Five Nights at Freddy’s (FNaF) had a very successful opening on Halloween weekend, netting $78 million in the USA. A combination of factors led to the film’s triumph in theaters. Chief among them was the movie’s PG-13 rating, which allowed teenagers familiar with the FNaF lore to watch the video game adaptation.
FNaF is not based on a true story; it is a fictional narrative created by Scott Cawthon
Five Nights at Freddy’s is based on a fictional story created by Scott Cawthon. The game has a rich and complex lore involving possessed animatronics and supernatural occurrences, which players uncover as they progress through the levels.
Reports claiming a true crime inspired FNaF are false. Cawthon, who previously developed Christian-oriented games, said the motivation to create a scary game came from negative reviews about a title he’d engineered. He told Indie Game Magazine:
“I’d made a family-friendly game about a beaver before this, but when I tried to put it online, it got torn apart by a few prominent reviewers. People said that the main character looked like a scary animatronic animal. I was heartbroken and was ready to give up on game-making. Then, one night, something just snapped in me, and I thought to myself- I bet I can make something a lot scarier than that.”