Unveiling the Impact of Five Nights at Freddy’s Releases: A Wikipedia Analysis
Five Nights at Freddy’s, or otherwise known as FNAF, started out as a spine-chilling indie horror game created by Scott Cawthon. Initially the game was just a casual project, in which Cawthon could have hardly anticipated the extreme amount of attention the game would end up receiving. Many of the games take place within Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, where players find themselves thrust into the role of “the night guard” and are tasked with surviving the night amongst possessed animatronics. The game captivated gamers worldwide, redefining the horror game genre. In my opinion, FNAF gains its popularity not from the jump scares and eerie atmosphere, but the story lore that you slowly get immersed in throughout every game. Within each game there are hidden puzzles and easter eggs that allow you to uncover the true story and more information behind what really happened. This is where my question of interest comes into play that I was so keen on finding out. I wanted to know which games, events, movies, or other FNAF products affected the timeline the most.
The way I was going to answer my question was to look at some Wikipedia data, mostly looking at page views as well as looking at page revisions by users of Wikipedia. If you are unsure what exactly Wikipedia is, it is a collaborative online encyclopedia where users can contribute and edit articles on a wide range of topics. I wanted to dive into page revisions because I believed that when each game came out, I would be able to see how much it affected the pages contents. If there was a significant difference in the page’s size, then that would mean the game had a large impact on the story or lore. I also was curious about page views because I wanted to see what games made people check the page and catch up on all the interesting facts.
As we can see from this graph of revisions by users, Wikipedia started releasing data for the public around 2015, so data on the first couple of games was not included. Clearly, we can see that as more games came out, the larger the size of the page became. Now, the influence each game has on the franchise is slightly apparent here. We can see that the game Pizza Simulator (this is not just a simulator it does play like a real game in the franchise) and the release of the movie did not add much size to the page. This means that the content from each of these creations did not add very much to the overall lore and story. While I cannot ignore the fact that each piece of entertainment adds to the franchise in some way, these two you can see either a flattening of the line, or a slight decline.
This impact from each game and the movie felt like an important aspect for me to touch upon, because if the size of the page grew a ton after an events release, then we would know that the content and the lore from that game or movie was substantial enough for people to add more to the page. Knowing this, I wanted to see the growth of the FNAF Wikipedia page, after a games release and before the next games release.
From this, I found that many of the games showed meaningful change and impact on the FNAF franchise. Like I said above, I was right that the Pizza Simulator game did not impact the franchise much. Games like Sister Location make sense to why the page grew so much from it. Sister Location added tons of new characters and new theories to the lore and content of FNAF. Both Help Wanted and Security Breach stepped away from the prototypical game style as most FNAF games. Help Wanted was a VR game, which added a ton of new perspectives and secret storylines. Security Breach was an open world game that took place within a massive pizza restaurant and gave way to new characters, tons of new theories, and questions about the prior games arose from it. Sister Location, Help Wanted, and Security Breach were monumental to the growth, understanding, and depth of the FNAF lore. I am curious about why the page shortened after the release of the FNAF movie. While the movie did not add to the plot or story of the franchise, I am concerned about what it took away. Did it answer a question about the plot that many overlooked? D From my experience watching the film, I would have said no, so I would love to try and understand why this is.
The last metric I was intrigued by was the FNAF page views. This would most likely help me further understand what fans needed more information on as well as what they were the most interested in.
When I first saw this graph, I was very surprised. The fact that none of the games helped the Wikipedia page receive much attention was shocking. Instead, the lack luster movie that was made nearly quadrupled the second highest views. This just proves that a movie production garners more attention from the media, therefore making people curious enough to search it up on the web.
A couple of conclusions that I made from all this data is that while the movie does not have as much of an effect on the storylines and lore, it provided the FNAF franchise with tons of monetary potential, based on how many people probably saw the trailers. The games on tghe otherhand were the backbone of the franchise, they provided tons of story and lore for fans to follow. Even with so many of the FNAF mysteries that are unsolved, this research has helped understand which games provided the most impact upon the narrative.
