia Foundation
13. Wikipedia. Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 — release, gameplay and reception. Wikimedia Foundation
14. Wikipedia. Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 — release, gameplay and reception. Wikimedia Foundation
15. Wikipedia. Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 — early release and gameplay. Wikimedia Foundation
16. Wikipedia. Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location — release, structure and reception. Wikimedia Foundation
17. Wikipedia. Ultimate Custom Night — freeware release and gameplay. Wikimedia Foundation
18. Wikipedia. Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted — VR anthology, flat mode and Metacritic scores. Wikimedia Foundation
19. Wikipedia. Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach — launch reception, patches and RUIN DLC. Wikimedia Foundation
20. Gematsu. Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted 2 — release dates by platform
21. Wikipedia. Five Nights at Freddy’s: Into the Pit — release, developer and setting. Wikimedia Foundation
22. Wikipedia. Five Nights at Freddy’s World — release, Steam removal and Game Jolt re-release. Wikimedia Foundation
23. Wikipedia. Five Nights at Freddy’s AR: Special Delivery — release and server shutdown. Wikimedia Foundation
24. GamerBlurb. How Long Is Five Nights at Freddy’s Secret of the Mimic? (linked above)
25. Pure Xbox. Two PS5 Console Exclusives Are Finally Releasing On Xbox Next Week, December 2025 (linked above)

Michael R.

I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.