5 Best Video Games Like Five Nights At Freddy's

The original 2014 "Five Nights at Freddy's" is an essential horror game that everyone should play at least once. An indie title by Scott Cawthon, it takes place within a family fun-themed pizzeria backed by an animatronic animal band. Players control a security guard working the overnight shift who discovers the animatronics come to murderous life every night. The game's success launched an entire franchise of sequels, prequels, and spinoffs, not to mention the "Five Nights at Freddy's" movies.

For "Five Nights at Freddy's" fanslooking for more indie horror and thriller games, including titles that feature animatronic antagonists, there are plenty of titles to choose from. We're highlighting games that include similar aesthetics and suspense-driven gameplay while providing their own distinct experience. These games are a mix of more stationary experiences, like the classic "Five Nights at Freddy's" experience, and first-person exploration in the style of its later titles. These are the five best video games like "Five Nights at Freddy's," each one capable of keeping players on the edge of their seat.

A big part of the "Five Nights at Freddy's" experience is the gameplay being punctuated by jump scares whenever players fail. The 2014 game "Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion" takes those sensibilities and runs with them, as its title suggests. The game follows an unnamed protagonist as they explore a notorious haunted house, joined by a ghostly girl named Spooky. The jump scares that players encounter become steadily more intense and frightening as they venture room to room.

With hundreds of randomly generated rooms, no two playthroughs of "Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion" are exactly the same. That adds to a healthy amount of replayability as players see how far they can go on each attempt. The game was remastered in high-definition in 2017 while retaining its lovely lo-fi art design as players navigate the house. A maze exploration game with an escalating fear factor, "Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion" is a deceptively deep experience that continually raises the terrifying stakes.

Rather than taking artistic inspiration from animatronics and toys, the 2017 game "Bendy and the Ink Machine" takes its visual cues from classic animation. The game's protagonist is Henry Stein, a retired animator who returns to his workshop only to find its ink machine has run supernaturally amuck. With sinister animated characters now prowling the grounds of the old studio, Henry has to evade and fight back against his murderous creations to survive. The story unfolds over a series of chapters, and the game culminates in an ominous ending as the true nature of Henry's adventure is revealed.

The real appeal of "Bendy and the Ink Machine" is its art design and the subversion of classic cartoons into merciless enemies. The jump scares like "Five Nights at Freddy's" are certainly present but, since players able to fight back, the frightening elements are primarily derived from its disquieting atmosphere. The game has since spawned its own series, including "Bendy and the Dark Revival" in 2022 and "Bendy: Secrets of the Machine" in 2024. That said, there's something about the charm of the original game that still shines nearly a decade later, and is well worth revisiting.

Another set of survival horror games that derive their scares from lethal animatronics on the loose is the "CASE: Animatronics" series. The highlight of this franchise so far is the 2018 installment "CASE 2: Animatronics Survival," which provides gamers with two different ways to play. The story mode has players navigate levels from a first-person perspective while avoiding hostile animatronics stalking the environment. The online multiplayer mode is an asymmetrical horror experience, with one player controlling an animatronic and hunting up to three other players.

Beyond the animatronics-as-adversaries element, "CASE 2: Animatronics Survival" also has gameplay mechanics that evoke "Five Nights at Freddy's." The most notable of these is giving players the ability to look through security cameras to survey animatronic activity in the area. The addition of the online multiplayer mode is a nice touch and gives it a unique edge over the other titles on this list. A creepy little game with its own nightmarish set of robotic monsters, "CASE 2: Animatronics Survival" keeps players hooked in both of its modes.

Just as "Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach" took its franchise into a bold new direction, "Poppy Playtime" placed players in a first-person mobile experience. Predating "Security Breach" by two months, this 2021 game puts players in an abandoned toy factory where they must investigate what occurred through VHS tapes. "Poppy Playtime" players find themselves pursued by monstrous versions of the factory's toys through its darkened vents and corridors. The game has steadily released new chapters every year, continuing the story and adding new pursuers for players to evade.

"Poppy Playtime" excels at the art of the slow-burn, quietly building up the suspense and dread before the chase begins. This pacing extends to the storytelling, which offers just enough tantalizing details to keep players on the hook to see where this mystery goes next. When the case sequences do happen, they have players on edge, even if they already know the routing to proceed. Another indie game that turns playful monsters into nightmarish hunters, "Poppy Playtime" is a lot of tautly paced fun.

2015's "Five Nights at Freddy's 4" took players out of the pizzaeria and into a lofi house menaced by the animatronics. That repurposing of a domestic setting for survival horror stakes is also explored in the 2026 game "Captured II." The player character, Emily, is confined to an apartment with constantly changing rooms, and must solve puzzles to proceed. Along the way, Emily is stalked by monsters resembling her childhood toys, who try to prevent her from escaping.

"Captured II" mixes puzzle-solving elements with the liminal presentation of "Backrooms" games to set the eerie mood. The addition of the killer toys and the domestic setting aligns with "Five Nights at Freddy's 4," more specifically than the wider "Freddy's" franchise. But the gameplay very much offers its own distinct experience and context clues and the environment really delivers a truly haunting atmosphere. For players looking for a more liminal horror game, "Captured II" really makes the most of its premise and levels to keep fans on their toes.