Five Nights at Freddy's is a horror series that quickly spread into a massive multimedia phenomenon that most developers only dream of creating. With nine mainline games and four spin-offs crammed with monstrous Chuck E. Cheese-styled robots possessed by the ghosts of murdered children, it's safe to say that some of the FNAF animatronics linger in your mind more than others.

RELATED: Every Five Nights At Freddy's Game, Ranked

Whether you’re playing the classics on PC or the new titles on modern consoles, the scariest Five Nights At Freddy’s animatronics never fail to send a chill down your spine and make you glance over your shoulder for things that go bump in the night.

Updated on September 1, 2023 by PJ Molloy: It's a great time to be a FNAF fan. The Five Nights At Freddy's: Security Breach Ruin DLC is scaring people all over the globe with new frights and more terrifying versions of existing animatronics. In addition, there's a ton of buzz surrounding Blumhouse Productions' Five Nights At Freddy's movie. With so many new scares coming left and right, the list of the scariest Five Nights At Freddy’s animatronics just keeps growing. You might want to turn on the lights for this one because some of the new FNAF content contains the most bone-chilling monsters in the series. Reader beware. You’re in for a scare.

20 Ballora Wants To Dance On Graves

Ultimate Custom Night - Ballora Jump Scaring You

Picture this: you're tip-toeing through a dark room with only a small flashlight to guide you. Suddenly, you hear a music box echoing in the darkness. A chill runs up your spine when you realize you're not alone. Someone or something is looking for you.

That's when you meet Ballora in Five Nights At Freddy's Sister Location. The only way to escape this deadly dancing diva is to listen to her song and freeze when it gets close. She could be anywhere in the shadows. She could even be right behind you. It's a frightening part of the game to match one of the scariest FNAF animatronics.

19 Nightmare Lives Up To His Name

Five Nights At Freddy's 4 - Nightmare Staring Into Your Bedroom

Who remembers having their parents check the closet or under the bed for monsters? Nightmare is the amalgamation of those childhood fears. This beastly phantom haunts your bedroom on the final night of FNAF 4, and he makes the other animatronics look like a cakewalk.

Nightmare is the most brutal animatronic in the game, moving with lightning speed between both doors, the closet, and the bed in an unrelenting attempt to force himself into the room. Nothing compares to the horror of opening your door to see his devious smile, baring several rows of sharp teeth. And when you hear his horrific laugh, you'd better prepare for the worst.

18 Ennard Is A Terrifying Combination Of Several FNAF Animatronics

Five Night's At Freddy's Sister Location - Ennard Crawling Into The Living Room

Few scenes from the FNAF series can send goosebumps up your arms than watching Ennard crawl into your living room. Nobody who plays Sister Location is safe from this monstrosity. Ennard is the result of every animatronic from the game tangling up their endoskeletons to form a hideous Frankenstein of a monster.

What makes Ennard one of the scariest animatronics is its wicked plan to scoop out the security guard's skeleton and possess his rotting corpse to pose as a human. And it won't take no for an answer.

17 The Mimic Is The Product Of Your Worst Nightmares

Five Nights At Freddy's Security Breach Ruin DLC - The Mimic In A Hideous, Decaying Mascot Costume

No one will blame you if you don't recognize this FNAF animatronic. The Mimic first appeared in the novels and made his big video game debut in the Security Breach Ruin DLC. This animatronic was designed to imitate people. When its creator lost his son in a car crash, he savagely beat the Mimic half to death in a fit of rage and grief, forgetting that the robot imitates the behavior it sees.

In FNAF Ruin, the Mimic waits for you underneath the Pizzaplex, using its ability to impersonate voices to lure you into the dark tunnels so it can unleash the merciless rage it learned from its creator. Whether you escape this horrifying monster depends on which ending you get.

16 Springtrap Is The Monster To End All Monsters

FNAF Games Ranked - Five Nights At Freddy's 3 - Springtrap Infiltrating The Office

Here he is — the man who started it all. After hearing about the fabled Purple Guy killer for two games, you finally go toe-to-toe with the man who killed the kids possessing the animatronics. Springtrap, also known as William Afton, haunts the halls of Fazbear Frights looking for his next victim, and it seems he has his eyes set on you.

RELATED: Best Five Nights At Freddy's Fan Games

Springtrap is a thing born out of nightmares. He's a rotting corpse trapped in an equally decaying mascot suit. The worst part is that, no matter what you do, you can never get rid of him. You can set him on fire, taser him, or lock him up and seal off the room. None of it will help. He always comes back.

15 DJ Music Man Is One Of The Scariest Animatronics From Security Breach

Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach - DJ Music Man Reaching For Gregory

Five Nights At Freddy's Security Breach offers no in-game explanation for DJ Music Man to be the size of a small house or to have six gangly, spider-like limbs. Don’t let his cutesy piano smile fool you. He’s horrifying in a way that can make the other FNAF animatronics envious.

If there's one thing you should worry about, it's Music Man's experimental Bouncer Mode. When activated, DJ Music Man seeks to remove invaders. Combine his grabby human-sized hands with his love for crawling along the walls, and you have some severe nightmare fuel to haunt your dreams.

14 Map Bot Is The Ultimate Jump Scare

Five Nights At Freddy's Security Breach - Map Bot Standing In A Dark Hallway

Security Breach features a sprawling semi-open world where the main character, Gregory, explores every inch of Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex. It's easy to get lost in the maze-like hallways, and that's where Map Bot comes in. This blank-faced, soulless-eyed animatronic refuses to let you enter certain areas without a trusty map.

The only problem is that Map Bot is overzealous, to say the least. It appears out of nowhere, faster than should be possible, and without any warning. It may not be as physically imposing as the other FNAF animatronics, but its jump scares will never fail to make you scream.

13 Shattered Monty Chases You Relentlessly

Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach - Montgomery Gator (Shattered Monty) Crawling Through A Dark Tunnel

Montgomery Gator replaces Bonnie as one of the core FNAF animatronics in Security Breach. He's a hulking figure with furious rage and disturbing strength for a robot whose primary functions are to play guitar and mini-golf.

Unfortunately for Monty Gator, Gregory crushes him beneath a broken children's ride. His spinal cord may be severed at the waist, but that’s enough to stop him. After the fight, Monty drags his crumbling frame across the floor with the ferocity and vindictive fury of the most vile, vengeful spirits. If that’s not enough to make him one of the scariest Five Nights At Freddy's animatronics, then nothing is.

12 Shattered Roxy Doesn't Need Eyes To Find You

Five Night At Freddy’s Security Breach - Roxanne Wolf (Shattered Roxy) Jump Scaring You

Roxanne Wolf joins the core group of FNAF animatronics in Security Breach, taking the spot so commonly occupied by Foxy. Roxy has the stereotypical personality of a mean person who's deeply self-conscious. She spends the first half of the game delivering forced pep talks to her reflection and shouting insults at you.

The nightmare fuel begins when you run her over with a go-kart and steal her eyes. She hunts for you through the rest of the game, rivulets of oil oozing from her eyeless sockets down her shattered face, using her remaining moments to end yours.

11 The Endoskeleton Plays Deadly Red Light, Green Light

Five Nights At Freddy's Security Breach - The Endoskeleton Staring At You In The Darkness

Almost every other Five Nights At Freddy's animatronic is secretly an endoskeleton in disguise, so it should be no surprise that a few of them choose to flex their haunting, robotic insides. Security Breach has a warehouse level where you must circumnavigate around 50 of these creepy skeletons. And they want to play with you.

RELATED: Five Nights At Freddy’s: Security Breach - All Endings, Ranked

So long as you shine your flashlight on them or keep them within your vision, they remain motionless. The second you turn your focus elsewhere, the endoskeletons move with frightening speed, making for an extremely intense level.

10 Foxy Is The Scariest FNAF Character From The First Game

Five Nights At Freddy's 1 - Foxy In The Office

Five Nights At Freddy’s 1 was revolutionary for the sheer feeling of helplessness it imposes onto you, and nowhere is that more apparent than Foxy the Pirate. This battered animatronic hides behind a curtain in Pirate’s Cove, waiting for you to turn the cameras off so he can sneak out to look for you. You may not be able to see him, but he’s always there and always watching.

Foxy is one of the greatest threats in the game. He’ll sprint toward your office if you don’t constantly keep an eye on him. Once he starts running, there’s no way to stop him. Your only hope is to shut the door before he finds you, easily making him one of the scariest animatronics.

9 Toy Chica Has A Menacing Design

Five Nights At Freddy's 2 - Toy Chica Holding A Cupcake And Grinning

Toy Chica is the Five Nights at Freddy's 2 variant of the menacing bird. Unlike her prior form, this version is composed of shiny metal and plastic that gleams like a bug's carapace. She carries a sentient, malignant cupcake with two soulless eyeballs.

What makes her one of the scariest Five Nights At Freddy’s Animatronics is that her eyes fall out of her skull during the night, leaving two empty sockets that stare at you from the dark hall. If that wasn’t enough, her beak also comes off, exposing her sharp, human-like teeth whenever she flashes her twisted smile.

8 Swamp Balloon Boy Is The Scariest Animatronic From Special Delivery

Five Nights At Freddy's Special Delivery - Swamp Balloon Boy Grinning

Imagine playing Five Nights At Freddy’s: Special Delivery and seeing a strange face in the corner of the room. Empty eye sockets glare at you while a dirt-filled mouth splits his head open like a jagged seam. Grime and mud ooze down his skin made of gnarled tree bark. That’s Swamp Balloon Boy.

Special Delivery was FNAF’s step into the world of Augmented Reality, allowing you to see the animatronics inside your house. Swamp Balloon Boy is the scariest animatronic in the game, taking his relatively tame design from FNAF 2 and pouring a whole bucket of nightmare fuel on it.

7 Shadow Bonnie Taps Into A Very Specific, Very Common Fear

Five Nights At Freddy's 2 - Shadow Bonnie In The Corner Of The Office

Have you ever felt like something is watching you? It’s the fear that something is hidden nearby, lurking in the darkness. Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 taps into that fear with the introduction of Shadow Bonnie. Suddenly, sleep is no longer an option.

Shadow Bonnie is arguably the most mysterious animatronic in the series, appearing in the corner of your office to watch you. He doesn’t scream or attack. He just stares with big glowing eyes and a toothy grin. If you look at him too long, the game will crash. In a way, it’s more unsettling than a jump scare.

6 Yenndo Is One Of The Strangest FNAF Animatronics

Five Nights At Freddy's Sister Location. - Yenndo Standing In A Dark Room

Somewhere in the middle of the series, FNAF designs started showcasing what's under the fur, metal, and costume pieces. While the interiors had been classified as endoskeletons from the start, Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location is when you really get to experience these unusual atrocities.

RELATED: Horror Games Inspired By True Stories

Take Yenndo, for example. Yenndo is a fur-less, suit-less version of Freddy, except what's underneath is a grotesque musculature of messy wires and metal tubing. His first appearance is a minor, random chance encounter, which cranks up the tension.

5 Nightmare Freddy Comes With Lots Of Friends

Five Nights At Freddy's 4 - Nightmare Freddy's Freddles Sitting On A Bed

Five Nights at Freddy's 4 asks the question: would Freddy Fazbear be scarier if there were a bunch of him? The answer is a resounding yes. The Freddles often come in agitated, piranha-mouthed groups and give off the same nightmare energy of a possessed doll.

These deadly teddy bears sneak up behind you throughout the night, piercing the darkness with their glowing, beady eyes. If you don’t scare them away with your flashlight, Nightmare Freddy will pop up and gobble you whole with his several rows of jagged teeth. Yikes.

4 Bidybab Is A Demonic Child

Five Nights At Freddy's Sister Location - Four Variants Of Bidybad Standing In A Row

If you get hit with bone-chilling dread whenever an infant-shaped robot starts dealing out verbal abuse, then Bidybab is definitely not for you.

This toddling monstrosity debuted in Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location, where you’re forced to hide under a desk while holding a flimsy cabinet door shut as Bidybab tries to rip it open from the other side. What cements her as one of the scariest FNAF animatronics is her beady little eyes, which stare at you through holes in the door. Talk about a horrifying video game level.

3 Circus Baby Is The Perfect Storm Of Horrible

Five Nights At Freddy's Sister Location - Circus Baby Standing In A Dark Room

Imagine if Stephen King’s It and Five Nights At Freddy’s had a baby. That’s Circus Baby in a nutshell. As if FNAF animatronics weren’t scary enough, Circus Baby is a child-eating clown built with a massive robotic claw used to kidnap people. Good luck sleeping tonight.

RELATED: Short (But Scary) Horror Games Worth Playing

Everything from her pale face to her blood-red lips is enough to make your skin crawl. What sets her apart from most of the classic animatronics is her ability to talk. Not only can she taunt you throughout the night. She’s a master deceiver, able to lure security guards to their painful death.

2 The Puppet Is The Mastermind Behind The FNAF Animatronics

Five Nights At Freddy's 2 - The Puppet Hovering In The Hallway

The Puppet, also known as The Marionette, stands out as one of the few non-robotic monsters in the series. It's easy to forget that The Puppet is the mastermind behind the haunted animatronics, ironically pulling the strings by guiding the vengeful spirits into each robot.

Between cranking up the anxiety through the ominous music box timer in Five Nights at Freddy's 2 and whispering, "I am very aware," in your ear when you die in Ultimate Custom Night, The Puppet is the scariest FNAF character from the original games.

1 The Daycare Attendant Is The Scariest FNAF Character

Five Nights At Freddy's Security Breach - The Daycare Attendant Smiling

Whoever thought this thing should watch over children needs to be fired. The Daycare Assistant, also known as the Sun and Moon, runs the Pizzaplex's daycare in Security Breach, and he has a serious Jekyll and Hyde thing going.

Things seem to be okay when the lights are on because this animatronic's Sun mode is happy and playful, albeit very creepy. However, when the lights turn off, he enters his Moon mode and becomes focused on punishing anyone he deems naughty. This merciless beast relentlessly chases you through the darkness with glowing red eyes and a twisted, toothy grin. He's the scariest FNAF character and has undoubtedly caused many nightmares since his debut.

NEXT: Best Animatronics In Gaming