Five Nights at Freddy’s (FNAF) was one of the OG indie games that soared to popularity on the backs of influencers. Let’s Plays of the short yet brutally punishing original game were catnip to a new generation of YouTube fans. A decade on, series creator Scott Cawthorn has pushed the original concept of killer animatronics to its limits. Within the FNAF universe there are multiple games of different genres, an endless stream of merchandise, and even a feature film in 2023.
2025 is a big year for FNAF: In June, the latest entry in the series Secret of the Mimic released, and in December a sequel film is slated for release as well. With these two new entries, FNAF needs to prove that it can build a world that justifies branching storylines and, of course, new creepy animatronics. Streamers will be a big part in making that case convincing to audiences, so we’re looking at how streamers supported Secret of the Mimic upon release and how streamers can be used to support the series moving forward.
Secret of the Mimic Brings OG Streamers Back into Five Nights at Freddy’s
First off, we’re using the latest FNAF game as a litmus test for the series’ current popularity. Secret of the Mimic managed to bring in 3.8M hours watched in its first week, outperforming the previous series’ entry Into the Pit (though, notably, that game had a very different gameplay style). The game’s peak viewership was also decent at 171K, matching that of other popular recent game releases like Dune: Awakening. Overall, the live-streaming response proved that the series still has an active, engaged fanbase.
However, Secret of the Mimic had a number of changes to the formula which felt strange to series veterans. For this newest title, developer Steel Wool Games opted for puzzle/exploration gameplay that was more similar to Poppy’s Playtime than the series’ origins. Though this is a shift for the series, the game was still well-received. The main reason for the positive reception was Secret of the Mimic’s integration into FNAF lore by exploring the series’ origins. Narrative is a big part of FNAF games, creating mystery to fuel fan theories and speculation: An element that makes the series appealing to streaming audiences who collectively piece the story together.
The top streamer for Secret of the Mimic was Brazilian Indie Horror YouTuber Core with 238K hours watched in the game’s debut week. Many of Secret of the Mimic’s top streamers were OG YouTubers, like Markiplier and MatPat (streaming under GTLive) with 210K and 162K hours watched, respectively. Note again that GTLive (Game Theory) was one of the earliest channels to generate interest in the story of FNAF, with MatPat even having a cameo in the 2023 film. Among the other streamers here, there are family-friendly YouTubers like KreekCraft (94K), despite FNAF being a more “mature” game. Targeting a younger audience dipping their toes into horror games is another key audience niche for FNAF.
Five Nights at Freddy’s Depends on New Content for Live Streaming Boosts
Over the past few years, FNAF viewership has largely remained consistent. Monthly viewership across all FNAF games has floated around ~800K hours watched since the pandemic, demonstrating the series’ staying power. We recently saw a similar post-pandemic curve for the Resident Evil series, where new streamers were constantly trying out the games and keeping viewership afloat. This trend makes sense for horror games whose mechanics remain engaging even with age. The original Five Nights at Freddy’s game seems to be the most popular in the franchise, but remember that’s based on the streaming category ( people may choose to stream any FNAF game under this label). Still, as the original, this game will be most people’s entry point into the series.
Spikes in viewership almost exclusively come from new content. The largest of these came during COVID when Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach, with that game alone hitting 9.7M hours watched. This viewership was incredibly impressive, but unfortunately it came from what is widely considered to be one of the weaker entries in the series. Additionally, it’s worrying that there are few spikes outside of new content releases: FNAF should be hosting more events among streamers to keep their fans engaged between new content, especially with game development cycles getting longer.
How Do You Find New Audiences for Five Nights at Freddy’s?
Another issue with FNAF’s streaming profile is that it mostly relies on activating already converted, diehard fans of the franchise to support games when they come out. For a massively popular series, finding streamers who would be interested but haven’t tried it out yet can be hard… but not impossible. Our solution? We created a list of games similar to FNAF (all being horror games of some sort), then found streamers who had played those games in 2025 but had never played FNAF.
Looking at this list of streamers, a few key prospects for future influencer marketing outreach stand out. Otzdarva, for example, had just under 2K mentions of “FNAF” on his streams, indicating that his audience is clearly interested in the title despite him never having touched the game. If Otzdarva was to make FNAF content in partnership with Steel Wool Studios, they’d both benefit: Otzdarva would satisfy his viewers’ curiosity, and Steel Wool Studios would reach new audiences.
The reason why so many of these streamers had high mentions of FNAF on their channels is clear: FNAF recently launched a collaboration with Dead by Daylight where Springtrap (the antagonist of FNAF) was added to the game’s roster of Killers. As a result, many fans of Dead by Daylight streamers were chatting about FNAF and, conversely, many FNAF fans were checking out Dead by Daylight streamers for the first time. This is a mutually beneficial relationship for the two games… but Dead by Daylight is getting the lion’s share of the benefit by attracting diehard FNAF fans to its game. For FNAF to get the most out of this collaboration, they should also actively partner with Dead by Daylight streamers to try out FNAF games.
Five Nights at Freddy’s Jumps to Film, But Should Bring Streamers Along With Them
Live-streaming support shouldn’t just be relegated to game launches. Streamers can also support a franchise’s transmedia efforts as well, taking their in-built gamer fanbases and turning their attention towards new book, board game, and film releases.
When the FNAF film was released back in 2023, there was a surge of demand for FNAF content on platforms like Twitch. Hours watched across all FNAF games surged from just 287K two weeks before the film’s release to a peak of 883K the week after the film’s release – a massive 3X boost in viewership. This hype lasted about a month before subsiding again, showing a short-term wave of interest from streamers.
However, what’s more interesting to us is the number of unique channels covering the game as a result of the film’s release. Over three weeks, 20K more unique channels dove into the world of FNAF due to film marketing and storytelling. Around 90% of these new channels were on Twitch, despite FNAF being historically supported by YouTube Gaming viewers. Among the streamers who played a FNAF game in the 30 days after the movie came out, there were some massive names: Jynxzi, IShowSpeed, and Usada Pekora all jumped on the bandwagon. Streamers rightly recognize new FNAF content as an event worthy of coverage: It could be worth reaching out to these streamers to create tie-in streams.
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FNAF struck big because of creators: This gives it a massive lead in prestige over other games that are only just now venturing into influencer marketing campaigns. The series should be tapping into that solid fanbase more often to promote its future endeavours. The Dead by Daylight collab is a great start, but it’s hard to stand out there with so many other big IP Killers in the game like Michael Myers and Chucky. In the lead-up to the sequel film, Universal and Blumhouse should consider how they can leverage live-streaming creators to hype up the latest film and get viewers inducted into the story of FNAF.
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