Five Nights at Freddy's (FNaF) is an American multimedia horror franchise created and owned by Scott Cawthon. The franchise began with the release of its first video game on 8 August 2014. Three sequels were released up to July 2015, setting a Guinness World Record for "most video game sequels released in a year". The first seven games were independently developed and published by Cawthon, while he partnered with Steel Wool Studios for the Help Wanted VR sub-series and Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach (2021). 6 spin-off games have also been released, excluding troll games, and the series has inspired numerous fangames, the most prominent of which were later absorbed into the franchise as official spin-offs under The Fazbear Fanverse Initiative.