All FNAF Games in Chronological Order

There is currently no official Five Nights at Freddy’s timeline that depicts the events of the games in chronological order, but there are hints and clues that have aided teams of a dedicated community of fans to piece together the puzzle left by Scott Cawthon to solve. The FNAFtimeline is not completely definitive, but fan theories and the FNAFcommunity have agreed on a few dates across the series.

All Five Nights at Freddy’s games in chronological order creates an accurate and theorized timeline of events involving the entire canon games, so the Fazbear Fanverse Initiative titles are left out of the equation, as are the mobile games that are no longer available. Instead, the chronological FNAFtimeline will focus on the important mainline games and recent entries like Five Nights at Freddy’s: Into the Pit.

Five Nights at Freddys 4

The Bite of 83 Takes Place

Five Nights at Freddy’s 4is usually the undisputed starting point for the franchise’s games timeline, despite being the last entry in the numbered series of mainline games. In Five Nights at Freddy’s 4, players enter the shoes of a child hiding from nightmare-induced animatronics. Through elusive minigames, the story of William Afton’s son, Mike, is told. Mike is responsible for bullying his little brother, the Crying Child, and causing him to be the victim of the Bite of ’83. These events lead Mike down a path of desperate redemption, and his father, William Afton, to commit to his first murder.

Five Nights at Freddys 2

The Bite of 87

Five Nights at Freddy's 2 is set 4 years after Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 and involves players taking on the role of Jeremy Fitzgerald, a security guard who has been employed at Freddy Fazbear’s newest Pizzeria. Despite the rebranding of new toy-like animatronics, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is anything but kid-friendly, as the location is shut down after murdered children are found within the premises. Five Nights at Freddy’s 2is also the canon Bite of ’87 incident, in which it’s speculated that Mangle bit out Jeremy’s frontal lobe, who was on the day shift.

Five Nights at Freddys: Sister Location

Michael Afton Discovers His Fathers Dark Secrets Around The 90s

A point of contention in the timeline is where Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location takes place. For some, it takes place after Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, where the Pizzeria is shut down, and Michael Afton discovers a secret facility involving his father’s horrific work on animatronics designed to kidnap and harvest children. Working in this facility, Michael attempts to free the souls of the animatronics, one that includes his own sister, Elizabeth as Circus Baby. Unfortunately, he is betrayed by those he attempts to save, and he is lured to the Scooper room, where his insides are scooped out to make room for animatronics to wear his skin to escape. The minigame details Michael’s flesh rotting before spitting the animatronics out, leaving him a rotting corpse who is still alive, destined to fix his father’s crimes and redeem himself for the death of his brother back in Five Nights at Freddy’s 4.

Five Nights at Freddys

Mike Schmidt Begins His Career As a Security Guard Around 1993

Left as a rotting man on a mission, Michael takes the alias of Mike Schmidt, and applies for run-down Fazbear Pizzerias as a nightguard, so that people cannot see his deformities and smell his rotting flesh. He lives in the shadows and works to tamper with the animatronics inside to attempt to free them. Yet, Michael is fired after reports of his bad odor are made clear, and the evidence mounts for him tampering with animatronics after hours.

Five Nights at Freddys: Into the Pit

A Young Boy From the 2020s Travels Back in Time Through a Ball Pit at Jeffs Pizza

The Fazbear Pizzeria seen in Five Nights at Freddy’s has since been burned and rebranded to Jeff’s Pizza in the decades of absence. In an effort to find some engagement in his dying town, a young boy named Oswald enters Jeff’s Pizza and dives into the ball pit, only to find himself in 1985 at the height of Spring Bonnie’s child murder spree. With a time travel aspect, Oswald must save his family and deal with the terrors of Spring Bonnie in the past and present.

Five Nights at Freddys 3

Michael Reunites With William in 2023s Fazbear Frights Location

With mysterious murders being the current craze, Fazbear Frights elects to open as a horror attraction in the year 2023. Needing security guards, Michael Afton sees the perfect opportunity to burn down his father’s horrific legacy and eventually comes face-to-face with a real animatronic: Springtrap, who just so happens to be William Afton, springlocked into a Golden Bonnie suit. To save the souls and put an end to William Afton, he burns Fazbear Frights to the ground, but, William Afton always comes back.

Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator

Animatronics Are Lured To Freddy Fazbears Newest Pizzeria Post-2023

• Platforms: PC
• Released: December 4, 2017
• Developers: Scott Cawthon

The surviving animatronics, and even William Afton, are lured back to a new Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria location, where Michael has once again taken a job to clear up his father’s mess of scrap animatronics. This was a trap designed by William’s old partner, Henry, where once all animatronics are inside, it is burned to the ground to free the spirits within the animatronics. To truly be free, Michael elects to remain in the building to burn alongside his father and the animatronics.

Five Nights at Freddys: Ultimate Custom Night

William Aftons Purgatory Takes Place After Pizzeria Simulator Burns Down

• Platforms: PC, iOS, Android, Mac, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch
• Released: June 27, 2018
• Developers: Scott Cawthon

In Henry’s own words to William Afton, “The darkest pit of Hell has opened to swallow you whole.” Before the devil can take William, he is kept in purgatory to relive the same night in Ultimate Custom Night. Here, William is forced to survive endless torment from the animatronics and children that he wronged. An endless torturous onslaught of his sins awaits him. Yet, with the soul of one of his first kills, Cassidy keeping him alive for this constant torment, he is able to escape and once again cheat death by forcing his willpower onto a circuit board in the remnants of Springtrap’s suit.

Five Nights at Freddys: Help Wanted

The Fazbear Corporation Commission A VR Game For PR in 2029

The story of Five Nights at Freddy’s gets rather meta with Help Wanted. The game itself is a VR game, but it’s completely self-aware that it’s a VR game. After the death of the Afton family, the Fazbear Entertainment corporation tries to pick up steam and clear the brand’s horrific past by covering it all up with a VR game to boost popularity and bring in fresh stacks of cash. A QA tester, Vanessa, is placed into Help Wanted, where her consciousness is merged with William Afton, who had survived on a chip and manifested like a virus, taking the name of Glitchtrap.

Five Nights at Freddys: Security Breach

Gregory is Locked in the Fazbear Mega Pizza Plex in 2035

With the influx of money from the Fazbear corporation’s many digital projects, the Freddy Fazbear Mega Pizza Plex is able to open, and bring new life to Glamrock animatronics in a building that was built atop the burned bodies and spirits of the children in Pizzeria Simulator. The Mega Pizza Plex harbored dark secrets, and it was up to Gregory to take apart the Glamrock animatronics, free Vanessa, and burn Glitchtrap to the ground along with the pizzeria.

Five Nights at Freddys: Help Wanted 2

The Last Employee of Fazbears Mega Pizza Plex is Manipulated by the Mimic

There isn’t much lore in Help Wanted 2, but it’s theorized that the protagonist is Cassie’s father. Cassie is the protagonist of Security Breach’s DLC, Ruin. Help Wanted 2 is hard to decipher, but it acts as a prequel to Security Breach: Ruin, where the protagonist is the last human employee trapped inside the Mega Pizza Plex, left missing, and perhaps controlled by the Mimic (the suffering digital consciousness of Glitchtrap) in an effort to help it escape to real life.

Five Nights at Freddys: Security Breach RUIN

Cassie Tries to Save Her Friend Gregory After 2035

• Platforms: PS4. PS5, PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
• Released: July 25, 2023
• Developers: Steel Wool Studios, Inc.

A Fazbear superfan, Cassie ventures to the ruins of Freddy Fazbear’s Mega Pizzaplex to help her friend, Gregory, escape under the rubble. Yet, not all is what it seems, and being lured into the Pizzaplex by the Mimic will set this monstrous entity free, unleashing new terrors for the franchise that has yet to come to fruition.

Sources: r/FNAFtheories, The Game Theorists